Simply put: this survey helps those who build WordPress understand more about how the software is used, and by whom. The survey also helps leaders in the WordPress open source project learn more about our contributors’ experiences.  

To ensure that your WordPress experience is represented in the 2022 survey results, take the 2022 annual survey now.

You may also take the survey in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, or Spanish, thanks to the efforts of WordPress polyglot contributors. These are the most frequently installed languages based on the number of WordPress downloads. 

The survey will be open through the end of 2022, and then WordPress plans to publish the results sometime in 2023. This year, the survey questions have been refreshed for more effortless survey flow, completion, and analysis. Some questions have been removed, while a few new ones are now present, reflecting the present and future of WordPress. If you’re looking for the analysis of the 2021 survey results, those will also be shared in early 2023.

Spread the word

Help spread the word about the survey by sharing it with your network, through Slack, or within your social media accounts. The more people who complete the survey and share their experience with WordPress, the more the project as a whole will benefit in the future.

Security and privacy

Data security and privacy are paramount to the WordPress project and community. With this in mind, all data will be anonymized: no email addresses nor IP addresses will be associated with published results. To learn more about WordPress.org’s privacy practices, view the privacy policy.

Thank you

Thank you to the following WordPress contributors for assisting with the annual survey project, including question creation, strategy, survey build-out, and translation:

dansoschin, _dorsvenabili, angelasjin, arkangel, audrasjb, atachibana, bjmcsherry, chanthaboune, eidolonnight, fernandot, fierevere, fxbenard, jdy68, jpantani, laurlittle, nao, nielslange, peiraisotta, piermario, rmartinezduque, santanainniss.

The People of WordPress series shares some of the inspiring stories of how people’s lives can change for the better through WordPress and its global network of contributors.

Discovering WordPress and the benefit of child themes

Huanyi’s first footsteps in WordPress began in 2017 when he worked for a firm that built blogs and developed ad content for clients.

After building a few sites using the platform, he discovered child themes and through them opened up a world of possibilities for his clients. To this day, he uses child themes to deliver truly custom designs and functionality for clients.

Later in his career, Huanyi moved into digital marketing, integrating sites with massive ad platforms like Google and Facebook. This led him to learn to work with tracking code and JavaScript. He also began his learning journey in HTML, CSS, and PHP, to be able to improve his development skills and customize child themes.

Meetups bring together software users to learn together

When Huanyi had a problem with a client’s site, he looked to WordPress meetups near where he lived in Taipei to help find the solutions.

“When I encountered an issue with the custom archive pages, a local meetup announcement showed up on my WordPress dashboard.”

Huanyi Chuang

At the meetup, he met more experienced WordPress users and developers there, who answered his questions and helped him learn.

“When I encountered an issue with the custom archive pages, a local meetup announcement showed up on my WordPress dashboard. That was my original connection with the local community,” Huanyi said.

The WordPress community gave Huanyi a chance to connect with people, feed his curiosity about the software, and join a circle of people he could share this interest.

At first, he thought meetups were an opportunity to source new clients, and he took his business cards to every event. However, he soon found that these events offered him the opportunity to make friends and share knowledge.

From then on, Huanyi started focusing more on what he could give to these events and networks, making new friends, and listening to people. This led him to share as a meetup speaker his own commercial website management experience.

The road to WordCamp

It was going to his first meetup and then getting involved with WordCamps that changed Huanyi’s whole relationship with WordPress.

In 2018, he took the step to help as an organizer, having joined the Taoyuan Meetup in Taiwan. He played several parts across the organizing team, and the welcoming feeling he got in every situation encouraged him to get more involved.

He recalls meeting new friends from different fields and other countries, which gave him a great sense of achievement and strengthened his passion for participating in the community.

When the team started this meetup, numbers were much lower than in the group in the city of Taipei, but they were not disheartened and gradually grew the local WordPress community.

They created a pattern of ‘multiple organizers,’ which spread the workload and grew friendships. 

“Being connected to and from meetups is the most valuable part of the community. Having these friends makes me gather more information. We share information and benefit from others’ information, and thus we gain more trust in each other. With such credibility, we share more deeply and build deeper relations.”

Huanyi Chuang

Before the pandemic, the meetup met every month and grew to become the second largest meetup in Taiwan. Huanyi also contributed to the WordPress community as an organizer of WordCamp Taipei 2018 in the speaker team and lead organizer of WordCamp Taiwan 2021.

So why should you join the community?

According to Huanyi, you will always have something to take home with you. It might be new information or experiences. It might be plugins or theme ideas. But most of all, it is the chance to meet fascinating people and make new friends.

Huanyi’s message to other contributors:
“Keep participating, and you will find more you can achieve than you expect.”

He added that long-term participation will ‘let you feel the humanity behind the project’.

Localize: the road ahead for WordPress

Huanyi believes WordPress has the power to break down the barriers between designers, project managers, developers, marketers, writers, and publishers. In Taiwan, he said WordPress is ‘a common protocol’ that lets people from all of these disciplines work and communicate together more easily than they ever have before.

That is why he works on and encourages others to localize plugins today. He believes localization of the software is the foundation for the extension of the WordPress community as it enables people to ‘Flex their Freedom’ in a language they speak!

He has helped to organize online events around previous WordPress Translation Day events.

Huanyi said: “I think it’s important to localize WordPress because its very concept of ‘open source’ means that people can access it freely. In another way, free from the monopoly of knowledge and speech. To achieve it, it’s important that people can access it with their own language.

“Localization is the foundation of the extension of WordPress community because it helps people using different languages to access the project and lowers the hurdle to understand how things work.”

Share the stories

Help share these stories of open source contributors and continue to grow the community. Meet more WordPressers in the People of WordPress series.

Contributors

Thank you to @no249a002 for sharing his adventures in WordPress.

Thank you to Abha Thakor (@webcommsat), Mary Baum (@marybaum), Meher Bala (@meher), Chloe Bringmann (@cbringmann), Surendra Thakor (@sthakor), Adeeb Malik (@adeebmalik) for research, interviews, and contributing to this feature article.

The People of WordPress series thanks Josepha Haden (@chanthaboune) and Topher DeRosia (@topher1kenobe) for their support.

This People of WordPress feature is inspired by an essay originally published on HeroPress.com, a community initiative created by Topher DeRosia. It highlights people in the WordPress community who have overcome barriers and whose stories might otherwise go unheard. #HeroPress

Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording.

Credits

Editor: Dustin Hartzler
Logo: Javier Arce
Production: Santana Inniss
Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod

References

Twelfth Man
State of the Word

Transcript

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00] 

Hello everyone! And welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. 

I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:27] 

At the top of November, a new major release for WordPress shipped. That was WordPress 6.1. I know I talked about it basically nonstop. Then two weeks later, there was a new minor release for WordPress. It was WordPress 6.1.1, which I did not talk about at all. Way back in episode four of this podcast, I dug into the overall release cycle and what someone could expect from a high-level logistics aspect.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:05] 

And today we’re gonna take a quick look at minor releases in particular. Just as a general heads up, I always want to lean into sports metaphors when I’m talking about releases, and I think it’s because of the words major and minor. And so, I’ve done my level best to not include that in any of my explanations today.

But I do have one, I do have one that’s a sports thing. So just if you don’t like sports, know that it’s just one little bit and we’ll try to be carefully quick around it together. All right, so minor releases. You may have noticed that I don’t mention minor releases nearly as often as I mention major releases. And yet, most of the time, when we have a major release of WordPress, there’s a minor release that gets started almost immediately after.

So first major versus minor. Major releases in WordPress happen roughly three times a year, give or take a release. Inside a major release, you will find that we include features, so– brand new abilities, enhancements, which you can generally call improvements to existing abilities, and also any bug fix that we can find, big or small, we’ll take ’em all.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:16] 

So minor releases in WordPress happen about four or five times a year on average. Minor releases include patches for issues introduced in the major release and any bug fix that doesn’t add or change functionality. 

If you’re with me so far, you probably have noted that there’s basically always at least one minor release per major release. And you might have also noted that I said minors include patches for issues we introduced in a major.

Now, if I were hearing this with fresh ears, the first thing I would wonder is, okay, so if you start working on the minor right after you release the major to deal with issues you know you introduced in the major– why just not ship the major while there are bugs in it? Great question. I’m glad you asked. So there are a few things worth knowing here.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:09] 

Firstly, there is this concept of “ship and iterate,” which is present in both agile and open source. The idea is that we ship software as soon as we have confidence that what is in the release is non-breaking and represents our best guests at a better experience for our users.

Once that is out there, we use feedback on the initial release to quickly iterate and ship another release. That way, we don’t hold back any good features. And since we already planned the immediate minor, any major issues that show up can be fixed in as little as two weeks. Secondly, there is the concept that with many eyes, all bugs are shallow, which is primarily present in open source.

The idea here is that with enough people looking at a problem, that problem doesn’t stand a chance. So when a release is shipped in a workable state but with interactions that could use some refinement, the fastest way to find those refinements is to take it to the community of WordPress users and developers and invite them to co-create this CMS with us.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:10]

Which touches on my final thought. The concept of the user as co-creator.

If we think about the development and evolution of our software as a team effort, then we can think of the people who use our software as what’s called the “Twelfth Man” That’s in quotes, and I will, I’ll leave a link to that in the show notes as well. 

In sports, this refers to the fans. And if you’ve ever been to a live sporting event or played in any, you will know that the cheering and jeering from fans turns into this distinct motivating entity all its own. As a whole team or individual member, you know what you have to do. You know what you need to do in a game, but there’s something about that chaotic, loud roar of feedback that just brings life to what you’re doing, and that’s how I see our community of users.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:02]

So at the end of the day, the answer to the question of ‘why so many releases’ and the follow-up question of ‘why tolerate stable imperfection’ is largely the same. To get features into the hands of our users quickly so that we can always be breathing life into this CMS we care so much about.

I hope that answers your questions about our release cadence, and if you didn’t come into this podcast having any questions about release cadences at all, I hope this new information brings a little extra light to the complexity of working in open source. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:32] 

That brings us now to our small list of big things.

Big thing number one is that the State of the Word has been announced and is scheduled for December 15th. It’s a little earlier in the day than in past iterations, so I hope we get a new crew of listeners tuning in at the same time. I’ll leave a link to that in the show notes, or you can pop over to wordpress.org/news to see the announcement for yourself.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:00] 

Big thing number two is that team rep nominations are open on most teams right now. So if organization and people wrangling are high on your list of ways you can give back to WordPress, head on over to the team you contribute to and see how you raise your hand for that. 

Then big thing number three is that big-picture goals, hopes, and timelines are being gathered, and I will ship those shortly after the start of the new year.

It will give us all an idea of where we want to focus our attention to ensure that WordPress continues to grow toward the future. You can keep an eye out for that on make.wordpress.org/project. 

And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thanks for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks.

Say hello to WordPress 6.1 “Misha”

The third and last major release of 2022, WordPress 6.1 “Misha,” shipped on November 1, 2022. Named after jazz pianist Mikhail “Misha” Alperin, this release comes packed with many improvements that refine the site-building experience introduced earlier this year in WordPress 5.9 and 6.0, as well as accessibility and performance upgrades.

WordPress 6.1 is also bundled with a new default block theme, Twenty Twenty-Three (TT3), that features 10 style variations designed by WordPress community members. These intentionally unique designs ensure that you can change the visual details of your site with ease—and within a single theme.

Learn more about what’s in 6.1:

• WordPress 6.1 “Misha” Announcement
• WordPress 6.1 Field Guide

Following WordPress 6.1 “Misha”, a 6.1.1 maintenance release landed on November 15, 2022. This minor release includes about 50 bug fixes.

Download WordPress 6.1.1

State of the Word 2022 is coming on December 15

State of the Word 2022, the annual keynote address delivered by the WordPress project’s co-founder, Matt Mullenweg, will be held on December 15, 2022. The event will take place in person in New York City and live-streamed via various WordPress.org social media platforms.

You can also host or join a State of the Word watch party to enjoy the event with your WordPress friends.

Learn more about State of the Word 2022

What’s new in Gutenberg

Two new versions of Gutenberg have shipped in the last month:

• Gutenberg 14.4 was released on October 26, 2022, with support for a distraction-free mode that allows a more focused writing experience. Other notable highlights include a redesigned pattern inserter, content locking to the Navigation block, and improvements to fluid typography.
• Gutenberg 14.5 sets the groundwork for future releases with code quality improvements and bug fixes. This version introduces a new “Document Overview” panel for easier access to the list view and document information, expands margin and padding support, and improves spacing visualizers. It was released on November 9, 2022.

Explore some of the latest enhancements to the writing experience in this Core Editor Improvement post.

Team updates: Documentation Contributor Day, WordPress.org redesign updates, and more

• After a lively discussion around the site editing terminology, WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy announced that the term “Site Editor” will be used going forward in reference to the suite of site editing tools.
• Last month, the Docs Team successfully held its first online Contributor Day to collaborate in real-time, help onboard new contributors, and work on backlog tasks.
• Progress and next steps for the WordPress.org website redesign were shared in this post. The following pages that will get a refreshed look and feel soon include Showcase and Documentation (HelpHub).
• The WordPress.org Theme Directory introduced a new feature that allows visitors to preview style variations in block themes.
• Inspired by the Community Team’s efforts to reactivate meetup groups, the Polyglots Team is looking to start a Polyglots outreach project and welcomes help.
• The Training Team shared an overview of some of the new Learn WordPress courses they have been recently working on.
• Openverse’s catalog now includes more than one million audio records!
• The WordPress Photo Directory also reached a significant milestone by surpassing 5,000 photos! Check out this celebratory retrospective from the Photos team.
• Speaking of Openverse and the Photo Directory, don’t miss the latest episode of the WP Briefing podcast—it covers the differences between these two resources, and how they work to further openly-licensed media.
• The latest edition of People of WordPress features Raghavendra Satish Peri.

Enjoy a spooky Halloween Mad Libs story completed by community contributors in Episode 42 of WP Briefing.

Feedback & testing requests

• The Plugin Dependencies feature plugin is available for testing. Provide your feedback by December 1, 2022.
• What does a genuinely sustainable WordPress community look like to you? Share your vision and thoughts in this discussion post.
• The new WordPress developer blog is in public beta and ready for feedback.
• The Core Team requests assistance with testing a new Rollback Feature in WordPress core.
• Version 21.2 of the WordPress mobile app for Android and iOS is available for testing.

Were you involved in WordPress 6.1? Share your thoughts on the release process by December 15, 2022.

Event updates & WordCamps

• The WordCamp Asia organizing team is collaborating with WordCamp Central to bring the WordCamp Asia Diversity Scholarship. In addition, the team recently announced the first round of speakers.
• Preparations for WordCamp Europe 2023 are underway.
• Don’t miss these upcoming WordCamps:
  • WordCamp São Paulo, Brazil on November 26, 2022
  • WordCamp Kolkata, West Bengal, India on December 17-18, 2022

Boost your speaking confidence in WordPress events. Register for the How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events online workshop happening December 7, 2022.

Have a story that we should include in the next issue of The Month in WordPress? Fill out this quick form to let us know.

The following folks contributed to this edition of The Month in WordPress: @rmartinezduque, @webcommsat, @santanainniss, @dansoschin, @eidolonnight.

Hello, WordPress! 

Mark your calendars; it’s almost time for State of the Word 2022!

State of the Word is the annual keynote address delivered by the WordPress project’s co-founder, Matt Mullenweg. Every year, the event shares reflections on the project’s progress and the future of open source. Expect this and more in this year’s edition.

This year’s event will take place in person in New York City and live-streamed via various WordPress.org social media platforms. 

Join Matt as he provides a retrospective of 2022, the latest WordPress releases, Site Editor advancements, and a return to in-person events around the globe, among other topics.

What: State of the Word 2022

When: December 15, 2022, 1–2:30 P.M. EST (18–19:30 UTC)

How: If you’re watching from the comfort of your home or local watch party, the live stream will be embedded in this post and available through the WordPress YouTube channel.

Update December 5, 2022: All in-person seats to State of the Word have been claimed at this time. Please join us online or at a local watch party instead! Would you like to join the in-person audience? Request a seat by completing this survey.

Have a question for Matt?

State of the Word will include a Q&A session. If you want to participate, you can either send your question ahead of time to ask-matt@wordcamp.org or ask during the event in the live stream chat on YouTube.

Given the volume of questions that are usually submitted, please note that it may not be possible to answer all of them in the live Q&A. A follow-up post will be published after the State of the Word to answer those not covered at the event.

First time attending State of the Word? Check out previous years’ recordings on WordPress.tv to get a sense of the event.

See you in person or online on December 15!

Join a State of the Word Watch Party near You

Can’t make it to New York? No problem, organize or join a watch party in your community in person or online. Like last year, the Community team has resources available to help! Check out this handbook page, which includes event templates, information on requesting a Zoom account, and how to get some swag.

Gather together to look back on how WordPress has grown in 2022 and what is ahead for 2023. Stay up-to-date as a group on the latest happenings in the WordPress world and collaborate together on any questions you might have for Matt!

Below you can find a list of State of the Word watch parties that will be updated regularly as the event approaches. If you don’t see a watch party in your region, check this page on Meetup.com to see if your local WordPress group is organizing one.

• Bali – Nobar Akbar – State of the Word 2022
• Demak – Nobar Akbar – State of the Word 2022
• Gresik – Nonton bareng “State of the Word 2022”
• Jakarta – Nobar Akbar – State of the Word 2022
• Semarang – Nobar Akbar – State of the Word 2022
• Surabaya – Nobar Akbar – State of the Word 2022
• Surakarta – Nobar Akbar “State of the Word” 2022
• Tangsel – [ONLINE] Nobar Akbar “State of the Word” Indonesia
• Tegall – Nonton bareng “State of the Word 2022”
• Wonosobo – Nobar akbar “State of the Word” di Indonesia – WordPress Meetup Wonosobo #4
• Yogyakarta – Nonton bareng akbar “State of the Word” dengan pembicara Matt Mullenweg
• Grand Rapids – State of the Word Watch Party (In-person)
• Jacksonville – State of the Word Watch Party (Online)
• Learn WordPress Online Workshops – State of the Word Watch Party (Live Online)
• Oklahoma City – State of the Word Watch Party (In-person)
• San Jose – State of the Word 2022 Watch Party
• Santa Cruz – State of the Word 2022 Watch Party
• Kochi – State of the Word Watch Party (In-person)
• Vadodara – State of the Word 2022 – Vadodara WordPress Meetup (In-person)
• Ancona – State of the Word Watch Party + Auguri di Natale + Proposte 2023
• Roma (Rome) – State of the Word Watch Party
• Kagawa – State of the Word Watch Party ＋ 日本語字幕つけ [オンライン開催]
• Tokyo – State of the Word から来年の WordPress を考えよう！+ 忘年会
• Granada – ¡Veamos el State of the Word 2022!
• Sevilla – Watch Party Meetup y organizando el 2023
• Antwerp – Ad hoc meetup: State of the Word 2022 viewing party
• Faisalabad  – WordPress keynote address
• Genève (Geneva) – State of the Word “Watch Party” et plus/and more (FR/EN) WordPress
• Port-au-Prince – State of the Word Watch Party (Online)
• Sofia – “State of the Word 2022” watch party!

If you are planning a watch party for State of the Word and have questions, please email support@wordcamp.org. A member of the WordPress community team will assist you in the best way possible.

This minor release features 29 bug fixes in Core and 21 bug fixes for the block editor. WordPress 6.1.1 is a short-cycle maintenance release. You can review a summary of the key updates in this release by reading the RC1 announcement.

The next major release will be version 6.2 planned for 2023.

If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.

You can download WordPress 6.1.1 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”.

For more information, check out the version 6.1.1 HelpHub documentation page.

Thank you to these WordPress contributors

The WordPress 6.1.1 release was led by Jonathan Desrosiers, George Mamadashvili, and Jeffrey Paul.

WordPress 6.1.1 would not have been possible without the contributions of more than 105 people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver several enhancements and fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.

10upsimon, Aaron Jorbin, Aaron Robertshaw, Adam Silverstein, Aki Hamano, alexstine, Andrei Draganescu, Andrew Ozz, Andrew Serong, Andre, Andy Fragen, Ari Stathopoulos, azurseisme, Ben Dwyer, Bernie Reiter, Bethany Chobanian Lang, Birgit Pauli-Haack, bjorn2404, Carlos Bravo, Carolina Nymark, Clayton Collie, codesdnc, Colin Stewart, Daniel Richards, David Baumwald, David Smith, David Vongries, Dilip Bheda, Dion Hulse, Dominik Schilling, Ella, Eugene M, Felix Arntz, fpodhorsky, franzaurus, gamecreature, Gary Pendergast, George Mamadashvili, gisgeo, glendaviesnz, Innovext, ironprogrammer, Isabel Brison, James, Jan Thiel, Javier Carazo, Jb Audras, jchambo, jeffpaul, joelmadigan, Joen A., John Blackbourn, John Watkins, Jonathan Desrosiers, Jonny Harris, jsh4, Juliette Reinders Folmer, K. Adam White, kacper3355, Kai Hao, Konstantin Obenland, konyoldeath, larsmqller, Lena Morita, Leo Milo, lozula, Marco Ciampini, Marin Atanasov, Marius L. J., Matt Keys, Michal Czaplinski, Miguel Axcar, Miguel Fonseca, Mukesh Panchal, mw108, Namith Jawahar, Nick Diego, Nik Tsekouras, Nithin SreeRaj, nuvoPoint, oakesjosh, ockham, Oliver Juhas, Pascal Birchler, Paul Biron, Peter Wilson, petitphp, pkolenbr, pypwalters, ramonopoly, Riad Benguella, rjasdfiii, Robert Anderson, rodricus, Ryan Kienstra, Sarah Norris, Sergey Biryukov, stentibbing, Stephen Bernhardt, Subrata Sarkar, Sybre Waaijer, Timi Wahalahti, Timothy Jacobs, Tonya Mork, Torsten Landsiedel, and vtad.

How to contribute

To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, pick a ticket, and join the conversation in the #core and #6-1-release-leads channels. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook.

Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording.

Credits

Editor: Dustin Hartzler
Logo: Javier Arce
Production: Santana Inniss
Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod

References

Photo Directory Make Page
Submit a Photo to the Photo Directory
Openverse Make Page
Openverse Call for Contributions: Block Editor Integration
Download WordPress 6.1
Docs Team Contributor Day Recap Post
Hallway Hangout Block Themes (Video)

Transcript

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00] 

Hello everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. 

I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go!

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:27] 

About 18 months ago, the Openverse project became part of the WordPress open source project, and at roughly the same time, we also welcomed the Photo Directory.

Since that time, we’ve seen growth in teams supporting both of these initiatives. But if you’re not involved in the day-to-day, it can be hard to know how those two things fit together or if they fit together at all.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:00] 

Today, let’s take a brief tour of those two projects and why they came to be. 

In my timeline, work on the Photo Directory started before the work on Openverse, so that’s where we’ll start.

For as long as I can remember, the WordPress community has raised the need for WordPress-first ways to have and host GPL-compatible photos for use in themes, site builds, and marketing efforts as a whole. As recently as 2016, that was still coming up as a question at various flagship events and among the career photographers that contribute their time to WordPress.

So in 2017 and 2018, as attention started to turn toward rebuilding the CMS using blocks, it dropped down the list of priority items. But it never really went away as a thing that people were hoping we could do for the project as a whole. So in 2019, it was becoming clear that having open source-first tools of all varieties for people whose businesses were built on our software would help broaden the availability of the open source freedoms we believe in.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:00] 

This began the work on the Photo Directory with the intention of providing a GPL-friendly, community-driven repository of images. It has since launched, and we have photos in it now. We have a whole team around it. It’s wonderful. But that is how that all kind of came to be. 

Openverse, on the other hand, was launched as CC Search in 2019 with the laudable mandate to increase the discoverability and accessibility of open access media.

Late in 2020, while work on the Photo Directory was underway, Matt shared with me that the team was looking for a new project home. When I first met with them, they shared an overview of the product, which they shorthanded as an open source search engine that searches openly licensed images. We were working on a repo of openly licensed images, so clearly, this was all written in the stars. And so you might be asking yourself at this point, great, how does it work together?

I think for most of us, the timeline there kind of covers the question of what is the difference between these two things. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:00] 

But because I never know which of you will want to strike up a conversation about open source on an elevator, I’ve also got the elevator pitch version. 

Openverse is an open source search engine that searches, indexes, and aggregates copy left media from across the web using sources such as WordPress’s Photo Directory, Flickr’s CC Tagged Media, and Wikimedia, to name just a few. 

Another key difference between the Photo Directory and Openverse is that in order to contribute to the Photo Directory, now that it’s all built, that’s mostly done by submitting photos or reviewing photos. So you don’t really need to be a developer to join in. 

Openverse is not only a developer-centric contribution opportunity, but it also uses a different tech stack than WordPress as a whole. So it’s a good place for folks to go if they’re looking to broaden their horizons.

So that’s your elevator pitch of what Openverse is and how it uses the Photo Directory. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:00] 

You have a couple of ways that you can get involved with these two projects. For the Photo Directory, as I mentioned at the start, you can always contribute photos, and they could always use more photo contributions.

I’ll include a link to the submission guidelines in the show notes below, and as I mentioned, it is a no-code way to give back to the WordPress project. So no code, development environments, and testing skills are required. The Photo Directory team also could always use more contributors to help with the moderating of photo submissions.

And so I’ll link to their making WordPress page in the show notes as well so that you can get started there. 

And as I mentioned before, Openverse is an aggregator, so it doesn’t host any media itself, but it is always accepting suggestions for new GPL-compatible media providers. I’ll link the area where you can leave suggestions in the show notes as well.

And if you are more code inclined, there’s an open issue for adding Openverse browsing to the block editor right now.  

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:00] 

So I’ll link that issue in the show notes in case you thought to yourself, gosh, that sounds like my most favorite thing to do. That is where you can go. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:12]

This leads us now to our small list of big things.

In case you missed it, WordPress 6.1 is now available. It launched on November 1st. Late, late, late in the day, and so it was easy to miss if you’re used to seeing it at a particular time. We were about six hours later than usual. But if you go to wordpress.org/download, you can get your own copy there.

The second thing on our small list of big things is that the Docs team had a contributor day. It was excellent. There’s a recap post up. I will include that in the show notes. 

And then the final thing is that there was a recent hallway hangout that talked about the site editor and block themes.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:00] 

The video for that is also published. I will also share that in our show notes.

And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks.

This post was written in collaboration with Lauren Stein (@laurlittle) and Anne McCarthy @annezazu).

Twenty Twenty-Three is here, alongside WordPress 6.1! The new default theme offers a clean, blank canvas bundled with a collection of style variations.

Style variations are predefined design options that give you the opportunity to alter the appearance of your site without having to change your theme. This means that you can keep your template structure but change the visual details of your site with ease.

For a truly diverse collection, Twenty Twenty-Three’s featured style variations were submitted by members of the WordPress community, resulting in 38 submissions from 19 people in 8 different countries. From those submissions, a curated collection of ten was chosen and bundled with the new theme.

This approach to style variations ushers in the next generation of block themes, able to harness the potential of the platform’s latest design capabilities and tools directly in the Site Editor. Since style variations don’t require any code experience, you’re encouraged to tweak and/or create your own.

Thank you to everyone who contributed.

Useful links:
Download Twenty Twenty-Three
Twenty Twenty-Three Documentation
Twenty Twenty-Three Project Kick Off
Twenty Twenty-Three Selected Style Variations

Welcome to “Misha”

Say hello to WordPress 6.1, “Misha,” inspired by the life and work of jazz pianist Mikhail “Misha” Alperin. Ukrainian-born Misha introduced the work of jazz ensembles globally and is celebrated as a founding member of the Moscow Art Trio.

“Misha” further refines the site-building experience. Inside WordPress 6.1 you’ll interact with enhancements that continue to make site creation more intuitive while pushing your creative boundaries further than ever. Don’t forget to enjoy some of Misha’s jazz piano as you take in all WordPress 6.1 has to offer.

The third major release of 2022 is here. Download it now! As of the time of this release, WordPress powers 43% of websites worldwide.

Site owners and administrators should upgrade today to take full advantage of the many stability, performance, and usability enhancements. Furthermore, WordPress content creators will enjoy a suite of new features geared toward improving the writing and designing experiences.

This release includes features that many in the WordPress Community have been most excited about since the start of this project. Additional enhancements and improvements to the editor give site owners more control and easier customization while offering a more cohesive experience to users. A lot of writing-focused improvements are included in the release, because if you’re giving voices to the voiceless you’ve got to focus on folks writing the copy.

Some of my favorite enhancements are the refined ability to select partial paragraphs in a block; settings to keep list view open by default; and the keyboard shortcut to add internal links expanded to all blocks.

Josepha Haden Chomphosy, Executive Director

What’s Inside

Twenty Twenty-Three:
A fresh default theme with 10 distinct style variations

After introducing foundational elements for block themes and style variations in releases 5.9 and 6.0, WordPress site builders welcome a new default theme, Twenty Twenty-Three, that is powered by 10 different styles and tagged as  “Accessibility Ready.” These intentionally unique styles ensure users can apply a different look and feel to their site with a single click—all within a single theme.

New templates for an improved creator experience

New and more refined templates now give site builders more control over the creation of their sites. In this suite of new templates, find a custom template for posts & pages in the Site Editor. Create and edit template parts like headers and footers more quickly with a new search-and-replace tool and easily view your new site.

Design tools for more consistency and control

Thoughtful upgrades to the controls for design elements and blocks make laying out and building your new site a more consistent, complete, and intuitive experience.

Manage menus with ease

New fallback options in the navigation block mean you can edit the menu that’s open; no searching needed. Plus, the controls for choosing and working on menus have their own place in the block settings. The mobile menu system also gets an upgrade with new features, including different icon options, to make the menu yours.

Cleaner layouts and document settings visualization

View and manage post and page settings with a better-organized display improving the use of features like template picker and scheduler.

One-click lock setting for all inner blocks

When locking blocks, a new toggle lets you apply your lock settings to all the blocks in a containing block like the group, cover, and column blocks.

Improved block placeholders

Various blocks have improved placeholders that reflect customization options to help you design your site and its content. For example, the Image block placeholder displays custom borders and duotone filters even before selecting an image.

Compose richer lists and quotes with inner blocks

The List and Quote blocks now support inner blocks, allowing for more flexible and rich compositions like adding headings inside your Quote blocks.

More responsive text with fluid typography

For developers working with block themes and/or theme.json, fluid typography lets you define font sizes that adapt for easy reading in any screen size.

Add starter patterns to any post type

In WordPress 6.0, site builders could add suggested patterns so that when creating a new page, you did not have to start blank. In 6.1, site builders can continue to opt-in to this feature for not only pages but for any post type.

Find block themes faster

The Themes Directory has a filter for block themes, and a pattern preview gives a better sense of what the theme might look like while exploring different themes and patterns.

Keep your Site Editor settings for later

Site Editor settings are now persistent for each user. This means your settings will now be consistent across browsers and devices.

A streamlined style system

The CSS rules for margin, padding, typography, colors, and borders within the styles engine are now all in one place, reducing time spent on layout-specific tasks and helps to generate semantic class names.

Updated interface options and features

Updates include styling elements like buttons, citations, and links globally; controlling hover, active, and focus states for links using theme.json (not available to control in the interface yet); and customizing outline support for blocks and elements, among other features.

Continued evolution of layout options

The default content dimensions provided by themes can now be overridden in the Styles Sidebar, giving site builders better control over full-width content. Developers have fine-grained control over these controls.

Block Template parts in classic themes

Block template parts can now be defined in classic themes by adding the appropriate HTML files `parts` directory at the root of the theme.

Expanded support for Query Loop blocks

New filters let Query Block variations support custom queries for more powerful variations and advanced hierarchical post types filtering options.

Filters for all your styles

Leverage filters in the Styles sidebar to control settings at all four levels of your site—core, theme, user, or block, from less to more specific.

Spacing presets for faster, consistent design

Save time and avoid hard-coding values into a theme with preset margin and padding values for multiple blocks.

Content-only editing support for container blocks

Thanks to content-only editing settings, layouts can be locked within container blocks. In a content-only block, its children are invisible to the List View and entirely uneditable. So you control the layout while your writers can focus on the content. Combine it with block-locking options for even more advanced control over your blocks.

Other notes of interest

• 6.1 includes a new time-to-read feature showing content authors the approximate time-to-read values for pages, posts, and custom post types.
• The site tagline is empty by default in new sites but can be modified in General Settings.
• A new modal design offers a background blur effect, making it easier to focus on the task at hand.

Enhancing WordPress 6.1 Accessibility

Accessibility is an integral part of the WordPress mission of fostering an inclusive community and supporting users of all types around the world. With this in mind, WordPress 6.1 includes nearly 60 updates specifically focused on enhancing the accessibility of the platform. Read these updates to learn more about the continual initiatives aimed at improving accessibility.

Improved Performance in WordPress 6.1

WordPress 6.1 resolves more than 25 tickets dedicated to enhancing performance with improvements for every type of site. A full breakdown can be found in the Performance Field Guide.

Learn More About WordPress 6.1

See WordPress 6.1 in action! Watch a brief overview video highlighting some of the major features debuting in WordPress 6.1.

Explore learn.wordpress.org for brief how-to videos and lots more on new features in WordPress. Or join a live interactive online workshop on a specific WordPress topic.

Developers can explore the WordPress 6.1 Field Guide, complete with detailed developer notes to help you build with and extend WordPress. Read the WordPress 6.1 Release Notes for more information on the included enhancements and issues fixed, installation information, developer notes and resources, release contributors, and the list of file changes in this release.

The WordPress 6.1 Release Squad

The group listed below tirelessly supported the release, from conception to ship date, and beyond:

Release Lead: Matt Mullenweg 
Release Coordinators: Héctor Prieto and Jonathan Desrosiers 
Core Tech Co-Leads: Mike Schroder, David Baumwald, and Jeff Paul
Editor Tech Co-Leads: Michal Czaplinski, Bernie Reiter, and Carlos Bravo
Core Triage Co-Leads: JB Audras and Ahmed Chaion
Editor Triage Co-Leads: Nick Diego and Anne McCarthy
Documentation Co-Leads: Birgit Pauli-Haack, Milana Cap, and Femy Praseeth
Marketing & Communications Co-Leads: Jonathan Pantani and Dan Soschin
Test Lead: Brian Alexander
Design Lead: Rich Tabor
Default Theme Co-Leads: Beatriz Fialho & Sarah Norris

Thank you to all the contributors who dedicated time and energy to bring the best WordPress experience to everyone.

Josepha Haden Chomphosy

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WordPress 6.1 would not have been possible without the contributions of more than 800 people in over 60 countries. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver hundreds of enhancements and fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.

By release day, 71 locales had translated 90-percent or more of WordPress 6.1 into their language. Community translators continue after a release ensuring more translations are on their way. Thank you to everyone who helps to make WordPress available in over 200 languages.

Many thanks to all of the community volunteers who contribute to the support forums by answering questions from WordPress users around the world.

If contributing to WordPress appeals to you, it’s easy to learn more and get involved. Discover the different teams that come together to Make WordPress and explore the product roadmap on the core development blog.

The WordPress Mission & You

WordPress is software designed for everyone, emphasizing accessibility, performance, security, and ease of use. The project believes great software should work with minimum setup, so you can focus on sharing your story, product, or services freely. The basic WordPress software is simple and predictable so you can easily get started. It also offers powerful features for growth and success.

WordPress believes in democratizing publishing and the freedoms that come with open source. Supporting this idea is a large community of people collaborating on and contributing to this project. The WordPress community is welcoming and inclusive. Our contributors’ passion drives the success of WordPress which, in turn, helps you reach your goals.

Learn more about WordPress and how you can join our community to help shape the future of the world’s most popular website platform.

Haiku Fun for 6.1

Another release,
Mark it down as completed.
Breathe, relax, and cheers!

This announcement was updated on Tue Nov 8 at 9:00 p.m. UTC to clarify some features in 6.1.

The People of WordPress series shares inspiring stories of how people’s lives can change for the better through WordPress and its global network of contributors.

Expressing myself through WordPress

Raghavendra Satish Peri says WordPress is more than a way to succeed online. It’s a community that has always answered his questions and helped him learn, and has enabled his voice to be heard across the world.

These are motivating benefits for Raghavendra, who has a vision impairment that introduces challenges to many of the things he wants to do. The WordPress community has helped him make some of his dreams come true. After chatting with others at WordPress events, about his wish to go trekking and running, he found he was later contacted by people in the community went with him to do just that.

He also found WordPress events a way to raise the importance of accessibility issues, share tips, and connect local communities so they can collaborate on items both within and outside WordPress.

Life growing up with an enabling family

A key asset for Raghavendra has been the support of his family as he coped with his progressive blindness. His sister took charge of teaching him important social and life skills, so he could navigate his country’s rigorous education system.

Those were the early days of technology everywhere, and nobody much was thinking about using it in education and day-to-day life.

When Raghavendra got his first computer, in 2004, it was a revelation. His sister taught him to use the internet efficiently, and he taught himself a few basics of programming. Soon he was spending 10 to 12 hours a day exploring the online world and learning about the web.

Discovering WordPress and blogging

In 2006, he learned basic web design and began to sell website templates. His growing interest in search engines and content led him to WordPress. As the years progressed, his eyesight deteriorated. He had to relearn his skills and acquire new ones to compensate. When he could no longer see the computer screen, he learnt to use screen readers. 

At that point there was a gap: he had the same business skills, but he couldn’t apply them as effectively until he got comfortable with using screen readers. 

To help achieve that, Raghavendra moved to Bengalaru, where he got a full education in screen-reader technology and took a job as a consultant in digital accessibility.

He recalls learning from that time that, in his words: “Some things are important, but one needs to let them go so that more important things can take the new space.”

During his stay in Bengaluru, he stumbled on the idea of blogging and audiobooks. On his 23rd birthday, he had two firsts: registering a domain and publishing a blog post. At first he wrote about things happening in his daily life, which initially got low responses. But when he started attending blogging and tech meetups, he received encouragement from fellow bloggers who complimented him on his writing style.

Using WordPress to publish his story, Raghavendra found a love for writing and this made him want to learn and understand WordPress much better.

“Writing freed my mind and soul from the pain and sorrow; it takes a person into a Zen state where one can understand their soul once they see their own thoughts on paper.”

Raghavendra Satish Peri

There were still some ongoing challenges arising from his difficulties with seeing. For example, Raghavendra found coding was made more complicated. But he took it slowly, and he improved steadily. 

He started as many WordPressers do, installing themes and plugins, and making minor changes to the code. Ultimately, he moved all of his sites to WordPress, and as he learned more about WordPress, he could help his friends and family more with their projects.

After just a few years, Raghavendra had the skills and the confidence to build just about anything in WordPress, progressing from simple to complex websites.

Today Raghavendra is a successful entrepreneur. He sees his life as full of promise. WordPress still helps him grow every day, professionally and personally.

“There is always hope for tomorrow! Do not look for the light at the end of the tunnel, embrace the darkness, listen to the quietness, and feel the airflow. You will know that light is ahead even before you see it.” 

Raghavendra Satish Peri

Contribute to accessibility and WordPress

Another thing Raghavendra has in common with many WordPressers is his enthusiasm and involvement in the community. As he has learnt more about the software, he felt he needed to be involved with improving accessibility too. He started to help organize local meetups and conferences and encourages others to give time and skills to contribute too. 

He follows software development closely, especially where WordPress meets accessibility.

In 2020, on learning about a global WordPress Accessibility event, he applied and became a speaker. His topic was Gutenberg Accessibility, A Screen Reader User’s Perspective. His interest continued as a result of this event, and he wanted to be part of growing its audience and impact, initially through joining its dedicated channel on Slack. Eventually, he joined the organizing team for future events.

Helping run WordPress events brought together all of Raghavendra’s existing skills. It taught him a lot about what it takes to make an event truly inclusive, from captions and sign language to media players and more. 

As his involvement has grown, Raghavendra has found it has become easier to source and use resources that make events and presentations more accessible. But knows there’s always more that can be learnt in this area, and encourages others to use understanding from events like the Accessibility Days in their conferences.

Join the global WordPress Accessibility Day 2022 online on November 2-3, 2022. It’s free to register!

Sharing learning on accessibility can be a motivator

In 2021, Raghavendra underwent his most challenging event to date, when he had a kidney transplant. To motivate himself, he started a website that focuses on accessibility and inclusive design. This prompted him to start an accessibility community to help fill the gaps in accessibility knowledge. Today, it is one of India’s largest online accessibility communities, educating developers and designers and training people with disabilities to build a career in accessibility testing.

Raghavendra is also a keen user of the WordPress Gutenberg editor and builds all his websites using it. Though content creation and editing can still pose him difficulties, he finds the front end of the Gutenberg blocks very accessible. He believes in participating in the software to make it a better experience for all.

“I decided to live my life to the fullest and make my mark on the world. This thought keeps me motivated.”

Raghavendra Satish Peri

After a successful transplant, he lives a disciplined life with a few restrictions. He continues to enjoy working in-depth in disability, accessibility, and inclusion spaces. Raghavendra hopes others will join with him and the thousands of other people who collaborate to make a difference.

Share the stories

Help share these stories of open source contributors and continue to grow the community. Meet more WordPressers in the People of WordPress series.

Thank you to Raghavendra Satish Peri (@tarkham) for sharing his experiences for this latest edition.

Contributors

Thanks to Meher Bala (@meher), Abha Thakor (@webcommsat) and Surendra Thakor (@sthakor) for interviews and writing this feature, to Mary Baum (@marybaum), Chloe Bringmann (@cbringmann), and Larissa Murillo (@lmurillom) for reviews.

The People of WordPress series thanks Josepha Haden (@chanthaboune) and Topher DeRosia (@topher1kenobe) for their support.

This People of WordPress feature is inspired by an essay originally published on HeroPress.com, a community initiative created by Topher DeRosia. It highlights people in the WordPress community who have overcome barriers and whose stories might otherwise go unheard. #HeroPress