WordPress 6.8 Call for Volunteers

As a follow-up to the release calendar proposal for 2025, let’s gather interest in being part of the release squad for the next major releasemajor release A release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope., WordPress 6.8.

Proposed WordPress 6.8 tentative schedule

Based on that calendar proposal for next year, the WordPress 6.8 tentative schedule is as follows:

Milestone	Date
Alpha (trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. open for 6.8 release)	October 22, 2024
BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1	March 4 2025
Beta 2	March 11, 2025
Beta 3	March 18, 2025
Release Candidaterelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1	March 25, 2025
Release Candidate 2	April 1, 2025
Release Candidate 3	April 8, 2025
Dry Run	April 14, 2025
WordPress 6.8 General Release	April 15, 2025

According to the schedule above and the GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ release cadence, WordPress 6.8 would include up to Gutenberg 20.4 for a maximum of 11 releases, depending on the end-of-year Gutenberg release adjustments (according to an unaltered schedule, Gutenberg 20.0 RCrelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). and stable would land on December 25th and January 1st, respectively).

Release Leads call for volunteers

Following the release squad structure from the last release, except for the default theme role, as WordPress 6.8 won’t deliver a new default theme, these are the minimum roles that need filling:

• Release Coordinator(s)
• CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Tech Lead(s)
• Editor Tech Lead(s)
• Core Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. Lead(s)
• Editor Triage Lead(s)
• Documentation Lead(s)
• Test Lead(s)
• Design Lead(s)
• Performance Lead(s)

It’s worth noting that WordPress 6.7 experimented with not having an explicit Marketing Lead; depending on feedback from the last release, the 6.8 squad might add back that role or other missing ones. As usual, the Release LeadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release. role will be filled by project leadership. Check the Core Handbook to learn more about the release team’s roles and responsibilities.

All release decisions will ultimately be this release team’s to make and communicate, while gathering input from the community, including finalizing the release schedule.

If you are interested in participating in WordPress 6.8’s release squad as a lead, please show interest in the comments below, clearly specifying your desired role, by December 6th.

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Thanks to @aaroncampbell and @jeffpaul for reviewing this post.

#planning #6-8