WordCamp Asia 2024 took place from March 7 to 9 in the vibrant city of Taipei, Taiwan. Over 1,300 attendees came together for three days of collaborating, learning, and community-building to celebrate connection and innovation in the WordPress project.
Matt Mullenweg answers questions from a live audience at WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia 2024.
There’s no more passionate community than WordPress, and with that comes an abundance of insightful questions. As with past events, this post gathers questions that Matt was unable to answer live—with answers from WordPress leadership and contributors.
Q. In what ways do you believe we can make the open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. model of WordPress more sustainable for times to come?
By continuing to build, iterate, and innovate with WordPress. There’s high-impact, exciting work happening across the project to transform the WordPress experience and how users approach creating on the web. You can find it in projects like the Admin redesign or other elements of Phase 3 in the product roadmap, which focuses on collaboration and workflows.
By unlocking the web and making data as readily and easily portable as possible. The Data Liberation initiative, which Matt introduced at State of the Word 2023, is focused on creating one-click import and migrationMigrationMoving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. tools for anyone to move to (or from) WordPress. Data Liberation is an ecosystem-wide effort that can bring more people to WordPress and the values driving open source software.
Finally, by growing the community and welcoming more perspectives. WordPress events and meetups have always been an essential part of the project. They’re evolving to better serve the needs of attendees, including events with more specific programming or themes, offering niche experiences within the broader community where attendees can learn and connect on a deeper level.
Q. How can we leverage a wave of generative AI to make WordPress better?
Matt’s discussed a number of ways generative AI can help improve WordPress and everyday life. Matt stands by his recommendation to learn AI deeply, whether it’s for building smarter plugins, experimenting with new content, or finding and fixing bugs faster.
Q. How can we better support working mothers [and all parents] in organizing events?
Organizing teams can take steps to support working parents by offering flexibility and creating environments that allow them to prioritize their lives and families. Simple actions include promoting asynchronous collaboration, having flexible meeting times, and recording meetings to allow parents to participate independently.
Employers can also support organizers and employees by sponsoring their work through Five for the Future. This can provide needed financial resources and time to contribute to the WordPress community, and is a great way to support the future success of WordPress events.
If you have other suggestions or ideas for supporting working parents in organizing events, please join the Community Team and share your thoughts.
Q. The Annual Survey saw a drop in contributor satisfaction and competitiveness, what steps are being taken to reverse this trend?
Along with continuing to encourage a culture of recognition within the WordPress project, there are a number of active programs and initiatives dedicated to evolving the contributor experience. These include the Contributor Mentorship Program, which provides mentorship and guidance to new contributors, and Five for the Future, which welcomes companies that offer sponsorship for contributions.
If you’re interested in improving the contributor experience, you’re invited to join the Contributor Working Group meetings to share your ideas.
Q. How does the WordPress team prioritize which new features or improvements to work on?
As an open source project, WordPress welcomes anyone to submit a Trac patch or GitHub pull request to add new features. Features that align closely with the vision and product roadmap established by project leadership have a stronger chance of being reviewed and merged sooner. If you have an idea for a new feature or improvement, being familiar with the roadmap is a helpful first step.
Q. Are there any plans for establishing proper product marketing for WordPress itself?
There are a few existing initiatives in the project that are helping transform how WordPress is positioned in the market. The ongoing website redesign for WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, along with the launch of the new Showcase, are a couple of ways the community is able to take on these kinds of challenges organically. The Developer Blog is another example, reaching a more targeted audience with product-related developer-focused content, published by our own talented contributors.
If you’d like to join these efforts, or pitch new ones, join the community of contributors making WordPress in https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.
Q. Can we finally curate the dotorg theme directory?
The beautiful thing about the WordPress project is that opportunities for change are ready when you are. If you’re passionate about themes or have ideas about the organization of the Theme Directory, you’re invited to get involved with the Themes Team.
Do you have a question? Comment below, and join one of the many teams making WordPress for answers.
WordCamp US 2023 convened from August 24 to 26 in Washington, D.C. Nearly 2,000 attendees gathered for two days of engaging sessions, learning, and community-building. Saturday’s agenda concluded with back-to-back keynotes by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy and a subsequent Q&A session. Read more about the event and watch recordings of the keynotes.
Watch the recording of the Q&A session from the WCUS keynotes by Matt & Josepha
As with past events, this post collects questions from in-person and online WCUS attendees that could not be addressed live—with answers from Josepha Haden Chomphosy and Matt Mullenweg. The community submitted some wonderful questions about all things WordPress and beyond. Due to the large volume of inquiries submitted, please note that a compilation of the list’s seven most representative and highly voted questions has been made. Tune in to the WordPress Briefing Podcast’s future episodes for answers to additional questions and discussion on related topics.
Let’s dig in!
Q. How do we ensure web accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) remains at the forefront of design innovation?
One of the things we learned in the Accessibility conversation during the Community Summit is that checklists and blocking requirements (while a great starting point) can only do so much. Accessibility requirements are more nuanced than that and require a fair amount of collective judgment. It was noted that there needs to be awareness and training of foundational concepts, like defining DOM order before visual order, defining desired functions before scoping projects, and generally being more intentional about testing things with users. This all, of course, has to happen in concert with contributors throughout the product development timeline so that what starts with our designers carries on through the development process as well.
Q. How can we better reach users/audiences unaware of WordPress or who looked at it five years ago but not recently?
The tactical answer here is that we need a couple of different brand campaigns: conquest and re-introduction. But since WordPress has overwhelmingly always relied on word of mouth marketing, it can be hard to coordinate that sort of effort. What we would have to do in order to accomplish this would be a grassroots drive for testimonials and such, then hope that we can generate a viral pattern in social media platforms.
Q. How can we encourage developers to learn WordPress?
There are a few tactical answers that are always worth pursuing. We should find a way to partner with schools (especially at earlier ages) to introduce what WordPress can do. We should collaborate with organizations that already work directly with the groups of learners and developers we feel would benefit most from WordPress. And finally, we should invest in our self-serve learning platforms and event series.
It also might be worth thinking through a shift in our mindset. It’s hard to predict the future, but we do know that there are skills and values that are useful for anyone early in their career. Advanced 21st century skills (esp critical thinking, cross-cultural communication, and time management) are going to be vital as more companies and opportunities are distributed, as well as an enterprising spirit to see and adapt to challenges as they arise; all of which you can learn in the WordPress project.
Q. As AI gets better with written/spoken language translation, how might that affect the direction of Multilingual WordPress support?
For starters, I want to be clear that I think applications of AI should always be guided by the question “how can we streamline or reduce menial tasks for people” and never by the question “how can we replace this person”. That being said, I think that any value of AI to multilingual activity in WordPress will primarily be on the Polyglot team side. I don’t think we can overstate the importance of having both a well-translated CMS and the opportunity for that CMS to natively host well-translated content as our world gets more connected. I do hope that we are able to take full advantage of the potential for shortened workflows in the work of translating elements inside the WordPress project. Between Translate Live and the opportunity to have human moderation of AI suggested translations, I hope to make WordPress more available across the world, but especially for locales that represent at-risk languages and therefore have no GTEs.
Q. How do you envision WordPress integrating with the Fediverse in the Future?
I love the idea of a bespoke, hyper-local social network that can take the place of group texts or any number of “friends only” implementations in current social media platforms—just you and your book club friends bloomscrolling through your latest gardening experiments!
I also think we have a handful of plugins and solo projects in the ecosystem that, with a little collaboration, could offer that to WordPress out of the box through a canonical/community pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.
Q. 1,000 plugins in the queue; is the Plugin Review team still growing?
It is! And if you want to learn more about contributing to the WordPress project in that way, you can apply to join us!
Q. What is the biggest opportunity for WordPress in the next decade?
I think the popular answer here is “Artificial Intelligence,” and of course, that is certainly an opportunity. But I think if we look at “opportunity” in the sense of “where we can grow the most” I will always say connecting to the communities we currently have the least connection to. More connections mean more knowledge shared, more skills honed, and more economic opportunities for this world (and web) that we hope to make into a better place.
State of the WordState of the WordThis is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/. 2022 was held in New York City on December 15, 2022. It was a welcome feeling to gather together again in person for this annual and anticipated event. After a keynote address that looked at the year’s successes and a peek at what’s to come in the year ahead, the WordPress project’s co-founder @matt engaged in a warm and insightful question and answer session with the in-person attendees.
State of the Word 2022
As with events past, this post will list the questions from WordPress users and contributors that could not be answered live.
Q1. “Own your content” has long been a rallying cry of WordPress. How does this fit with Tumblr’s model of a centralized content server? WordPress.comWordPress.comAn online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ allows me to own my content because I can export it to an independent instance. Will we see a standalone Tumblr, like WordPress?
A1. Think of both of them as having different frontends but the same great coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. (WordPress) on the backend. Tumblr is a SaaS service and, from the standpoint of owning your content, quite a bit of work has gone into data portability. It’s true that Tumblr’s not quite yet open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. yet, but a lot of work is planned to unify APIs, support RSS, and generally make it more open overall.
In a recent Hallway Chats podcast (beginning at 29:07) with Topher DeRosia and Nyasha Green, Matt offered the following analogy:
“My hope is that basically Tumblr and wordpress.com, they’ll be essentially like two different restaurants that share the same kitchen. You have a different vibe, different dishes, different experience, different kind of front-end experience, but on the back end, the same great ingredients, the same attention to detail, same infrastructure, same sort of stuff that makes it excellent. Food is actually a good analogy.”
Matt Mullenweg; January 6, 2023
Q2. Will WordPress be a thing after the entire focus is moved to GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/?
A2. WordPress is here to stay. The purpose of the Gutenberg project is to evolve WordPress and its capabilities. The Gutenberg pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party itself is a tool for early testing and stabilization of features that will land in and improve WordPress Core, but will not replace it. Matt addresses this further during the State of the Word.
Q3. Are we doing enough for the open-source Contributors and what more can we do to recognize or give back to the community to grow the number of Contributors?
A3. It’s hard to define what “enough” is when it comes to supporting open source contributors. Everyone is invited to celebrate the work done within the project, and a simple way to do so is to recognize folks in the Making WordPress Slack#props channel. There is always room for improvement, though. If you’ve got thoughts about how we can do that, we’d love to hear them! Join the discussion on how to improve the contributor experience.
Q4. Can we perhaps have a second Q&A event with Matt each year to allow for more active feedback and comments from the community in person?
A4. Several other Q&A opportunities with Matt occur throughout the year at most flagship WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. events in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This year the Community Summit will resume, which is also another great opportunity for contributors to exchange feedback and ideas in person. Submit your topic by January 16.
Q5. Why is polylingual functionality in Core less important than collaboration? More than 50% of WordPress installs are not in English.
A5. WordPress is committed to making itself available in as many languages as possible. As part of that commitment, Multilingual is on the roadmap for Phase 4 and set to commence immediately after Phase 3: Collaboration and Workflows, which begins this year.
From a technical point of view, making WordPress natively multilingual is quite challenging. Adding collaboration tools in advance will help support Phase 4 technical’s implementation and provide tools to manage multilingual content out of the box, like translation and review workflows. So Phase 3 will not just “inform” Phase 4 but will actually create the infrastructure and features central to making Phase 4 possible.
Q6. Can Media Library finally get a refresh? We need to be able to organize the images in there.
A6. Yes! Revamping the Media Library and providing better management, discovery, and collaboration tools for media content are on the roadmap for Gutenberg’s Phase 3.
Q7. Are you concerned about the implications of AI image generation being built on top of the copywritten work of artists without their knowledge or consent?
A7. The WordPress open source project supports a free and open web; as long as AI image generation supports initiatives that abide by CC licensing requirements, then AI image generation can be a good thing that helps augment natural human creativity. Listen to Matt’s thoughts on the subject in the Q&A session.
Q8. Will there be preferred browsers for playground dev?
A8. Currently, WordPress Playground works across all browsers apart from Edge. To learn more and to start using the tool, please visit: https://developer.wordpress.org/playground/
Q9. WordPress introduced and pushed “post formats” with the 2014 theme. Regarding the development in the Twitterverse, what are your thoughts on the post format asides? And what do you think of post formats in a blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor world?
A9. Currently, post formats are in a stable state; they are still supported and usable, but there are no real plans to foster adoption or add additional functionality around them. There are no plans to focus on them during the remaining phases of the Gutenberg project, but if there were a group of motivated contributors who wanted to spend some time on post formats, we would welcome those contributions!
Q10. 2022 shows some progress in the design of mobile features in WordPress: fluid typography, fluid spacing, gaps, etc. However, there are some missing functions: is there some plan to add responsive block order, show/hide, and more features for responsive menus? We work with some African companies and their customers are almost all on mobile (80%). So for them, mobile-first is the rule.
A10. Continued improvement of the mobile experience is absolutely on our collective minds for 2023. There is an active discussion about the limitations of breakpoints vs the opportunities represented by intrinsic web design principles. You can follow and participate in that topic on GitHub.
Q11. Does the project have any plans for future updates to the full administrator UIUIUI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing., i.e. “the dashboard,” as it appears dated particularly when compared to other website builders?
Several State of the Word attendees asked about the modernization of the dashboard and its UXUXUX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it./UI. This question has been modified to reflect that.
A11. Revamping the administration interface (which many of us refer to as “wp-admin” or “the dashbaord”) is included in plans for Phase 3 as it is arguably intrinsic to better collaboration. So far the features being explored are new content management screens (for blocks, styles, fonts, etc.), new admin tools like a global search, and a refresh of notifications.
Q12. What is the word on the need for child themes when customizing block themes?
A12. Block themes are much simpler to customize than classic themes, so while the creation of child themes is supported by block themes, it’s often not needed. Child themes are still valuable, though, when seeking to extend themes from other developers or Core.
Q13. What is the state of the traditional theme?
A13. While the future belongs to block themes, many modern WordPress features are supported by classic themes to help smooth the transition and upgrade path. For example, WordPress 6.1 allows block template parts in classic themes.
Q14. Is the style guide also visible for non-block themes?
A14. There isn’t a guide currently because Styles aren’t available for non-block themes. You can learn more and discuss on this GitHub issue.
Q15. Will the plugin directory for developers always use subversionSVNApache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name svn) is a software versioning and revision control system. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). WordPress core and the wordpress.org released code are all centrally managed through SVN. https://subversion.apache.org/.? Or are there any plans to go full git?
A15. There are no plans to move toward git at this time. There are ongoing discussions on how to support more integrations with GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ or GitLab that you can learn more about here.
Q16. Years ago, it was much easier to grow a plugin for WordPress and make an impact. What can plugin devs do outside of Freemium/Premium/Paid Add-On models? Donors/sponsors are difficult to find
A16. Plugins are quite similar to consumer products, and finding the right product-market fit and building it to ensure the highest quality are key factors in terms of finding success for a plugin. Careful market landscape research and quality checks will help plugin devs evaluate whether their efforts find the right fit with users.
Q17. Will Canonical Plugins get a blue checkmark?
A17. There isn’t yet a specific plan for how canonical plugins will be displayed on the plugin directory, but this is a wonderful suggestion for Make Design.
Q18. Regarding backend UX/UI, can consideration be given to a standard way of grouping/organizing plugins in the menu? Multiple plugins that insert a link into the menu can make it cluttered.
A18. Though this part of very future forward work, this topic is currently being explored in this post under the section “Make it extensibleExtensibleThis is the ability to add additional functionality to the code. Plugins extend the WordPress core software..”
Q19. How is WordPress addressing the incessant notifications in the WP dashboard – will there be a Notifications ban in the dashboard and the set up of a Notifications Central point? If not, why not?
A19. The feature notifications project work is ongoing, and there is renewed interest in getting the MVPMinimum Viable Product"A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development." - WikiPedia completed this year. Some new contributors have been joining the conversations, and anyone interested in this feature can join the #feature-notifications channel in the Make WordPress Slack.
Q20. The notification interface, is it also for promo and banners?
A20. As recommended in the Plugin Developer Guidelines, the WordPress notification interface is not intended to be used for advertisements or promotions.
Q21. How will Collaboration will be developed: as a Gutenberg plugin or WP Core integration? And when 6.2 or 6.4?
A21. Collaborative Workflows will be developed within the Gutenberg plugin. While it’s too soon to tell when and what collaboration tools will land in WordPress core, using the Gutenberg plugin allows for early access to all these features as soon as they are available
Q22. When was the last time someone actually used “Post via email” in the settings area?! (followed up with: more along the lines is why is it still in core? I get users totally confused by it all the time as they think it’s email settings, etc..)
A22. That is still in use! The feature was originally created as a parity tool for Posterous and has remained in Core. A helpful guide for support is located here.
Q23. What about the third-party Site Builders, are they a thing of the past?
A23. The Block Editor provides numerous APIs for third-party site builders, which they are encouraged to use to leverage the benefits of storing content in block format.
Q24. Will ActivityPub support be added to WordPress and will Mastodon publishing be added to Jetpack?
A24. Yes, the ActivityPub plugin is up for review as a canonical plugin later this year, and Mastodon publishing is also due to be added.
Q25. How does WP support the GDPR, privacy, e.g. relating to territorial disputes regarding privacy issues between the EU and the US and increased cyber threats?
A25. Many of these issues relate to how and where each individual site is operated, so it is difficult to find and apply a global solution in WordPress Core. Solutions are best found in the various plugins and integrations available.
Q26. Not sure if this is the right platform, but the removal of “Active Installs” raised a few questions. Maybe shed some light on the idea behind that.
A26. Others have raised this topic recently, which has been deeply discussed on this Trac ticket.
Q27. I’m wondering about the custom post types/custom fields.. are we going to see them baked in Core soon?
A27. These are currently supported in core programmatically, and there are currently no plans to expose a UI in the dashboard for the management/creation of these. There are existing plugins that fill this need if required.
Q28. Is there any plan or conversation about integrating Composer into WordPress for sites to manage their dependencies (plugins, themes, custom libraries, Core) via code?
A28. Within the WordPress community, composer holds different definitions for different groups. For example, there’s a non-WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ packager that many WordPress-via-composers use, like https://wpackagist.org/. The work on the Plugin Dependency feature is ongoing too. Read more about the recent work on this Trac ticket or this call for testing plugin dependencies.
