Issue #149 Loop WP

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Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #149 of Loop WP!

Last week, we reviewed a proposal from Matt Mullenweg in WordPress Slack. This proposal is causing shockwaves yet again, with many suggesting that the future of WordPress is under real threat.

This week, we will discuss the proposal in more detail as it has evolved and could be more than a proposal in a couple of weeks.

Let’s go! 👇

A Vote for WordPress’ Future?

🚨 On Thursday, March 27th, as many Core Committers as possible will meet to discuss and vote on Matt’s proposal, which we introduced last week.

This vote could (and probably will) decide the future of WordPress updates for the next two to three years.

(If you’ve not read last week’s post, friend, or don’t know what I’m talking about, read it now before you go any further.)

🤔 At this point, a question arises: " If the majority of core committers don’t want a one-year release cycle, will Matt ignore this and establish a new status quo regardless?”

Matt’s Initial Proposal Evolves

Since we started this topic last week, and after initial feedback, Matt’s initial proposal has evolved. 👇

(If you aren’t familiar with my SCF (Secure Custom Fields) reference, you can read more at the bottom of Loop WP Issue #135.)

💡 The initial proposal met with predictably mixed reactions. There was more negativity on social media than Slack (where the main conversation was happening).

⚠️ However, “seemingly” vocal opponents of Matt have been frequently removed from Slack for disagreeing with him, so as with social media, comments in Slack must be viewed in context.

Digging Deeper

As I mentioned in last week’s Loop WP, this is not necessarily new territory.

Release schedules have changed before, but not to this extent and for such a proposed sustained period.

Disclaimer: Like last week, I’ve not included any names and have tried my best to summarise without bias. (The below are not necessarily my opinions).

💡 At the time of writing this email, there have been 31 replies to Matt’s proposal in Slack, and I can’t fit them into one newsletter in extensive detail.

But let’s try to summarise the key feedback from core committers.

Let’s go. 👇

1) Short-term Clarity and Roadmap

Contributors agree that a clearly defined short-term roadmap (perhaps 6 months rather than a year 🤔) is urgently needed due to current resource constraints.

This would help ensure efforts are efficiently directed toward achievable priorities.

🚨 Those priorities would need to be defined.

2) Dedicated Backlog Maintenance

Committers support dedicating upcoming releases primarily to resolving existing tickets, improving core stability, and addressing technical debt accumulated due to the heavy focus on Gutenberg over the last few years.

⚡️ This is a pretty good idea, but again, there is a lack of resources (contributor hours) to triage huge numbers (1000’s) of backlogged tickets.

3) Canonical Plugins for New Features

💡 This was probably the most widely supported part of Matt’s evolved proposal, which I included in my linked tweet above.

A shift towards developing significant new features as official canonical plugins would allow rapid innovation without overwhelming core cycles, potentially preserving project momentum.

4) Enhanced Testing and Quality Assurance

🛠️ Core committers noted that reducing major release frequency demands significantly increased testing.

Matt responded to this concern by offering WP.com early rollouts.

Matt said this would need to be combined with web hosts’ willingness to help with test upgrades (he would need this support from web hosts), which is critical for ensuring release stability and reducing user disruption.

5) Transparency and Structured Decision-Making

Contributors emphasised the need for:

• Transparent

• Clearly documented

• Structured discussions, ideally recorded, to make key strategic decisions (like altering the release schedule).

🤔The WordPress community strongly values openness in governance, and since September 2024 (perhaps even longer), there has arguably been a lack of transparency and openness from leadership.

6) Project Sustainability and Contributor Health

The community is highly aware of resource limitations and contributor burnout risks.

There's apparent support for slowing the development pace temporarily, focusing on stability, maintenance, and backlog to maintain contributor health and project stability.

🚨 This is my biggest concern: “contributor burnout”.

Having seen the amount of work that goes into a major release from core committers and the decimation of contributor hours across Five for the Future, it’s easy to see the detrimental impact on remaining contributors and, therefore, WordPress release cycles.

7) Community and Ecosystem Collaboration

Reduced Automattic involvement has highlighted the importance of broadening contributor diversity, empowering new participants, and maintaining strong support from hosting providers and corporate sponsors.

⚠️ However, a major point to note is that many Five for the Future pledges have continued to decrease in response to what has been happening in the WordPress ecosystem.

The latest to do so is Newfold Digital, slashing contributions to 20 hours per week.

Final Thoughts

Well, friend, that was a lot to digest, and that’s only the summaries, with a sprinkling of some of my thoughts, and I’m going to leave you with some more of those now. 🤣

• Where is WooCommerce in all of this?

• Will other web hosts get involved and support Matt?

• Will there be continued cuts to Five for the Future? (I think so)

• WordPress annual release cycles becoming a reality? (I can see this happening)

• Will rival platforms (Squarespace, Shopify and Wix) make substantial gains?

• We’ve had ClassicPress in the past. Will we see another fork?

• Will WordPress survive? (Yes, I think it will)

Sponsorship Opportunities

🚨 The Google Doc contains all the details if you’re interested in sponsoring the Loop WP Newsletter.

Before You Go

⏭️ What we discuss next week will depend on what is said in Slack, but things have quietened down over the last week.

I could discuss a few more things before the core committers meeting on March 27th, but we will see what next week brings.

See you next week! 😀

Weekly WordPress News & Tips

This week's excellent and insightful WordPress News & Tips:

• WP AI Universe - WPAI Universe is a directory of artificial intelligence resources and tools – specifically made to be used with WordPress. (Marcus Burnette)

• Generate Made Easy 2.0 - GeneratePress & GenerateBlocks course designed to teach you how to build developer-like websites, without writing any code (Jonathan Jernigan)

• Solution to a Problem -How I Used AI to Build the WordPress.com Content Calendar (Without Writing Code) + Thoughts on Using AI for Web Development. (Jonathan Bossenger)

• Fake Accessibility - Copywriting Challenge. (Anne-Mieke Bovelett)

• Improvement - Easily Replace 30+ WordPress Plugins - 3 WP Enhancement Tools Compared. (WP Tuts)

• Vibe Coding - WordPress Developer Vibe Codes A Laravel App with Claude AI ft. Jonathan Jernigan. (Brian Coords)

• WordPress Development - Why ‘Boring’ Features Benefit WordPress Professionals. (The WP Minute)

If you have a question about this email or WordPress, reply, and I will answer you as soon as possible.

👋 Until next time,