Issue #153 Loop

In partnership with

Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #153 of Loop WP!

Last week, we took an initial look at the result of the Core committers meeting, restricting WordPress releases to one major yearly release until the WPE lawsuit ends.

This week, we will look at some reactions from the community and discuss the announcement in more detail.

Let’s go! 👇

Stay up-to-date with AI

The Rundown is the most trusted AI newsletter in the world, with 1,000,000+ readers and exclusive interviews with AI leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Demis Hassibis, Mustafa Suleyman, and more.

Their expert research team spends all day learning what’s new in AI and talking with industry experts, then distills the most important developments into one free email every morning.

Plus, complete the quiz after signing up and they’ll recommend the best AI tools, guides, and courses – tailored to your needs.

Sign up to start learning.

So, What’s Next?

Now that WordPress 6.8 is the only major release for this year, Jeff Chandler asked the question in the context of WordPress companies developing plugins, themes, and services.

🤷‍♂️ Remkus de Vries replied, “Honestly, I can’t imagine the WordPress release schedule having any impact on the vast majority of products.“

It’s a good question, and Remkus (along with Barry) has experience in product development with Scanfully.

😮‍💨 Robert DeVore went a step further than Remkus, suggesting it might even be a relief to many product owners (Robert is a prolific developer).

Paul Charlton takes things a step further and looks at the announcement from the perspective of the WordPress community, developers, agencies, and everyday users. 👇

(It’s difficult to argue with anything Paul says in his video above.)

Some Signs of Hope?

While Automattic’s announcement may have surprised very few, the community's reactions have been relatively muted compared to the initial proposal and the lead-up to the Core contributors meeting (more on that later).

🤔 Could there be a sense of acceptance for at least the next year or perhaps some quiet optimism?

I want to look at some areas we couldn’t fit into last week’s newsletter. 👇

Collective Decision-Making

The very existence of the March 27 Core committers meeting and the commitment to hold such meetings quarterly mark a “potential” shift in governance.

💡 Before this, much of WordPress ore’s high-level direction was set by a combination of the project lead (Matt) and a small group of longtime lead developers, often behind closed doors or in informal channels.

💪 Now we see a concerted effort to bring nearly 30 Core committers and team leads together in a discussion and to publicly document the outcome.

Does this indicate a governance trend toward greater transparency and inclusion of more voices in planning?

🤔 It raises the question, “Will we continue to see a shift from unilateral decisions to decisions made through regular check-ins and shared discussions over the remainder of the year?”

I hope (but it might not be enough) that this is a reassuring development for the contributor community.

🙌 It shows that their voices (raised in Slack threads and meetings) influence outcomes and that there is a mechanism (quarterly meetings, published notes) for continuing to influence project direction.

Contributor Sentiment

What was previously a lot of anxiety has been channelled into a plan of attack, and contributors “seemingly“ know the strategy.

This clarity and “alignment” (Matt’s favourite word) might help improve opinions. 🤷‍♂️

Are we seeing a shift from “worrying about what will happen” to “working on what we know we need to do?”

⚡️ Understandably, not everyone is completely happy. Some contributors (and in the community) no doubt still fear the project’s momentum could slow too much, but the overall narrative has changed:

• The Core team is coalescing around a maintenance-centric mission that many longtime contributors find refreshing and necessary.

• The feeling of burnout is being addressed by spreading work (e.g., encouraging more contributors and companies to step up, as noted by others in the community​ and by explicitly recognising the need to prevent the remaining committers from being overstretched.

It could be argued that all these measures indicate that contributor sentiment, which was precarious, is being heard and actively managed, leading to a “somewhat” more positive outlook than the dire mood of early March.

Can I remain sceptical and optimistic? 🤣

Gutenberg

I briefly discussed this last week, wondering whether Gutenberg was Automattic’s “real” priority with its continued bi-weekly cycle.

Let’s dig deeper. 👇

Mary Hubbard's post in the “Miscellaneous” section discusses the release cadence of the Gutenberg plugin.

💡 It notes that, given the diminished volume of new features being developed in the block editor (the Gutenberg repo) lately **, they might consider shifting the plugin to a monthly release cycle instead of the aggressive bi-weekly schedule.

However, they acknowledge that the current cadence is “mostly automated” and would keep it if the volume of changes allows.

** (⚠️ Note that the “volume of new features... in the Gutenberg repository has plunged” since January, which correlates with Automattic pulling many of its block developers.)

🚨 In earlier discussions of Matt’s proposal, the focus was on the timing of the Core release; the Gutenberg plugin (which feeds Core) wasn’t explicitly debated.

Now, the Core team is factoring it in, recognising that if Gutenberg isn’t churning out features, the plugin’s rapid release schedule could be relaxed to reduce noise and effort.

🤔 Is this a tactical tweak or does it reflect a more prominent theme…

Previously, the two-week Gutenberg cycle was sacrosanct to maintaining momentum.

💡 Admitting that it “may make sense” to slow that down too shows how thoroughly the project is willing to adapt its processes in light of current contributor activity.

WordPress Roadmap

The WordPress Roadmap has been updated with some rather concerning wording about WordPress 6.9 and 7.0…“tentatively.”

🤔 Can I not be worried about the future, even though I’ve tried to look at things more positively?

Brian Gardner asked the same question (and in the context of the WordPress 6.8.1 minor release), and Carolina Nymark (and others )added some responses.

👀 The thread and its comments are worth reading. Matt made his feelings clear, but let’s be honest: “WPE being solely responsible” for starving Core got tired long ago.

🧠 I’ll leave you with these questions, friend.

• Has there been a shift in context from one of crisis to one of opportunity?

• Has what started as a reactive proposal amid a contentious atmosphere evolved into a forward-looking strategy that the Core team is coalescing around?

• Is the future of WordPress looking a little more positive than it was four months ago?

Sponsorship Opportunities

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

That’s It For This Week

I’d like to be cautiously optimistic and hope for the best, but it’s hard to know sometimes what Matt might say or do next and what the result might be.

If you missed the other emails in this series, you can catch up below now:

• Matt’s initial proposal

• The proposal evolves

• An initial look at Mary Hubbard’s announcement

See you next week! 😀

Weekly WordPress News & Tips

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

• So Cool! 😎 - WordPress Hooks Extractor- Extract action and filter hooks from any WordPress plugin or theme. Results are provided in Markdown format and are ready to use with AI tools. (WP Autoplugin)

• Speculative Loading - WordPress 6.8 “Cecil“ is here! (WordPress)

• NO Speculative Loading - How To Disable WordPress 6.8 Speculative Loading NOW. (WP Tuts)

• The Missing Layer - Not everything needs AI. But WordPress needs AI-ready infrastructure. (Progress Planner)

• Crap! - Funding Expires for Key Cyber Vulnerability Database. (Patchstack)

• Acquisition - WP Beginner purchase aThemes. (WP Beginner)

• Spicy 🌶️ - A question about the minor release roadmap can only get spicier. (Brian Gardner)

• Hosting Review - 20i Web Hosting Review for Sustainable WordPress Websites. (Mike Hindle)

• Feedback Needed - If you could improve ONE thing about the current product editor in WooCommerce, what would it be? (James Kemp)

• Scaling WooCommerce - Top Secret WooCommerce Beta. (Rocket.net)

• Results Are In! 🎉 - We Surveyed 1,233 WordPress Professionals. (The Admin Bar)

• Another Acquisition - Newsletter Glue Acquired By PaywallProject Founder Tyler Channell. (The Repository)

• Inside Woo - Matt is joined by James Kemp, Core Product Manager at WooCommerce and longtime WordPress entrepreneur, to take a behind-the-scenes look at the WooCommerce ecosystem. (The WP Minute)

• 🔐 Termageddon 2.0 - I knew the risks of speaking up to Matt were there. (Termageddon)

• Must Read!! - Are websites still important? (Brian Coords)

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

👋 Until next time,