Issue #172 Loop WP

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Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #172 of Loop WP!

Last week, Matt Mullenweg announced an experiment with a more simplified wp.com pricing structure, but there was more to his announcement. We rounded things off with some Checkout Summit and Influence WP.

This week, find out how to follow WCUS, the FAIR Package Manager gets a breakdown, a new hosting partnership, and I have a special code for the new Event Koi plugin.

Let’s go! 👇

WCUS 2025

💡 To say last year’s WordCamp US was controversial and had an immediate and lasting impact on the WordPress community would be an understatement.

There has been continued debate, fallout, legal updates and challenges since WCUS 2024, and this year, I can imagine people being on edge with some awkward conversations at WordCamp Europe and the surprise announcement of FAIR.

Will Matt or Mary make any more announcements? Will there be more awkward moments and surprise launches as at WCEU 2025?

🤷‍♂️ Who knows, but you can follow along on the WCUS channels:

• X (Twitter)

• Instagram

• Facebook

You can also catch livestreams on the WCUS website.

👀 I am looking forward to seeing people share their pictures and videos of “Unleash the Wappu” and hoping for a little less drama this year.

✨ I am very excited to see what happens on Contributor Day (which will be over by the time you read this newsletter), and in particular, around what the AI Team will be doing.

The last 12 months in WordPress have been tough, but there have been lots of positives from the Community as a result, and I hope to see more of those.

Notes on FAIR Package Manager

It’s been a while since I covered FAIR:

• Issue 161 - One of my most popular newsletters ever!

• Issue 162 - How it works, its structure, and who is involved.

This week, Kaspars Dambis caught my eye on X with some posts and a deeper dive into FAIR.

The particular focus was on package signature verification, and it was pretty eye-opening from a security perspective. There doesn’t seem to be an easy solution.

🧠 If you want to understand a little bit more about basic cryptographic concepts, then you should read Tom Cafferkey’s latest article, which also includes explanations on signatures.

Rocket[dot]net x Hosting[dot]com

🚨 The hosting world got a big shakeup yesterday, and as a Rocket[dot]net customer, I was initially confused and admittedly concerned, as it appeared they had been acquired.

However, that’s not the case; it is:

• Effectively a joint venture (partnership)

• Rocket[dot]net has taken a stake in Hosting[dot]com

• Rocket[dot]net will remain an independent brand (whilst also integrating an offering into hosting[dot]com)

• A “lite” version of Rocket[dot]net is in the pipeline

🎧 You can learn more directly from Seb de Lemos and Ben Gabler in this special podcast from Web Hosting Today.

I enjoyed the podcast, which provides additional information to the official press release and my mind is not only at ease but I’m excited for the future.

Event Koi - LTD

🐠 Event Koi has launched a limited Lifetime Deal (LTD) that ends on August 31st, 2025.

EventKoi Founding Partner Lifetime Deal:

• Prices start from $299 (or less with my code).

• Licenses available for 3, 10 and 50 sites.

• $1000+ worth of perks.

If you are a subscriber, then I’ve a hidden code (not an affiliate code) that you can use with this lifetime deal, and you will see it below.👇

That’s It For This Week 👋

If you are just joining us, we’ve one more week of our summer series to go, and then we return to our regular deep dive format.

See you next week! 😀

Weekly WordPress News & Tips

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

• 🚨 Restoring Trust - Requires Repair: The Long Path Toward Accountable Leadership in WordPress. (Sé Reed)

• Spring Cleaning - Personal Tech Debt & Rediscovering Jetpack. (Brian Coords)

• Happy Birthday! - InfluenceWP turns one and changes are coming! (Influence WP)

• Airtable - Remote Data Blocks Part 2. (Brendan O’Connell)

• WordPress 6.9 - Release Squad Named as Features Take Shape. (The Repository)

• 404 Re-Design - Now that we know AI is sending potential customers to hallucinated URLs, we’re changing how we handle 404 pages. (Katie Keith)

• MagicPath – AI Website Design App With A UNIQUE Design Feature. (WPTuts)

• AGENTS.md - Think of it as a universal README: an open, clean format for coding agents! (Charlie Wargnier)

• Web Fonts - You’re loading fonts wrong (and it’s crippling your performance). (Jono Alderon)

• In Conversation - with Jack Arturo: Deep-Diving Into AI Automations. (WP Product Talk)

• Six Years in the Making - Registering custom social icons in WordPress 6.9. (Justin Tadlock)

• Hosting Security Tested - 87.8% of vulnerability exploits bypassed hosting defenses. (Patchstack)

• Tutorial - How to hide WooCommerce block patterns. (Brian Coords)

• This is Impressive! - WordPress VIP Demos Its New Enterprise Suite: Remote Blocks and Parse.ly AI Updates. (The Repository)

• The WP Awards 2025 - Over 200 submissions so far, and there’s still time to nominate. (The WP Weekly)

• BricksForge ProForms Tutorial - Elevate Your Site with Custom User Profiles! (WPTuts)

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

👋 Until next time,

The WordPress logo and Wapuu are trademarks of the WordPress Foundation. Used here for illustrative purposes only. This image is not officially endorsed by or affiliated with WordPress, WordCamp US, or the WordPress Foundation.