Issue #161 Loop WP

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Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #161 of Loop WP!

Last week, we discussed AI, which I mentioned was lacking in WooCommerce, but could that be about to change? And Automattic is “returning to Core”..

This week, a significant announcement was made at the Alt Ctrl Org event, alongside WCEU (WordCamp Europe), and there is an update on the WP Community Collective.

Let’s go! 👇

FAIR Play?

🪨 In case you’ve been living under a rock, a secret project called the “FAIR Package Manager” was announced at the inaugural Alt Ctrl Org event, which ran alongside WordCamp Europe.

In short, the “FAIR Package Manager project creates simplicity, security and consistency for the WordPress ecosystem.”

Still confused? Drew Jaynes offers another definition:

📢 (You can find the full press release over on the Linux Foundation website.)

Matt’s Reaction

😬 Matt Mullenweg didn’t seem impressed with the “secretive nature” of the project in his fireside chat with Mary Hubbard, and Matt made a passing comment about hypocrisy behind the project’s initial “lack of transparency” and he can “…work past that”.

Matt was caught off guard, but he did have some comments about the project, based on what he had learned in the short time since the announcement.

😬 Matt also answered a question from the floor about FAIR, which brought some laughs from the crowd after a potentially controversial statement around the 1:20 mark.

It’s perfectly understandable why the project was initially kept secret, and The Repository provides more detailed reasoning.

🤔 “Perhaps” Matt’s passing comment showed a further lack of understanding or ignorance of past behaviours and actions that resulted in FAIR’s contributors feeling the need to remain anonymous.

Initial Responses

💰 The dust is still settling on the announcement. In response to Katie Keith’s post on X, Matt has already made a presumption/accusation of “hosts” wanting to monetise the repository mirrors.

Matt’s initial response was met with both rebuke and questions as to why monetisation is necessarily a bad thing. (It’s worth reading all the responses to Matt’s comment on Katie’s post.)

At the time of publishing this newsletter, Matt has yet to share much more publicly beyond what he said at WCEU.

🔥 You can catch the full “Fireside” chat and the other streams from WCEU on the WordPress YouTube channel.

The Community

The WordPress Slack has been relatively quiet, and there have been no updates in WooCommerce at the time of publishing this newsletter; however, some important discussions have taken place within the community.

🚨 Namely, some initial questions from Aaron Jorbin and some answers from one of FAIR’s lead contributors, Ryan McCue.

💡 Aaron asks some poignant questions and questions you’ve probably been thinking about yourself, friend. Ryan’s answers are welcome, but it’s also very clear this is a v1 of FAIR, and some questions don’t have a concrete answer.

There has been lots of media coverage on this, and Fast Company’s article is worth a read for references to previous monetisation of mirrors, but more significantly for this quote from Mike Dolan:

⚡️ I hope that WordPress and Matt get on board with FAIR. Its creation alone, never mind its announcement and the existence of Alt Ctrl Org, shows that the community is no longer willing to sit by and let one person drive WordPress forward.

Joost de Valk, who is also involved in the project, makes it clear in his blog post “A new path forward for WordPress, and for the open web” that FAIR is not a WordPress fork and that is not its intention.

Will FAIR be a success?

❤️ I hope so, but I do think WordPress need to be willing to collaborate for all the community to benefit and perhaps bring some much-needed healing to a fractured community.

The WP Community Collective (The WPCC)

If you’ve never heard of The WPCC (I am a founding member and supporter), then you can read my dedicated newsletter in Loop WP, Issue 142.

With the announcement of FAIR, The WPCC have started a contributor fund.

The fund helps fund contributors working on FAIR, not the plugin itself, but the contributor labour that sustains it.

Like Automattic (for market and economic reasons), I wasn’t at WCEU or Alt Ctrl Org in person, but a printed version of me was!

First row, third from the left! 👇

❤️ A big thank you to Sé Reed for including me. Make sure to read her thought-provoking article from Alt Ctrl Org, “The Heart of Open Source”.

🚨 As a clarification point, Sé Reed was not at Alt Ctrl Org as a representative of FAIR but in her capacity with The WPCC.

Alt Ctrl Org

I’ve mentioned Alt Ctrl Org several times, and in a future edition, I will cover the organisation in more detail.

In the meantime, you can learn more about it on their website and its purpose before WordCamp US.

You can also watch all of Alt Ctrl Org’s inaugural WordCamp side event on their YouTube channel, including the recording of the live FAIR announcement.

That’s It For This Week 👋

After a delay in WooCommerce 9.9, it was finally released on Monday. I updated one client site today with a resolvable fatal error, so I think I’ll hold off on my other client sites for a while longer.

🤷‍♂️ Next week could be all about WooCommerce, but we’ll see how things go with FAIR as the conversations continue.

See you next week! 😀

Weekly WordPress News & Tips

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

• Membership Paused - WordPress is currently not part of the Open Web Alliance. (Taco Verde)

• ⏰ Less than 24 hours! - To save $50 on “How WordPress Works”, The missing manual for page builder users. (Dave Foy)

• Open Source - Deceptive Power or Collective Governance? (Vlad-Stefan Harbuz)

• CSS Containment - Faster Rendering with the content-visibility CSS Property (cite Remkus de Vries). (DebugBear)

• No Automattic - Community thoughts on the “no presence from Automattic” at WCEU. (Sam Waines)

• Scalable Design - Using full-site editing's powerful global styles and patterns, you can design faster, smarter, and more scalable websites very quickly. (Mike McAlister)

• Roadmaps - Defining roadmaps in the open. (Tammie Lister)

• Who’s Bigger? - WordPress or Shopify? (Katie Keith)

• Call for feedback - Introducing settings import/export with Blueprints. (Brian Coords)

• A Changing Equation - The Designer-Developer Convergence. (Rich Tabor)

• WordPress Hybrid Themes - A user and developer approach. (Kinsta)

• What Does It Mean? - Why I’m Not Jazzed About FAIR. (The WP Minute)

• WCEU 2025 - A Community Celebration in the Swiss Sun. (WordPress)

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

👋 Until next time,