


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="changelog">Changelog</h2>



<p>Any changes are cataloged here as the release goes on.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>11/25/2025 
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Added <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#more-developer-notes-for-wordpress-6-9-release">Dev Note</a> on miscellaneous block editor changes </li>



<li>Added link to the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/25/wordpress-6-9-field-guide/">Field Guide</a> </li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>11/24/2025</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Added <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#more-developer-notes-for-wordpress-6-9-release">Dev Notes</a> on HTML API updates and pn PHP 8.5 Support</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>11/21/2025 </strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Updated screenshots and videos for <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#stretchy-text-for-heading-and-paragraph-blocks-all">Stretchy Text section</a>, reflecting changes in RC2.  </li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>11/20/2025</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>added <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#improved-accessibility-across-core-and-block-editor">accessibility updates section</a>. </li>



<li>Added <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#more-developer-notes-for-wordpress-6-9-release">Dev Notes</a> on Admin Search query, IE-related updates and URL escaping functions. </li>



<li>Updated the featured image to the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/71818#issuecomment-3556808505">latest version of the highlight grid</a>.</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>11/19/2025: </strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Added credits</li>



<li>Added tags to headings,</li>



<li>Added <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=42536&amp;action=edit#more-developer-notes-for-wordpress-6-9-release">Dev Notes</a> on WordPress email, UTF-8 support</li>



<li>Added horizontal scroll bar feature to Math Block</li>



<li>Fixed some typos.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="important-note-guidelines">Important note/guidelines</h2>



<p>Please do not copy and paste what is in this post since this will be shared with many people. This should be used to inspire your own content and to ensure that you have the best information about this release. If you do copy and paste, keep in mind that others might do the same, opening the door for some awkwardness around duplicated content out on the web. </p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Each item has been tagged using best guesses with different high-level labels so that you can more readily see at a glance who is likely to be most impacted.</li>



<li>Each item has a high-level description, visuals (if relevant), and key resources if you would like to learn more.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="overview">Overview </h2>



<p><em>Note: As always, what’s shared here is being actively pursued but doesn’t necessarily mean each will make it into the final release of WordPress 6.9.</em></p>



<p>WordPress 6.9 introduces several new features and performance enhancements.</p>



<p>Key new features include:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Collaborative Feedback and Content Control:</strong> Block-level Notes facilitate team feedback, allowed blocks UI, Abilities API, visual drag and drop, binding blocks to external controls.</li>



<li><strong>New Blocks:</strong> Discover Accordion, Terms Query, Math, and Time to Read blocks.</li>



<li><strong>Typography Enhancements:</strong> Benefit from new text-fitting typography.</li>



<li><strong>Dashboard-wide Command Palette:</strong> The Command Palette will  help users streamline their workflow across WordPress Admin pages. </li>
</ul>



<p>Performance improvements include:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Optimized Loading:</strong> On-demand block-style loading and faster emoji detection.</li>



<li><strong>Efficient Scheduling:</strong> Optimized cron execution.</li>
</ul>



<p>Furthermore, WordPress 6.9 lays the groundwork for future AI integration with the new Abilities API, which enables secure automation through machine-readable WordPress capabilities.</p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-9">WordPress 6.9</a> is set to be released on December 2, 2025. </p>



<p>Of note, this release includes Gutenberg plugin versions 20.5 &#8211; 21.9.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="important-links">Important links:</h3>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/07/28/roadmap-to-6-9/">Roadmap to 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-9/">WordPress 6.9 Development Cycle</a></li>



<li>What’s new for developers: <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/06/whats-new-for-developers-june-2025/">June</a>, <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/07/whats-new-for-developers-july-2025/">July</a>, <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/08/whats-new-for-developers-august-2025/">August,</a> <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/09/whats-new-for-developers-september-2025/">September</a>, <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/10/whats-new-for-developers-october-2025/">October</a>, <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/11/whats-new-for-developers-november-2025/">November</a>)</li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/25/wordpress-6-9-field-guide/">6.9 Field Guide</a></li>



<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/state-of-the-word/">State of the Word 2025</a> will include highlights and demos of the most important features of this release. The event will be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/wordpress">livestreamed on YouTube </a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="assets">Assets </h3>



<p>In this <a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1z0ilv8vH2AVWVt-1tPI9qPUoTOSGahuB">Google Drive folder</a> you can view all assets in this document.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="tags">Tags</h2>



<p>To make this document easier to navigate based on specific audiences, the following tags are used liberally: </p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>[end user]</strong>: end user focus. </li>



<li><strong>[theme author]</strong>: block or classic theme author. </li>



<li><strong>[plugin author]</strong>: plugin author, whether block or otherwise.</li>



<li><strong>[developer]</strong>: catch-all term for more technical folks. </li>



<li><strong>[site admin]</strong>: this includes a “builder” type. </li>



<li><strong>[enterprise]</strong>: specific items that would be of interest to or particularly impact enterprise-level folks</li>



<li><strong>[all]</strong>: broad impact to every kind of WordPress user. </li>
</ul>



<p>How can you use these? Use your browser&#8217;s <strong>Find</strong> capability and search for the string including the brackets. Then use the arrows to navigate through the post from one result to the next. </p>



<details class="wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow">Short video on how to use the tags to navigate the post. 
<p></p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="command-palette-everywhere-all">Command Palette everywhere <sup>[all]</sup></h2>



<p>A couple of years ago the Command Palette was first released for the Site Editor. It provides content creators and administrators with a quick search and command execution tool. Invoked by Ctrl+K or Cmd+K. It is now available from any admin screen and helps streamline content creation as well as administering a WordPress site. It provides shortcuts to places otherwise only available by navigating multiple menu levels deep. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="Command Palette now available from the dashboard" class="wp-image-42912" height="402" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Command-Palette-everywhere-1024x631.png?resize=652%2C402&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<p>Technically, this change extracts navigation commands from `@wordpress/edit-site` to `@wordpress/core-commands`, making them universally accessible. This architectural shift sets the foundation for admin-wide command integration in WordPress 6.9 and beyond, potentially reducing the need for repetitive clicking through admin menus.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>For developers the new useCommands hook was introduced. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71603">71603</a>)</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="block-editor-updates">Block editor updates</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="notes-all">Notes     <sup>[all]</sup></h3>



<p>Asynchronous collaboration comes to WordPress via the new Notes feature and rings in the 3rd Phase of Gutenberg. Site owners, Editors and Authors can collaborate by leaving comment directly on the post or page, attached to the blocks in the editor. The notes are threaded, resolveable, and can be reopened as well. Add an access notes from the Block toolbar and via the sidebar. Post authors will receive email notification when notes are added to the content.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="Collaborative Notes in WordPress 6.9" class="wp-image-42914" height="465" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Notes-in-WordPress-6-9.png?resize=652%2C465&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<p>Notes are by default enabled for Posts and Pages. They can be enabled also for other content post types via the `register_post_type` function. </p>



<div class="wp-block-kevinbatdorf-code-block-pro cbp-has-line-numbers"><span>PHP</span><span class="code-block-pro-copy-button" style="color: #575279; display: none;" tabindex="0"><pre class="code-block-pro-copy-button-pre"><textarea class="code-block-pro-copy-button-textarea" readonly="readonly" tabindex="-1">register_post_type( 'book', array(
	'label' => 'Books',
	'public' => true,
	'show_in_rest' => true,
	'supports' => array(
		'title',
		'editor' => array( 'notes' => true ),
		'author',
	),
) );
</textarea></pre><svg fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" viewBox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path class="with-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2m-6 9l2 2 4-4" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path><path class="without-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path></svg></span><pre class="shiki rose-pine-dawn" style="background-color: #faf4ed;" tabindex="0"><code><span class="line"><span style="color: #D7827E;">register_post_type</span><span style="color: #797593;">(</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">'book'</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #B4637A; font-style: italic;">array</span><span style="color: #797593;">(</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">	</span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">'label'</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #286983;">=&gt;</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">'Books'</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">	</span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">'public'</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #286983;">=&gt;</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #D7827E;">true</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">	</span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">'show_in_rest'</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #286983;">=&gt;</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #D7827E;">true</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">	</span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">'supports'</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #286983;">=&gt;</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #B4637A; font-style: italic;">array</span><span style="color: #797593;">(</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">		</span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">'title'</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">		</span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">'editor'</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #286983;">=&gt;</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #B4637A; font-style: italic;">array</span><span style="color: #797593;">(</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">'notes'</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #286983;">=&gt;</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #D7827E;">true</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">),</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">		</span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">'author'</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">	</span><span style="color: #797593;">),</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #797593;">)</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">);</span></span>
<span class="line"></span></code></pre></div>



<p>More details on handling Notes programmatically can be found in the Dev Note: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/15/notes-feature-in-wordpress-6-9/"><strong>Notes feature in WordPress 6.9</strong></a>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="visual-drag-drop-end-user">Visual Drag &amp; Drop <img alt="🐉" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f409.png" style="height: 1em;" /> <img alt="💧" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f4a7.png" style="height: 1em;" />  <sup>[end user]</sup></h3>



<p>Drag-and-drop just got smarter. Blocks now show live visual feedback as you reposition them, making layout building more intuitive and precise. You&#8217;ll see exactly where elements land before releasing, accelerating the creative process. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/67470">67470</a>). Currently, this only works for single blocks. Drag and Drop of multiple blocks is slated for WordPress 7.0.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="ui-for-managing-allowed-blocks-in-templates-and-patterns-end-user-site-admin">UI for managing allowed Blocks in Templates and Patterns.     <sup>[end user][site admin]</sup></h3>



<p>WordPress now makes managing allowed blocks simpler with a new UI tucked in<strong> Advanced</strong> settings. Previously, developers had to edit block markup directly in code view—not user-friendly. This updates makes things easier for website admins, theme builders, and agencies enforcing specific block rules in patterns and templates. While agencies already handled this via code, the new interface offers a nicer interaction model. It&#8217;s part of WordPress&#8217;s broader mission: letting users build complex sites without touching code at all.  (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/72191">72191</a>)</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="hide-and-show-blocks-end-user-site-admin">Hide and Show Blocks  <sup>[end user][site admin]</sup></h3>



<p>WordPress 6.9 introduces long-awaited control to hide blocks in the editor while preserving their structure within templates. This initial implementation provides content creators and designers with the ability to manage blocks that are not always displayed, such as seasonal content or conditional elements.</p>



<p>Instead of deleting and recreating blocks, users can now simply toggle their visibility, retaining all settings. This foundational feature paves the way for more sophisticated conditional display options in future releases, potentially including role-based or time-based visibility controls. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71203">71203</a>) </p>



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<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42922" height="279" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Additional-CSS-Sidebar.png?resize=399%2C279&#038;ssl=1" width="399" /></figure>
</div>


<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="additional-css-control-moved-end-user-site-admin-theme-author">Additional CSS control moved <br /> <sup>[end user][site admin] [theme author]</sup></h3>



<p>Theme builders might go searching for the <strong>Additional CSS</strong> controls. They were moved into the ellipsis menu in the header of the Styles page on either side of the screen (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71550">71550</a>) </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42923" height="238" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Additional-CSS-dark-side.png?resize=652%2C238&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="copy-styles-keyboard-shortcut-end-user-site-admin">Copy Styles keyboard shortcut    <br /><sup>[end user][site admin]</sup></h3>



<p>A new keyboard shortcut helps with pasting styles from one block to another and can speed up content creation workflows: cmd/ctrl + options/alt + v<strong> (</strong><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/69196"><strong>69196</strong></a><strong>) </strong></p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="block-style-variations-in-style-book-end-user-site-admin-theme-author">Block Style Variations in Style Book<br /> <sup>[end user][site admin] [theme author]</sup></h3>



<p>To make the Stylebook even more comprehensive, it now surfaces block styles for core blocks as well as custom blocks. This makes it possible to change block style variations site-wide in one screen (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70448">70448</a>).</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="the-starter-patterns-modal-for-all-post-types-theme-author-plugin-author-enterprise">The Starter Patterns modal for all post types. <sup>[theme author] [plugin author][enterprise]</sup></h3>



<p>With WordPress 6.9, contributors addressed a limitation in the starter pattern modal, which previously appeared exclusively when creating pages. This restriction is now removed from the `StartPageOptions` component, enabling the modal to display across all post types where patterns exist. The fix resolves a regression introduced in earlier pulls, expanding design flexibility for WordPress content creators working with diverse content structures.(<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/69753">69753</a>)</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="why-iframe-the-post-editor-plugin-author-enterprise">Why iframe the Post Editor? <br /><sup>[plugin author][enterprise]</sup></h3>



<p>The process to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/29/blocks-in-an-iframed-template-editor/">restructure how the WordPress post editor works</a> started a few years ago.  WordPress 6.9 begins transitioning the editor into this isolated iframe, with full completion coming in WordPress 7.0.  Think of an iframe like a sandbox—a separate container within a webpage. Currently, the editor runs in the same space as WordPress&#8217;s admin interface, causing styling conflicts. This separation prevents admin styles from interfering with content editing, making the editor preview match what readers actually see. Plugin developers need to update older blocks to work with this new setup or they might stop functioning properly. </p>



<p>The Dev note <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/preparing-the-post-editor-for-full-iframe-integration/">Preparing the Post Editor for Full iframe Integration</a> has more details. And in the comments many immediate questions have been answered. </p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="relevant-bug-fixes-for-backward-compatibility-checks-theme-author-plugin-author-site-admin">Relevant bug fixes for backward compatibility checks <sup>[theme author] [plugin author][site admin]</sup></h3>



<p>Certain bugs have been around for a while and developers often have found work arounds. Now that those bugs are fixed, it might be possible that the work around don’t work any more and it’s feasible to remove it. </p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Comments Pagination: Remove unwanted bottom margin from links. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70360">70360</a>)</li>



<li>Remove screencast.com embed block variation. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70480">70480</a>)</li>



<li>Tag Cloud: Remove unnecessary full-width padding. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/69725">69725</a>)</li>



<li>HTML Block: Remove space below textarea. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70055">70055</a>)</li>



<li>Fix : Calendar block: Colors do not change between global styles and theme.json. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70184">70184</a>)</li>



<li>Image Block: Preserve line breaks in media caption. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70476">70476</a>)</li>



<li>Search Block: Move search setting to inspector. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70144">70144</a>)</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="new-blocks-all">New Blocks <sup>[all]</sup></h2>



<p>WordPress 6.9 brings six new blocks to WordPress editor: an Accordion block and its nested InnerBlocks, a Time-to-read block that also can show the word count of a post or page, the Term Query block, and the Math block to display mathematical formulas in science and essay posts. Comment handling also became easier with two more blocks, Comment Count and Comment Link. </p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="accordion-block">Accordion Block</h3>



<p>The Accordion Block has been long awaited and it is now available to all WordPress users. It’s a nested structure using Accordion Block, Accordion Item, Accordion Heading and Accordion Panel blocks. </p>



<p>An Accordion block has multiple Accordion Items, each comprising of a Accordion Heading + Icon and an Accordion Panel with the content. </p>



<p>The default styling is minimal and opens a lot of design possibilities for theme builders to cover all the use cases. On the Developer blog you’ll find a <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/10/styling-accordions-in-wordpress-6-9/">tutorial of the various methods for styling an Accordion block</a>, using the example of an FAQ page (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/64119">64119</a>)(<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71222">71222</a>)(<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71388">71388</a>).</p>



<p>The Snippets section of the Developer Blog shows how to add <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/snippets/schema-org-microdata-for-accordion-block-faqs/">Schema.org microdata for Accordion block FAQs</a></p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42932" height="495" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Accordion-block.png?resize=652%2C495&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="term-query-block">Term Query Block</h3>



<p>Traditionally, creating category and tag pages has been complex and required custom queries and workarounds. The new Terms Query block offers a built-in way to display and organize categories and tags, similar to how the Query block manages posts. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70720">70720</a>)</p>



<p>There are also supporting blocks: </p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Term Template block</li>



<li>Term Name block</li>



<li>Term Count block</li>
</ul>



<p>Together with the already existing Term Description block, this additional support for display of categories or tags is particularly useful for directory and magazine sites who provide content filters and subpages for their readers. The interface provides an `order` and `order-by` sorting in a single dropdown. All blocks have the necessary design tools for styling and the Term Count block also has a toggle to make it a link. For those working extensively with taxonomies, the ongoing <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/49094">hierarchy discussion</a> outlines future enhancements to taxonomy handling in WordPress.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42936" height="381" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Term-Query-Block.png?resize=652%2C381&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="time-to-read-block">Time to Read Block</h3>



<p>The Time to Read block, available in the Gutenberg plugin for a long time went through an extended accessibility review before it was added to WordPress Core. </p>



<p>It now has a toggle control to display a range of time rather than a fixed average reading time. It also comes with a variation to display a word count for the post or page it’s used on (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71606">71606</a>) (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71841">71841</a>). </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42941" height="93" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-17.25.42.png?resize=435%2C93&#038;ssl=1" width="435" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="Time to Read / Word Count block WordPress 6.9" class="wp-image-42940" height="229" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-10-27-at-17.25.17.png?resize=652%2C229&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="math-block">Math Block</h3>



<p>With the Math Block content creators can now add mathematical formulas in LaTeX syntax to their post and pages. The LaTeX syntax can also be used together with the inline Math format.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42944" height="287" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Math-Block-WordPress-6.9.png?resize=652%2C287&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42943" height="457" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Math-block-inline-format.png?resize=652%2C457&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<p>Longer formulas are handled with a horizontal scrollbar.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-43026" height="108" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Math-block-horizontal-scroll.png?resize=525%2C108&#038;ssl=1" width="525" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="comment-count-and-comment-link-blocks">Comment Count and Comment Link Blocks</h3>



<p>Two new comment blocks help theme builders to handle comment count and comment links separately. Both blocks have been available in the Gutenberg plugin for a few years and only for the Site editor. Earlier this year, they came out of experimentation and were made available for all editor screens. So now a content creator can for instance include a links to the comment section on top of the post and be more deliberate in allowing access to comments only on certain posts. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="Comment Link and Comment count in Template" class="wp-image-42951" height="194" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Comment-Link-Comment-Count.png?resize=652%2C194&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="updates-to-existing-blocks">Updates to existing blocks </h2>



<p>For WordPress 6.9, contributors standardized most blocks&#8217; Inspector settings to use the <a href="https://wordpress.github.io/gutenberg/?path=/docs/components-toolspanel--docs">ToolsPanel component</a>, bringing visual consistency across the editor. The shift grants users granular control over displayed settings while simplifying how developers inject additional options into existing groups. The ToolsPanel aligns Inspector controls with the Styles sidebar, already leveraging the component extensively, creating a cohesive authoring experience. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/67813">67813</a>)</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="stretchy-text-for-heading-and-paragraph-blocks-all">Stretchy Text for Heading and Paragraph blocks. <sup>[all]</sup></h3>



<p>Both Heading and Paragraph blocks now support a new &#8220;Stretchy&#8221; variation that stretches text to the full width of its container. The transform tool from the button tools bar allowing users to convert text into this stretchy format. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex">
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-43081" height="271" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Sstretchy-Heading-2025-11-21.png?resize=277%2C271&#038;ssl=1" width="277" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-43082" height="252" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Stretchy-Paragrapph-2025-11-21.png?resize=279%2C252&#038;ssl=1" width="279" /></figure>
</figure>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42955" height="158" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Stretchy-slash-command.png?resize=289%2C158&#038;ssl=1" width="289" /></figure>
</div>


<p>Content creators can find these variations also in the Block inserter or via the Slash command. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42956" height="307" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Stretchy-in-inserter.png?resize=354%2C307&#038;ssl=1" width="354" /></figure>



<p>Stretchy Text offers designers and content creators an additional creative tool, opening up numerous possibilities for visually appealing text, especially when paired with suitable fonts. </p>



<p>Developers can add support for this feature to any Custom text block via block.json. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/73148">73148</a>)(<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/73056">73056</a>) (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/73067">73067</a>)(<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/72923">72923</a>)</p>



<div class="wp-block-kevinbatdorf-code-block-pro cbp-has-line-numbers"><span>JSON</span><span class="code-block-pro-copy-button" style="color: #575279; display: none;" tabindex="0"><pre class="code-block-pro-copy-button-pre"><textarea class="code-block-pro-copy-button-textarea" readonly="readonly" tabindex="-1">{
	"supports":{
		"typography":{
				"fitText": true,
		}
	}
}
</textarea></pre><svg fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" viewBox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path class="with-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2m-6 9l2 2 4-4" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path><path class="without-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path></svg></span><pre class="shiki rose-pine-dawn" style="background-color: #faf4ed;" tabindex="0"><code><span class="line"><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">	</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">supports</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">		</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">typography</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">fitText</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #D7827E;">true</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">		</span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">	</span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"></span></code></pre></div>



		<figure class="wp-block-jetpack-videopress jetpack-videopress-player">
			
			
			
		</figure>
		


<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="button-block-end-user-siteadmin">Button Block <sup>[end user] [siteadmin]</sup></h3>



<p>Button Block now sports HTML element selection in <strong>Advanced</strong> settings, letting creators choose between semantic &lt;a&gt; links and true &lt;button&gt; elements. This tackles accessibility headaches where users mistakenly treat buttons as links, confusing screen readers. The dropdown educates users about proper usage, empowering developers and non-coders alike to build accessible interfaces without custom code (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70139">70139</a>).</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="cover-block-improved-video-handling-all">Cover Block improved video handling <sup>[all]</sup></h3>



<p>The Cover Block now supports poster images for videos, enhancing accessibility for users with slow internet or mobile devices. These images can be easily added by dragging and dropping the file onto the Poster Image control, streamlining the post creation process (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70816">70816</a>) (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71039">71039</a>)  (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70939">70939</a>).</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42961" height="397" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Cover-Block-Updates.png?resize=652%2C397&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="details-block-end-user-site-admin-plugin-author">Details Block <sup>[end user][site admin][plugin author]</sup></h3>



<p>The Formatting features are now enabled for the Details Block, similar to the Paragraph block. Users can now use special formatting like Strikethrough, Sub or Superscript, and highlighting. This also opens up the list to be extended via plugins. </p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="gallery-block-all">Gallery Block <sup>[all]</sup></h3>



<p>This next WordPress version adds the support for gallery-wide aspect ratio setting to the Gallery Block. User can now set the same aspect ratio for all images in the gallery with one click from the sidebar. <strong>(</strong><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71116"><strong>71116</strong></a><strong>) (</strong><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/72104"><strong>72104</strong></a><strong>).</strong></p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42962" height="415" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Gallery-block-aspect-ratio.png?resize=652%2C415&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<p>Theme developers can control the availability via theme.json. The code snippet shows an example of removing the default choice <code>defaultAspectRatios</code> and only offering two choices in the editor.</p>



<div class="wp-block-kevinbatdorf-code-block-pro cbp-has-line-numbers"><span>JSON</span><span class="code-block-pro-copy-button" style="color: #575279; display: none;" tabindex="0"><pre class="code-block-pro-copy-button-pre"><textarea class="code-block-pro-copy-button-textarea" readonly="readonly" tabindex="-1">"settings":{
        "blocks" {
            "core/gallery":{
                "dimensions":{
                    "defaultAspectRatios":false,
                    "aspectRatios": &#91;
                        {
                             "name": "Square - 1:1",
                             "slug": "square",
                             "ratio": "1"
                        },
                        {
                             "name": "Wide - 16:9",
                             "slug": "16-9",
                             "ratio": "16/9"
                        }
                  &#93;
             }          
         }
    }
</textarea></pre><svg fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" viewBox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path class="with-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2m-6 9l2 2 4-4" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path><path class="without-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path></svg></span><pre class="shiki rose-pine-dawn" style="background-color: #faf4ed;" tabindex="0"><code><span class="line"><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;settings&quot;</span><span style="color: #575279;">:</span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">        </span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">blocks</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #B4637A;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">            </span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">core/gallery</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                </span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">dimensions</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                    </span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">defaultAspectRatios</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #D7827E;">false</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                    </span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">aspectRatios</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">&#91;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                        </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                             </span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">name</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;Square - 1:1&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                             </span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">slug</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;square&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                             </span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">ratio</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;1&quot;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                        </span><span style="color: #797593;">},</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                        </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                             </span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">name</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;Wide - 16:9&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                             </span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">slug</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;16-9&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                             </span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">ratio</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;16/9&quot;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                        </span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">                  </span><span style="color: #797593;">&#93;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">             </span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span><span style="color: #575279;">          </span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">         </span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">    </span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"></span></code></pre></div>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="heading-block-css-specificity-fix-all">Heading Block CSS specificity fix <sup>[all]</sup></h3>



<p>WordPress 6.9 fixes a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/72837">specificity issue with the Heading block&#8217;s</a> background padding. Previously, padding styles applied to headings with backgrounds were affecting other blocks that use heading elements, such as the Accordion Heading block. This fix ensures that background padding is only applied to actual Heading blocks.</p>



<p>The CSS selector for applying padding to headings with backgrounds has been made more specific. The selector now targets <code>.wp-block-heading.has-background</code> instead of just heading element tags (h1, h2, etc) with the <code>.has-background</code> class. </p>



<p>Dev note: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/heading-block-css-specificity-fix-in-wordpress-6-9/">Heading Block CSS Specificity Fix in WordPress 6.9</a></p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="navigation-block-all">Navigation Block <sup>[all]</sup></h3>



<p>The Navigation block in this WordPress release has been significantly  improved. Builders can now find the create page functionality directly from the link UI dropdown and the process of creating a page is streamlined by an additional “publish immediately” checkbox. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71188">71188</a>)(<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71487">71487</a>)</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignleft size-full is-resized"><img alt="navigation page link, add page feature. " class="wp-image-42968" height="368" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/navigation-create-new-page.png?resize=520%2C368&#038;ssl=1" style="width: 326px; height: auto;" width="520" /></figure>
</div>


<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img alt="Navigation create page and immediately publish." class="wp-image-42969" height="291" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/navigation-create-new-page-publish.png?resize=527%2C291&#038;ssl=1" style="width: 372px; height: auto;" width="527" /></figure>



<p>Similarly the button block inside the navigation block also has the option to create a new page. It’s a slightly different approach, but it helps with streamlining site building work. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/69368">69368</a>)<br /></p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img alt="Navigation button with create page feature. " class="wp-image-42971" height="343" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/navigation-button-create-page.png?resize=398%2C343&#038;ssl=1" style="width: 399px; height: auto;" width="398" /></figure>



<p>Site builders can now customize aria-labels independently of menu titles, which is great for accessibility. The text box is located under <strong>Advanced &gt; Menu Name</strong> (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/66935">66935</a>)</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="Customize the name of the navigation menu" class="wp-image-42972" height="570" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/navigation-menu-name.png?resize=283%2C570&#038;ssl=1" width="283" /></figure>



<p>The hamburger icon now consists of individual SVG lines, opening up more styling and animation possibilities. Plus, the automatic panel expansion for Navigation options in site editing makes the workflow smoother. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/71791">71791</a>)(<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/56346">56346</a>) (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/69343">69343</a></p>



<p>To improve the robustness of the Navigation, the Navigation Link Block is now creating the URL dynamically and even if the slug of the page changes the link will be automatically updated.(<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/72422">72422</a>) A similar mechanism also was applied to the Navigation Submenu block. </p>



<p>The submenu control of the background is now much easier. A new slider control for the overlay helps with the design. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/69379">69379</a>)</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="Navigation submenu overlay slider " class="wp-image-42973" height="278" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Navigation-submenu-background-overlay.png?resize=652%2C278&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<p>In template part view, a new button <strong>Edit Navigation</strong> helps users to update Navigation block settings and menu items directly from this view.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42976" height="126" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/navigation-edit-button-template-part-edited.png?resize=552%2C126&#038;ssl=1" width="552" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="query-loop-blocks-all">Query Loop Blocks <sup>[all]</sup></h3>



<p>Blocks primarily used in a Query Loop context received a few quality-of-life enhancements and accessibility controls. </p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-full"><img alt="content block HTML element selection. " class="wp-image-42977" height="297" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/content-html-element.png?resize=284%2C297&#038;ssl=1" width="284" /></figure>
</div>


<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="content-block">Content Block</h4>



<p>The Content block in WordPress 6.9 now features a `tagName` selector in its Advanced Settings. This allows theme builders to replace the default div wrapper with semantic HTML elements (like main, section, or article), improving accessibility, SEO, and content structure. This powerful tool enhances how blocks align with web standards.<strong> </strong><strong>(</strong><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70698"><strong>70698</strong></a><strong>)</strong></p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="date-block-supports-custom-dates">Date Block supports custom dates.</h4>



<p>The Date block has undergone significant enhancements. It now supports custom dates, and its existing Post Date and Last Modified Date variations have been updated to utilize Block Bindings. This change involved creating a new binding source, core/post-data, which exposes the publish date as date and the last modified date as modified for any given post (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70585">70585</a>).</p>



<figure class="wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex">
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42980" height="378" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/date-publish-modified.png?resize=278%2C378&#038;ssl=1" width="278" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42979" height="338" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/date-select-format.png?resize=283%2C338&#038;ssl=1" width="283" /></figure>
</figure>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="query-title-get-post-type-label">Query Title get Post Type label</h4>



<p>The Query Loop block now supports a new <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71167">Post Type Label variation</a>. This feature enables users to display the post type of the current item within the block, which is especially helpful for showcasing the post type name when creating custom post type archive templates. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71167">71167</a>)</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img alt="Query block post type labels" class="wp-image-42984" height="570" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/query-post-type-labels-edited.png?resize=652%2C570&#038;ssl=1" style="width: 498px; height: auto;" width="652" /></figure>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="query-total">Query Total</h4>



<p>The total number of query results return are displayed via the Query Total block. In WordPress 6.9, this block received color controls for styling. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/69500">69500</a>)</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="rss-block-end-user">RSS Block <sup>[end user]</sup></h3>



<p>The RSS Block is a block to display another website&#8217;s RSS feed in a post or template. This version holds two small updates: An added option to display the links in a new tab or window and to control the `rel` attributes. RSS feeds from third-party sources sometimes include HTML entities in their titles. In a bug fix, the RSS Block now displays titles correctly. </p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="separator-block-theme-author-site-admin-plugin-author">Separator Block <br /><sup>[theme author][site admin][plugin author]</sup></h3>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-full is-resized"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42982" height="590" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/separator-html-element.png?resize=431%2C590&#038;ssl=1" style="width: 218px; height: auto;" width="431" /></figure>
</div>


<p>A small update to the Separator block opens the styling options for designers: The HTML element can now be changed from a `&lt;hr&gt;` to a `&lt;div/&gt;` tag in not only increasing the range of design option but also accessibility. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70185">70185</a>)</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="social-icons-block-developers-enterprise">Social Icons Block <sup>[developers][enterprise]</sup></h3>



<p>The update to the Social Icons Block enables now extenders to register custom Social Icons variations. This way, any group of Social Icons that are relevant to the site owner can be created and used in the content, for instance icons of various Podcast directories, or to add icons for payment systems not available in core. </p>



<p>On the WordPress Developer Block developers will find a tutorial on <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/08/registering-custom-social-icons-in-wordpress-6-9/">how to register their own social media icons</a><strong>. </strong>Plugin developers can now remove existing icons and register their own. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70261">70261</a>)</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42985" height="111" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/social-icons-more.png?resize=513%2C111&#038;ssl=1" width="513" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42986" height="136" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/social-icon-podcasts.png?resize=380%2C136&#038;ssl=1" width="380" /></figure>



<p>A bug fix now makes sure the social icons honor theme.json styles for typography. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70380">70380</a>)</p>



<div class="wp-block-kevinbatdorf-code-block-pro cbp-has-line-numbers"><span>JSON</span><span class="code-block-pro-copy-button" style="color: #575279; display: none;" tabindex="0"><pre class="code-block-pro-copy-button-pre"><textarea class="code-block-pro-copy-button-textarea" readonly="readonly" tabindex="-1">"core/social-links": {
		"typography": {
			"fontSize": "var(--wp--preset--font-size--x-large)"
		}
},</textarea></pre><svg fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" viewBox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path class="with-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2m-6 9l2 2 4-4" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path><path class="without-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path></svg></span><pre class="shiki rose-pine-dawn" style="background-color: #faf4ed;" tabindex="0"><code><span class="line"><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;core/social-links&quot;</span><span style="color: #575279;">: </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">		</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">typography</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">			</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">fontSize</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;var(--wp--preset--font-size--x-large)&quot;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">		</span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #797593;">}</span><span style="color: #575279;">,</span></span></code></pre></div>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="table-block-end-users-site-admin">Table Block   <sup>[end users][site admin]</sup></h3>



<p>The Table block received more robust handling of Markdown table parsing, specifically retaining alignment from a Markdown table. </p>



<p style="font-size: 12px;">| A &#8211; Left | B &#8211; Centered | C &#8211; Right | D &#8211; None |</p>



<p style="font-size: 12px;">| :&#8212;&#8212;- | :&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-: | &#8212;&#8212;&#8211;: | &#8212;&#8212;&#8211; |</p>



<p style="font-size: 12px;">| 100      |     150      |       200 | 250      |</p>



<p style="font-size: 12px;">| 200      |     250      |       300 | 350      |</p>



<p style="font-size: 12px;">| 300      |     350      |       400 | 450      |</p>



<p style="font-size: 12px;">| 400      |     450      |       500 | 550      |</p>



<p style="font-size: 12px;">| 500      |     550      |       600 | 650      |</p>



<p>The above Markdown example parsed into the block editor canvas is automatically converted to the Table block.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42987" height="232" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/table-block-markdown.png?resize=652%2C232&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="video-block-all">Video Block <sup>[all]</sup> </h3>



<p>The Video Block can now handle multiple language tracks with the option to set one as the default track. It’s also possible to add a poster image to the video block to improve accessibility for visitors with slow internet connections (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/71039">71039</a>) (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70939">70939</a>)(<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70227">70227</a>).</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42989" height="370" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/video-tracks-handling.png?resize=652%2C370&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42988" height="368" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/video-with-language-tracks.png?resize=652%2C368&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="theme-json-and-global-styles-developers-enterprise-site-admin">Theme.json and Global Styles <br /><sup>[developers][enterprise][site admin]</sup></h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="form-elements-in-theme-json">Form elements in theme.json</h3>



<p>WordPress theme development reaches new enrichment with theme.json support for form element styling. Developers can now target text-based controls and select/dropdown elements through the styles.elements property, defining colors, borders, and typography directly in Global Styles. </p>



<p>This eliminates custom CSS dependencies, allowing search forms, comment forms, and plugin-generated forms to automatically inherit the site&#8217;s design system. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/34198">34198</a>) (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70378">70378</a>) (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70379">70379</a>) Below snippet shows an example for the textInput element. </p>



<div class="wp-block-kevinbatdorf-code-block-pro cbp-has-line-numbers"><span>JSON</span><span class="code-block-pro-copy-button" style="color: #575279; display: none;" tabindex="0"><pre class="code-block-pro-copy-button-pre"><textarea class="code-block-pro-copy-button-textarea" readonly="readonly" tabindex="-1">"elements": {
	"textInput": {
			"border": {
				"radius": "0",
				"style": "solid",
				"width": "1px",
				"color": "red"
			},
			"color": {
				"text": "var(--wp--preset--color--theme-2)"
			},
			"typography": {
				"fontFamily": "var(--wp--preset--font-family--inter)"
			}
		}
}
</textarea></pre><svg fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" viewBox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path class="with-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2m-6 9l2 2 4-4" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path><path class="without-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path></svg></span><pre class="shiki rose-pine-dawn" style="background-color: #faf4ed;" tabindex="0"><code><span class="line"><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;elements&quot;</span><span style="color: #575279;">: </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">	</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">textInput</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">			</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">border</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">radius</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;0&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">style</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;solid&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">width</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;1px&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">color</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;red&quot;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">			</span><span style="color: #797593;">},</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">			</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">color</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">text</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;var(--wp--preset--color--theme-2)&quot;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">			</span><span style="color: #797593;">},</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">			</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">typography</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">fontFamily</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;var(--wp--preset--font-family--inter)&quot;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">			</span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">		</span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"></span></code></pre></div>



<p>An additional resource is the tutorial on the WordPress Developer blog: <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/11/how-wordpress-6-9-gives-forms-a-theme-json-makeover/">How WordPress 6.9 gives forms a theme.json makeover</a></p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="border-radius-presets-supported">Border Radius presets supported </h3>



<p>It’s now possible to define border radius presets in the `theme.json` for your theme. The user experience changes slightly with the numbers of presets: up until eight, a user can enable the border radius along a slider. For nine and more present the user uses a drop-down select menu. Users can always access custom value input through the custom button to the right of the control.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42991" height="261" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/border-radius-presets.png?resize=560%2C261&#038;ssl=1" width="560" /></figure>



<p>As an example you can add the following to the `settings` property of your `theme.json` file. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/67544">67544</a>). \</p>



<div class="wp-block-kevinbatdorf-code-block-pro cbp-has-line-numbers"><span>JSON</span><span class="code-block-pro-copy-button" style="color: #575279; display: none;" tabindex="0"><pre class="code-block-pro-copy-button-pre"><textarea class="code-block-pro-copy-button-textarea" readonly="readonly" tabindex="-1">{ 
"settings"{
	"border": {
		"radiusSizes": &#91;
				{
					"name": "Small",
					"slug": "small",
					"size": "2px"
				},
				{
					"name": "Medium",
					"slug": "medium",
					"size": "4px"
				},
				{
					"name": "Large",
					"slug": "large",
					"size": "6px"
				}
			&#93;
	}
}</textarea></pre><svg fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" viewBox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path class="with-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2m-6 9l2 2 4-4" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path><path class="without-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path></svg></span><pre class="shiki rose-pine-dawn" style="background-color: #faf4ed;" tabindex="0"><code><span class="line"><span style="color: #797593;">{</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">settings</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #B4637A;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">	</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">border</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">		</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">radiusSizes</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">&#91;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">name</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;Small&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">slug</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;small&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">size</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;2px&quot;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">},</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">name</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;Medium&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">slug</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;medium&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">size</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;4px&quot;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">},</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">name</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;Large&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">slug</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;large&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">size</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;6px&quot;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">			</span><span style="color: #797593;">&#93;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">	</span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span></code></pre></div>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The Dev note has been published: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/theme-json-border-radius-presets-support-in-wordpress-6-9/">Theme.json Border Radius Presets Support in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li>A step-by-step guide can be found on the WordPress Developer blog: <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/09/border-radius-size-presets-in-wordpress-6-9/">Border radius size presets in WordPress 6.9</a>. </li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="button-element-inherits-typography">Button element inherits typography</h3>



<p>With the release of WordPress 6.9, the button element defined in the default `theme.json` can inherit typographical styles from its parent. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70676">70676</a>) </p>



<p>The full styles for the element now look like this:</p>



<div class="wp-block-kevinbatdorf-code-block-pro cbp-has-line-numbers"><span>JSON</span><span class="code-block-pro-copy-button" style="color: #575279; display: none;" tabindex="0"><pre class="code-block-pro-copy-button-pre"><textarea class="code-block-pro-copy-button-textarea" readonly="readonly" tabindex="-1">{
	"styles": {
		"elements": {
			"button": {
				"typography": {
					"fontSize": "inherit",
					"fontFamily": "inherit",
					"fontStyle": "inherit",
					"fontWeight": "inherit",
					"letterSpacing": "inherit",
					"textTransform": "inherit",
					"lineHeight": "inherit",
					"textDecoration": "none"
				}
			}
	}
}</textarea></pre><svg fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" viewBox="0 0 24 24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path class="with-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2m-6 9l2 2 4-4" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path><path class="without-check" d="M9 5H7a2 2 0 00-2 2v12a2 2 0 002 2h10a2 2 0 002-2V7a2 2 0 00-2-2h-2M9 5a2 2 0 002 2h2a2 2 0 002-2M9 5a2 2 0 012-2h2a2 2 0 012 2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"></path></svg></span><pre class="shiki rose-pine-dawn" style="background-color: #faf4ed;" tabindex="0"><code><span class="line"><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">	</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">styles</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">		</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">elements</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">			</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">button</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">typography</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #797593;">{</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">fontSize</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;inherit&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">fontFamily</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;inherit&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">fontStyle</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;inherit&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">fontWeight</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;inherit&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">letterSpacing</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;inherit&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">textTransform</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;inherit&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">lineHeight</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;inherit&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">,</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">					</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #56949F;">textDecoration</span><span style="color: #797593;">&quot;</span><span style="color: #797593;">:</span><span style="color: #575279;"> </span><span style="color: #EA9D34;">&quot;none&quot;</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">				</span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">			</span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #575279;">	</span><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span>
<span class="line"><span style="color: #797593;">}</span></span></code></pre></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="a-closer-look-at-performance-optimizations-developers-enterprise">A closer look at performance optimizations <br /><sup>[developers][enterprise]</sup></h2>



<p>WordPress 6.9 speeds up your site through several technical improvements. Scripts load more efficiently with priority ordering and move to footers when appropriate. Stylesheets load only when needed, particularly in classic themes, while styles for hidden blocks are omitted. The inline style limit increased to 40K. A new optimization system enables previously impossible efficiency gains. Database queries, UTF-8 processing, and cron tasks all improved. The Video block also eliminates layout shifts. Overall: more efficient performance across the board.</p>



<p>Details are in this Dev Note: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/18/wordpress-6-9-frontend-performance-field-guide/">WordPress 6.9 Frontend Performance Field Guide</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="improved-accessibility-across-core-and-block-editor">Improved accessibility across Core and Block editor</h2>



<p>WordPress 6.9 delivers substantial accessibility enhancements across Core and Gutenberg, implementing 33 Core improvements and 44 Gutenberg refinements. Core updates address administration interfaces, customizer tools, login and registration workflows, media library functionality, and bundled themes. </p>



<p>Key changes include enhanced screen reader notifications, improved CSS-generated content handling, refined focus management, and superior color contrast adjustments. Gutenberg advances feature new accessible blocks, component redesigns, and data views improvements ensuring consistent editor interfaces. </p>



<p>Updates span Cover blocks, Site Title, Navigation elements, Button blocks, and Columns, alongside Component refinements addressing modal dialogs, font size pickers, and link controls. </p>



<p>Data Views enhancements prioritize checkbox visibility and text-based actions. Editor modifications involve iframe CSS classes, pattern modal behavior, and focus management within Global Styles panels. </p>



<p>These comprehensive improvements reinforce WordPress&#8217;s commitment to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines standards, enabling creators to develop inclusive content while providing developers cleaner, more accessible code foundations for theme and plugin development.</p>



<p>Details on the developer note <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/19/accessibility-improvements-in-wordpress-6-9/">Accessibility Improvements in WordPress 6.9</a></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="new-and-updated-apis-for-developers-developers-enterprise">New and updated APIs for Developers<br /><sup>[developers][enterprise]</sup></h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="abilities-api">Abilities API</h3>



<p>WordPress 6.9 features the Abilities API, a new foundational system designed to standardize how plugins, themes, and the WordPress core register and expose their capabilities. This API provides a unified, machine-readable registry of functionalities, ensuring consistent discovery, validation, and execution across various contexts, including PHP, REST API endpoints, and upcoming AI integrations.</p>



<p>More resources: </p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Dev Note:<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/10/abilities-api-in-wordpress-6-9/">Abilities API in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/ai/2025/07/17/ai-building-blocks/">AI Building Blocks for WordPress</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="block-bindings-api">Block Bindings API</h3>



<p>Updates to the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/block-api/block-bindings/">Block Bindings API</a> include enabling it for a few more core blocks. The refactor of the Date block is one of those examples. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/70585">70585</a>)</p>



<p>Another is enabling Image block’s caption data to be available for Synced Pattern Overrides. (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/72476">72476</a>).  </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-42996" height="203" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Block-bindings-list-of-supported-blocks.png?resize=652%2C203&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The list of supported block attributes by Block Bindings API.</figcaption></figure>



<p>The function `getFieldsList` was available via the Gutenberg plugin and has been merged into WordPress Core now. Also, the attributes UI in the Block editor is now more flexible and handles any attributes from plugin developers. [Details will be available on the DevNote.]<br />More details can be found in the Dev Note: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/block-bindings-improvements-in-wordpress-6-9/">Block Bindings improvements in WordPress 6.9</a></p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="dataviews-and-dataform">DataViews and DataForm</h3>



<p>WordPress 6.9 marks substantial progress for DataViews and DataForm components. There are no user-facing updates. Plugin developers can use the components for their products and on admin pages. </p>



<p>The <strong>Field API</strong> now handles array, boolean, email, media, date, datetime, telephone, password, URL, and color types with comprehensive validation support. </p>



<p><strong>DataViews</strong> gained sophisticated filtering with type-specific operators, infinite scroll capabilities, and improved table layouts featuring alignment and action column pinning. </p>



<p><strong>DataForm</strong> received new layout options including modal panels and card designs, alongside controls matching the expanded field types. </p>



<p>The new <strong>DataViewsPicker</strong> component is a selection-focused variant of DataViews designed for building item picker interfaces. It extends the familiar DataViews API with selection management and action buttons, making it ideal for workflows where users need to browse and pick items from a dataset. </p>



<p>These enhancements collectively strengthen the block editor&#8217;s data management infrastructure, enabling developers to build more capable interfaces while maintaining consistency across WordPress&#8217;s content administration.</p>



<p>Dev Note: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/11/dataviews-dataform-et-al-in-wordpress-6-9/">DataViews, DataForm, et al. in WordPress 6.9</a></p>



		<figure class="wp-block-jetpack-videopress jetpack-videopress-player">
			<div class="jetpack-videopress-player__wrapper"> </div>
			
			
		</figure>
		


<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="interactivity-api">Interactivity API</h3>



<p>Updates in WordPress 6.9 the Interactivity API with standardized directive IDs using triple-dash syntax, enabling multiple directives on single elements. The deprecated data-wp-ignore directive is removed. New TypeScript helpers AsyncAction and TypeYield improve asynchronous action typing. Client-side navigation improvements include dynamic stylesheet and script module loading, support for nested router regions, new attachTo options for overlays, and enhanced getServerState and getServerContext functions for proper state management across page transitions.</p>



<p>The Dev Notes provide more details and code examples. </p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/interactivity-apis-client-navigation-improvements-in-wordpress-6-9/">Interactivity API’s client navigation improvements in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/changes-to-the-interactivity-api-in-wordpress-6-9/">Changes to the Interactivity API in WordPress 6.9</a></li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="output-buffering-for-the-rendered-template">Output buffering for the rendered template </h3>



<p>WordPress 6.9 introduces a new way for plugin developers to handle HTML output, called the &#8220;template enhancement output buffer.&#8221; It standardizes output, meaning instead of plugins creating their own temporary storage for HTML, WordPress now provides a built-in system. If a plugin developer wants to use this feature, they just need to add a special wp_template_enhancement_output_buffer filter <em>before</em> the template is loaded. This system is designed for making small improvements or additions to a page, not for essential parts of the website&#8217;s functionality. If a website doesn&#8217;t want to use this buffer, it can disable it by filtering wp_should_output_buffer_template_for_enhancement to be false. </p>



<p>For older (classic) WordPress themes, this buffer is now enabled by default. This allows them to load block styles only when needed and move them to the &lt;head&gt; section of the HTML, which can significantly reduce the amount of CSS on a page. Even if the page has already started loading, you can still send HTTP headers (like Server-Timing) while the output is being buffered. #<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/64126">64126</a>). <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/43258">#43258</a> (<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/8412#issuecomment-3344496798">PR#8412</a>) More details are available in the Dev Note. </p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="blocks-efficiently-find-and-traverse-blocks-in-a-document">Blocks: Efficiently find and traverse blocks in a document. </h3>



<p>The Block Processor class is now available in WordPress 6.9 to efficiently scan through and manipulate block structure in a lazy and streaming manner. For certain workloads this should dramatically improve the performance of processing code, and even more importantly, prevent out-of-memory crashes in the worst cases. [<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/9105">Core#9105</a>] <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/61401">(61401)</a>. </p>



<p>It’s an more </p>



<p>Do you need to do any of the following kinds of things? Check out <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/trunk/src/wp-includes/class-wp-block-processor.php">WP_Block_Processor</a>!</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Checking if a post contains a block of a given type.</li>



<li>Counting or detecting all of the kinds of blocks present in a post.</li>



<li>Modifying a block of a given kind within a post, not touching any of the other blocks.</li>



<li>Finding the “wrapper element” surrounding the inner blocks and adding a class name to it.</li>



<li>Extract sections of a document as blocks, modify it, serialize it back, and replace the original blocks with the new HTML.</li>
</ul>



<p>Dev Note: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/?p=119384&amp;preview=1&amp;_ppp=7c4f90d12d">Introducing the streaming block parser in WordPress 6.9</a></p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="more-developer-notes-for-wordpress-6-9-release">More Developer Notes for WordPress 6.9 release</h3>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/18/modernizing-utf-8-support-in-wordpress-6-9/">Modernizing UTF-8 support in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/17/consistent-cache-keys-for-query-groups-in-wordpress-6-9/">Consistent Cache Keys for Query Groups in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/17/miscellaneous-developer-focused-changes-in-6-9/">Miscellaneous Developer-focused Changes in 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/18/more-reliable-email-in-wordpress-6-9/">More-reliable email in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/19/admin-menu-search-query-changed/">Admin menu search query changed</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/19/legacy-internet-explorer-code-removed/">Legacy Internet Explorer Code Removed</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/19/url-escaping-functions-can-support-https-as-the-default-protocol-in-wordpress-6-9/">URL-escaping functions can support HTTPS as the default protocol in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/21/updates-to-the-html-api-in-6-9/">Updates to the HTML API in 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/21/php-8-5-support-in-wordpress-6-9/">PHP 8.5 support in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/25/miscellaneous-editor-changes-in-wordpress-6-9/">Miscellaneous Editor Changes in WordPress 6.9</a></li>
</ul>



<p>There are a few dev notes in the publishing queue, including a list of accessibility updates. This post will be updated once available. </p>



<p></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 21 Nov 2025 09:42:19 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Birgit Pauli-Haack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:33;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"Open Channels FM: New Host Nathan Wrigley Brings Chaos to Open Channels FM";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:33:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=112374";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"https://openchannels.fm/new-host-nathan-wrigley-brings-chaos-to-open-channels-fm/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:176:"At WordCamp Europe, BobWP and Nathan cooked up "The Shit Show" podcast, discussing everything from penguins to soap. Tune in for quirky insights and Nathan’s endless droning.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 21 Nov 2025 09:15:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17:"Matt: In Memoriam";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:23:"https://ma.tt/?p=150624";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://ma.tt/2025/11/in-memoriam/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:779:"<p>While there is much to celebrate in WordPress sometimes we must also mourn.</p>



<p>In a <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/surat/24-year-old-dies-after-collapsing-on-stage-at-it-event/articleshow/125394242.cms">horribly tragic incident</a>, <a href="https://zeelthakkar.in/">Zeel Thakkar</a>, a <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/zeelthakkar/">WordPress contributor</a> and Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship 2025 recipient, passed away <a href="https://x.com/wcsurat/status/1990766081754226923">on stage at WordCamp Surat</a>. <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/in-loving-memory-of-zeel-thakkar/">WordCamp Asia has written a beautiful memorial to her</a>. She will be forever on our <a href="https://wordpress.org/remembers/">Remembers page</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 21 Nov 2025 07:59:59 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26:"Matt: Gemini &amp;amp; FSD";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:23:"https://ma.tt/?p=150613";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:33:"https://ma.tt/2025/11/gemini-fsd/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1644:"<p>Two interesting AI updates this week: It&#8217;s nice to read <a href="https://x.com/karpathy/status/1988705360723763242">Andrej Karpathy&#8217;s review of Tesla&#8217;s FSD v13</a>, as someone who was involved with creating their first self-driving efforts. I&#8217;ve only experienced v12, so very excited to try out the latest generations soon. Ubiquitous self-driving will reshape cities and save countless lives.</p>



<p>On the heels of announcing a <a href="https://x.com/sundarpichai/status/1989468970400055487">$40B investment in Texas</a>, Google <a href="https://x.com/sundarpichai/status/1990812770762215649">has launched Gemini 3</a>. It&#8217;s still funny how every organization ships its org chart with the naming and accessibility of the various models it releases, but, more broadly, it is so exciting to see so much intellectual capital focused on this area, with the frontier labs leapfrogging each other every few months. Every model has a feel, and with <a href="https://blog.google/products/gemini/gemini-3/">Gemini 3</a> you start to feel the breadth of Google&#8217;s long investment in the space show up in interesting ways. Yet it can still be beaten in coding by an upstart like Anthropic with a fraction of Alphabet&#8217;s resources. </p>



<p>What a time to be alive. Witnessing multiple excellent organizations ship the best work of their career rapidly is invigorating and inspiring; the competition drives better results, and the diffusion of new approaches is rapid. The consumer surplus that we all benefit from is just beginning to be felt; we&#8217;re maybe 1 or 2% impacted in the economy so far.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 20 Nov 2025 01:22:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"WPTavern: #194 – Devin Walker on Leading Jetpack: Challenges, Vision, and the Future";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=200819";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:97:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/194-devin-walker-on-leading-jetpack-challenges-vision-and-the-future";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:46775:"<details>Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p>Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, leading Jetpack, the past, the challenges, the vision, and the future.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice, or by going to wptavern.com/feed/podcast, and you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>



<p>If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea, featured on the show. Head to wptavern.com/contact/jukebox and use the form there.</p>



<p>So on the podcast today we have Devin Walker. Devin&#8217;s journey in the WordPress ecosystem spans many years, with experience in development, design, marketing, and customer support. He is best known as the co-founder of GiveWP, which he built and scaled before it was acquired. During his time there, he touched a variety of prominent WordPress brands, including iThemes, Kadence, LearnDash, and The Events Calendar.</p>



<p>Today Devon is starting a new role leading the Jetpack suite of services at Automattic. It&#8217;s a position with hefty responsibilities as Jetpack powers millions of WordPress sites, and integrates deeply across</p>



<p>I talk with Devon about why he took on this challenge. The divisiveness and complexity surrounding Jetpack, and his vision for refocusing the plugin and simplifying its user experience.</p>



<p>We start by hearing about Devon&#8217;s extensive WordPress background, and the choices he weighed up when deciding to join Automattic.</p>



<p>The conversation quickly moves to the scope of Jetpack, its evolution, the struggle to be a jack of all trades master of none, and the recent efforts to bring greater focus and polish to key features like forms and SEO</p>



<p>Devin gets into the organizational changes at Automattic. How Jetpack&#8217;s development teams now collaborate more fluidly with other product teams, such as WooCommerce, and the balancing act of shipping improvements to a 4 million strong user base without breaking things.</p>



<p>AI emerges as a massive new frontier, and Devin shares behind the scenes insights into Jetpack&#8217;s current, and future, aI capabilities, giving us a glimpse at content creation, block building, and how AI might reshape user and developer expectations in WordPress.</p>



<p>Throughout we hear about Devin&#8217;s approach to product marketing, and the need for more of it, the importance of listening to user feedback, and his plans for a more coherent and compelling Jetpack experience.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re a WordPress user wondering where Jetpack is headed, what&#8217;s working, or how AI fits into the future of site building, this episode is for you.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re interested in finding out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you can find all the other episodes as well.</p>



<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Devin Walker.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast by Devin Walker. Hello, Devin.</p>



<p>[00:03:34] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Hello.</p>



<p>[00:03:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Very nice to have you with us. Devin has a shiny new job. Up until a few weeks ago, Devin was not an Automattician, or at least I don&#8217;t think you were maybe at any point in your past. But you are now an Automattition, and you are doing what?</p>



<p>[00:03:47] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> My official title is Artistic Director of Jetpack, but basically product owner, or head of Jetpack. Whatever you want to call it.</p>



<p>[00:03:55] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So when it comes to Jetpack, the buck stops with you. I guess that&#8217;s a pretty important role in the WordPress space over at Automattic. And if anybody hasn&#8217;t heard of you, I suppose it would be important to just lay the groundwork, who you are, what you&#8217;ve done in the past.</p>



<p>I know you&#8217;ve got a long and storied history, but just maybe a one minute little short bio telling us who you are and what you&#8217;ve done.</p>



<p>[00:04:14] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Yeah, sure. I&#8217;ve been using WordPress for all sorts of things, development, design, blogging for 16 years now. Really made my name known, I guess you would say, with Matt Cromwell. We co-founded GiveWP together, and we grew it for seven years, from late 2014, all the way through 2021, which then we were acquired by Liquid Web and was there for a little more than four years, and touched a lot of brands from there, from the iThemes rebrand to SolidWP, to Kadence, to LearnDash, Events Calendar, and of course GiveWP as well.</p>



<p>And left there in early August of this year, 2025. I also built WP Rollback throughout the years, that has quite a few active installs. So yeah, that&#8217;s a bit about me. Developer, design background, definitely well-rounded with marketing and supporting customer success.</p>



<p>[00:05:05] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So you&#8217;ve had a lot of experience working with WordPress products, which I guess is what you are doing over at Automattic, because let&#8217;s just call it head of Jetpack, just to make it easy. It&#8217;s a curious title, by the way. Artistic Director is kind of a really.</p>



<p>[00:05:17] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> You know Automattic loves that title.</p>



<p>[00:05:18] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, they love that, don&#8217;t they? But head of Jetpack, and obviously you&#8217;ve got a long and storied history kind of growing products and making sure that they succeed and customer support and all of that kind of thing.</p>



<p>And I feel like Jetpack, no matter what time you dropped in on Jetpack in the last, let&#8217;s say decade, I feel that half of the community felt like it needed a lot of love.</p>



<p>And I&#8217;m just wondering when you were interviewing for this position or when this position was offered to you, I don&#8217;t know how that process went, but what the kind of broad brush strokes are in what you&#8217;re hoping to do over there?</p>



<p>We&#8217;ll get into the weeds very much, but roughly speaking, what&#8217;s the scope of the new job? What is it that you are hoping to do in the next three, six months, years, something like that?</p>



<p>[00:05:57] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Yeah, so when I left Liquid Web, I wrote a long, well, not long, but wrote a blog post about closing that chapter of my career and really being open to what&#8217;s coming next for me. I knew that I wanted to stay in WordPress and I was having fun building on just my own products at the time, and having full control of everything, the whole lifecycle of a product.</p>



<p>And I did some work with Matt in the past on some of his nonprofit sites with Give and the VIP team and the concierge at Automattic. And so Matt called me up one day, you know, we stayed loosely in contact over the years, and said, we have some interesting opportunities here at Automattic, and one of them that I think you&#8217;d be great at is Jetpack. And in my mind I&#8217;m like, Jetpack, this is a doozy.</p>



<p>But, you know, he said, give it some thought, work on your own pace and give me a call back whenever. And so I thought about it for a week and, maybe two weeks, talked to my wife about it. And really it comes down to, I was either going to start my own business again, and try to grind again and strike lightning twice, like GiveWP, and see if I could grow something and eventually sell it in five to seven years, which takes a lot of hard effort, sacrifice, money. A lot of your own money, and almost no guarantee. And the WordPress marketplace has changed so much that it&#8217;s not immediate impact right away, and you&#8217;re really out on your own.</p>



<p>It worked well once, but I was in my early thirties, just turning 30, and now I&#8217;m 40. So life&#8217;s changed quite a bit for me. And Jetpack, it is a very divisive product, we can get more into that in the future, but really it came down to having that impact. Being at Automattic, a company that I&#8217;ve respected since I came into WordPress, and always wanted to go behind the scenes and work as an Automattician, so going full circle from where my career began to the opportunity and the challenge.</p>



<p>If I succeed at this, it can really open some other doors at Automattic. I&#8217;m head of this product, which touches almost everything on Automattic as far as the WordPress business goes. I just thought about it long and hard, talked to Matt about it, and made sure I would have the levers for success also. And that&#8217;s what made me choose to say yes and come aboard.</p>



<p>[00:08:08] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It is kind of curious because if you just discount all of the stuff you just said about, you know, wanting to fight and build your own product up, I can well imagine how grinding that can be, and there&#8217;s no guarantee of success. It could be a real failure.</p>



<p>But stepping into a huge product, I&#8217;m going to put my neck out on the line a little bit here and say, I actually can&#8217;t think of a product or a plugin, let&#8217;s go with that, in the WordPress space that tries to cover as many bases. Covered by any organisation, whether that&#8217;s a third party development team or what have you, I can&#8217;t think of one named product that tries to cover as many bases.</p>



<p>And the fact that it&#8217;s divisive and I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ll get into this, but there&#8217;s lots of room for improvement, I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ll agree. You are walking into something exactly as you say, where there is a chance of great success here. If you pull this off, and you pull the right levers, and in six months time, a year&#8217;s time, two years time, the arc is going in the right direction, there&#8217;ll be measurable success. So really interesting.</p>



<p>So what was the bit, when you had that, oh, moment, what was the bit about Jetpack which made you think long and hard about it over two weeks, as opposed to immediately saying, yeah, I&#8217;ll do it? There must have bits about the project, Jetpack as a plugin, whatever it may be. What were the bits that concerned you?</p>



<p>[00:09:18] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Well, I&#8217;ve used it over the years on and off. I wouldn&#8217;t call myself a power user at all, but I come from the community, 15 years of being in the community. I&#8217;ve gone to, I don&#8217;t even know how many WordCamps and always kept tabs on it, especially when, I don&#8217;t know when it was. I think it was pre 2020, when they did like a bit of marketing push that Jetpack does donations now, accept donations with Jetpack. And it was through Jetpack forms. I didn&#8217;t know that at the time, so I installed Jetpack. I was like, where&#8217;s donations? You&#8217;ve got to find your way through this tangled web. Oh, it&#8217;s part of forms. Okay, let&#8217;s go into forms. Oh, it&#8217;s like a template now and you have to, the connect flow was terrible. The whole flow was not a great experience.</p>



<p>And the donation form itself, I was like, oh, we have a pretty serious competitor now with Give, we&#8217;ve got to like step our game up. But then I left that, I was like, okay, don&#8217;t worry about it guys, we&#8217;ll be fine now, nobody&#8217;s going to use this. That&#8217;s where that, oh, moment comes from where like, jack of all trades, master of none type of thing.</p>



<p>[00:10:15] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I think probably encapsulates it perfectly. It&#8217;s kind of jack of all trades and master of none. So I&#8217;m just going to rattle off some of the things that I know it does. I&#8217;m probably missing quite a lot here. So for example, you know, it does stats, think something like Google Analytics, it will offer that for you. Backups. It will do protection. It will do speed and optimisation things on your website. Social sharing. It will do forms. There&#8217;s VideoPress thrown in there as well. There&#8217;s a whole bunch of stuff that I&#8217;ve missed out there, but it really is encapsulating a lot.</p>



<p>And the jack of all trades, master of none, bit kind of fits because when Jetpack came out, I&#8217;m imagining it was a really, it was probably at the forefront of many of those things. The things that it did, it probably did as well as everybody else. But now, 10, 15, whatever years later, there&#8217;s now been real amazing products delivered by third party developers that have become the standard of forms, of backups, of speed and optimisation services and what have you. And so Jetpack now has to kind of compare itself to the very, very best. And I think that&#8217;s hard. You know, for one plugin to try and be the best at everything. Nigh on impossible, I would imagine.</p>



<p>[00:11:16] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> You&#8217;re right. Like, we can&#8217;t compete. I&#8217;ve been preaching focus for the last, since 2016 when our mentors said, what the heck are you doing all these other plugins? Sell them off or sunset them and only focus on Give. And that&#8217;s when our business started taking off. Now, what I&#8217;m trying to do is bring focus back into Jetpack.</p>



<p>We do some things very well, and we need to make sure that, I&#8217;m not going to say we&#8217;re going to compete on the level of a Gravity Forms for our form solution. It&#8217;s going to come very close. And for 98% of the users out there that need forms on their website, I think it&#8217;ll fulfill that need.</p>



<p>For that special 2% that need like calculation fields, they need super customised form capabilities, then it might not get to that level. But we really want Jetpack to be your go-to solution so that you can have these products work well together as well.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s very generous too, the free version. You get a free CDN, you get VideoPress for free, and bringing people in the door and showing them that. Some folks are seeing the light of that, of what it can actually do and do pretty well. But for instance, like SEO. Yeah, Jetpack does SEO, but it&#8217;s the most rudimentary, basic version. I want to make that a bit better there. But also things that it doesn&#8217;t do well. Either get rid of those, if they&#8217;re just going to sit on a shelf and grow with age, what&#8217;s the point of it?</p>



<p>So yeah, a lot of realignment with that and understanding that teams that are fully focused on one specific part of what Jetpack does, it&#8217;s really hard for us to compete with that.</p>



<p>[00:12:46] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Do you envisage a future for Jetpack now that you are at the helm, if you like ? And I don&#8217;t know how the structure of the people that are working on Jetpack works. In other words, do you have a forms dedicated crew where you&#8217;ve got, I don&#8217;t know, a bunch of people who just work on forms? You&#8217;ve got a bunch of people working on VideoPress and VaultPress and all of these different bits and pieces. Or is it, you work with Jetpack and you kind of move from team to team? I&#8217;m just curious as to what it looks like inside of Automattic and the different bits that make up Jetpack.</p>



<p>[00:13:14] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Yeah, so this is really an interesting time at Automattic, where they&#8217;re going from that functional organisation where it&#8217;s product focus. Where Jetpack did, a year ago, have a dedicated development team, designer team, and the person that was in my role before, it was just like a classic company structure in a way, within Automattic.</p>



<p>Now it&#8217;s shifting to more of a matrix organisation where there&#8217;s one architecture team. They handle .com, they handle Jetpack, they handle a bunch of other products like WooCommerce within that. And the designers as a product are outside of that.</p>



<p>And so what that means is we, as the product team, we have a shared roadmap where, if you ever use .com, a lot of what brings that special sauce to it, what makes it unique outside of the self installed WordPress is Jetpack. So for instance, forms is getting a massive upgrade. And the 15.2 that just came out, it has quite a big upgrade. 15.3, we&#8217;re going to have even more. So there&#8217;s a dedicated team right now that&#8217;s, some of the best engineers, I&#8217;ve been really blown away with the level of engineering at Automattic, are working on bringing forms up. And I&#8217;m leading that initiative, putting myself into that place where I can then shape forms in the future.</p>



<p>But that does mean that some other elements of Jetpack aren&#8217;t getting taken care of right now. AI&#8217;s going to become a big thing. We have to pick and choose based on our resources, what are the most important things for our shared initiative? But what that means is they work better together. I think you&#8217;re going to see in the future a lot more benefit of running WooCommerce and Jetpack together.</p>



<p>Now, we&#8217;re not going to force you to log into wordpress.com to use WooCommerce, but to get some of that benefit, you will need to OAuth in to using Jetpack. And that is a requirement, because a lot of the Jetpack, what you get for free and the secret sauce is based on our cloud servers. You basically are starting to use our infrastructure for free. And Automattic is huge on privacy. And so I don&#8217;t quite understand that whole conflict of folks that don&#8217;t like that. There&#8217;s just some people out there that will never really like Automattic and they will not OAuth in or double sign in to use Jetpack, you know what I mean?</p>



<p>[00:15:29] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s kind of curious. So if I&#8217;m parsing it right, it sounds like what you were saying was that in a recent restructuring of Automattic and over the last 18 months or so, I think there&#8217;s been a lot of that. It sounds like Jetpack is more of an amorphous thing. It&#8217;s not like these particular people are dedicated to Jetpack Forms and these ones are for VaultPress or whatever it may be. It&#8217;s more liquid than that. We&#8217;re going to do a dedicated sprint on Forms, for example. It sounds like that&#8217;s getting an update. So probably has had people on the seats having a look at that.</p>



<p>And then once that&#8217;s put away and tidied up, then move to something else. But also, I guess an interesting thing that you mentioned there is that because it&#8217;s in this wider organisation of which WooCommerce, it&#8217;s pretty big, that you can also communicate with those folks. So there may be some overlap between what Forms can do in Jetpack and something that you might wish to do with WooCommerce, those kind of things.</p>



<p>So have I got that right? It&#8217;s not like dedicated people doing dedicated products within Jetpack, it&#8217;s much more liquid and amorphous than that.</p>



<p>[00:16:23] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Absolutely. Rather than having silos we have one large organisation that works better together. And our vision is really that all the WordPress products should be very similar to Apple and how when you&#8217;re using iOS or MacOS, there&#8217;s a lot of similar fields and they work well together and they tag team off of each other.</p>



<p>And prior to this reorg, that wasn&#8217;t happening so much. And we experienced this at Stellar as well. They purchased a bunch of plugins, brought them all in, the vision was for them to all work well together. We went from functional organisation to this matrix type of organisation. And so this isn&#8217;t my first rodeo doing it, I know it can work. But it does take a concerted effort, and it&#8217;s still ongoing right now. It hasn&#8217;t been 18 months, it&#8217;s been like six months. And we&#8217;re still trying to figure things out. So me stepping in at this time, I&#8217;m really trying to figure it out.</p>



<p>I have a blog post called, or a P2 post called Connecting the Dots, where I&#8217;m just trying to find which experts and which products on Jetpack they know better. I&#8217;ve been having so many one-on-ones just to try to get to know these folks, understand their history with Jetpack and put it in this kind of glossary of what I have here, and keep that updated as my time progresses here.</p>



<p>[00:17:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It is kind of hard to get a grip on what Jetpack is. Because it&#8217;s trying to do all these different things, I think it is quite hard for people to understand what they&#8217;re installing. So they install Jetpack, okay, I&#8217;ve heard that Jetpack&#8217;s a thing, I&#8217;ll go and install it. There&#8217;s loads of free stuff available. And then all of a sudden there&#8217;s bits which do work, there are bits which you can extend and upgrade and, you know, you might have to log in with .com to make that bit combine with this bit.</p>



<p>And then there are bits where, you know, it feels like the classic themes work well in some areas, and then if you&#8217;ve got a block-based theme, other things don&#8217;t work quite so well. I&#8217;m thinking like social sharing and things like that. And it&#8217;s bit of a, mess is the wrong word, but it&#8217;s incredibly confusing, I think, to a novice user. And so I&#8217;m, I&#8217;m going to put words into your mouth, I&#8217;m guessing this is one of the challenges that you are going to try and tackle to take that confusion away. Because, I don&#8217;t know, it doesn&#8217;t matter how many times I log into Jetpack, there&#8217;s always a bit of a surprise. Oh, okay, it works that way. That&#8217;s curious. I wasn&#8217;t expecting it to do that. And I&#8217;ve been doing this for absolutely ages, and I&#8217;m still surprised by the way things work.</p>



<p>[00:18:33] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> You&#8217;re not alone. So one of the things that Matt&#8217;s been saying since I&#8217;ve come on board is we don&#8217;t really need to build much more new things. We need to focus and improve what&#8217;s already there, especially in Jetpack and .com. And simplifying it and making it make more sense to the end users. And Jetpack is a prime candidate for a really fresh look at how that can happen.</p>



<p>We&#8217;ve been doing exercises as the product team for a framework called Jobs to Be Done. You put yourself in the shoes of that customer and you experience it through fresh eyes, based on what they are looking to get out of it.</p>



<p>For instance, the classic, I guess, analogy is, folks don&#8217;t, they don&#8217;t want a quarter inch drill bit, they want a quarter inch hole, and that&#8217;s just the tool they use to get that quarter inch.</p>



<p>And it&#8217;s the same thing with Jetpack or any other software product, and it&#8217;s a reforming in thinking. It&#8217;s only my fifth week here, but it&#8217;s been really a refreshing way to think about how we build product, and how I can then work with the designers to then smooth out those wrinkles of which there are many.</p>



<p>[00:19:40] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s kind of interesting that you say that, because pretty much everything that Jetpack has, well, there&#8217;s one notable exception, which is of course AI, which we&#8217;ll come to in a minute. But more or less everything that&#8217;s in Jetpack has been available in some form or other for a decade or more. You know, forms is, it&#8217;s not a new thing. There&#8217;s some interesting ideas that people have come up with that maybe we&#8217;d want to integrate, but backups, it&#8217;s not a new thing.</p>



<p>So the idea of not having new, well, features is probably the wrong word, but not having a new product and just finessing what you&#8217;ve already got, I think that would be music to any subscriber to Jetpack. One of the paid plans that you got, I think they would absolutely love that. Just finesse what you&#8217;ve already got. We&#8217;ve already got this thing, we know what we&#8217;ve got, we know how it works, but finesse it, give us a few more features here and there in the bit, like for example, forms or what have you. That seems like music to my ears.</p>



<p>But I&#8217;ve said it. The cat is out the bag in this episode now, AI. AI is smuggled into Jetpack in the most, it&#8217;s kind of hidden. It&#8217;s almost entirely hidden, and yet incredibly profound. I don&#8217;t know if, dear listener, you&#8217;ve experienced Jetpack and it&#8217;s AI features, but if you switch it on and you just go, I don&#8217;t know, make a blog post or something like that, when you go to publish, it will just helpfully write your excerpt and your featured image, it will create that for you on the fly. It all happens in the background. It&#8217;s really incredible. How did that get under the radar? And is that going to be a big feature?</p>



<p>[00:21:02] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> That is going to be a huge feature. I just came back from New York with our AI engineering team led by James LaPage, who&#8217;s one of the brightest, young stars, I want to say, in WordPress. And he&#8217;s one of the reasons that I&#8217;m so excited for what AI can become with Jetpack, and where it&#8217;s going to go from here. It&#8217;s really great that you are already like what&#8217;s there? But that&#8217;s just scratching the surface from what we&#8217;re going to be doing in the near future.</p>



<p>We&#8217;ve got quite a large team working on this. This is a 50 plus engineering team. It&#8217;s a huge focus of Automattic. And Jetpack&#8217;s the way we&#8217;re going to bring a lot of what we&#8217;re bringing to .com to self-hosted users. And it&#8217;s not going to cost you really much at all and it&#8217;s gonna be done in the WordPress way.</p>



<p>Right now it tries to be your content companion, is kind of how I call it, but it&#8217;s going to do that a lot better, and it&#8217;s going to reach outside of the post editor and do a lot more helpful items for you in the WP admin. And not only in the WP admin, also provide some tools for you in the future for your visitors and how you can convert them, how you can get them to sign up on your newsletter, or you can get them to ask presales questions, or fill out forms or what have you. It&#8217;ll be very moldable and shapeable.</p>



<p>So I delightfully was at several demo presentations at this meetup where I was just blown away. Sat down with Matias, James, a lot of the key stakeholders and players here at .com on how and when we can start bringing this into Jetpack.</p>



<p>And what&#8217;s there right now is good. It&#8217;s almost going to be entirely rewritten and thrown away for what the foundation now is going to become. And so that&#8217;s one of the more exciting, more immediate, roadmap items that I&#8217;ll be really working on the next 8 to 12 months. You&#8217;ll see a huge change.</p>



<p>[00:22:54] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I feel like at the moment the AI implementation in Jetpack is about content, the content that you&#8217;re creating right at this moment. We&#8217;re creating, I don&#8217;t know, SEO fields and we&#8217;re creating excerpts and things like that and featured images and what have you. But if you haven&#8217;t had a play, again, I&#8217;ll link this in the show notes, Automattic&#8217;s Telex, which is the capability to, you write a simple prompt and it will create a block for you. I feel that something like Jetpack with something like Telex, just hidden in the sidebar of a WordPress blog post would be really kind of interesting. You know, the idea that, I need a block for this.</p>



<p>[00:23:26] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Are you reading my DMs? Because, exactly. You&#8217;ve already sort of got a crystal ball right there. And with Telex, that&#8217;s a huge opportunity for site building, for imagining anything that WordPress could be, and having it created there.</p>



<p>Right now it&#8217;s great. It creates separate plugins, you can download and install them, you can&#8217;t sync them per site. It&#8217;s kind of annoying how there&#8217;s all these plugins there. There&#8217;s not much management updating over time. Jetpack can be that bridge for you, and that&#8217;s really an exciting future where it needs to go.</p>



<p>[00:23:57] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, because at the moment, if you are an inexperienced WordPress user, if you&#8217;re not technical, let&#8217;s put it that way, then you are constrained entirely by what&#8217;s there or what the developer has built for you or the range of plugins that you&#8217;ve installed. And I feel like in the near future, you reach that point of frustration and you suddenly realise that, oh, there is no block that does that thing. Well, why don&#8217;t I just make one?</p>



<p>And you&#8217;ll write a small prompt, I don&#8217;t know, I need a real estate block, or I don&#8217;t know, I need a block because it&#8217;s coming up to Christmas. I need a block which is going to show snowflakes falling on this particular post. Please don&#8217;t do this by the way, but you get the point. I&#8217;m just going to go ahead and make it, and it&#8217;ll be this entirely disposable thing. And when I&#8217;m finished with it, I&#8217;ll probably just throw it in the trash or maybe keep it until next year.</p>



<p>But the point is, your WordPress becomes like this, how to describe it, it&#8217;s almost like the scaffolding for an infinite arrangement of possibilities. Whereas before, WordPress felt a bit like a box. If it wasn&#8217;t in the box, it couldn&#8217;t be done. But now the box got opened and there&#8217;s all this scaffolding everywhere and it can do a million more things. And as Matt Mullenweg said, you know, it&#8217;s becoming like the OS for the web or something like that.</p>



<p>And the fact that AI is binding to the abilities inside of WordPress, so with the Abilities API and things like that, it knows everything that your WordPress website can do. You know, create users, create posts, delete posts, all of these kind of things. And Jetpack seems really aligned to doing that. I don&#8217;t know how it would fit into the bigger Jetpack picture, but, yeah, interesting.</p>



<p>[00:25:27] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Yeah, well, I think AI can be the glue that binds a lot of these individual products together and really paint the picture on how they work well together, and work within your WordPress Core to make it the Jetpack that is supercharged, right? I mean the WordPress that has a Jetpack strapped to it.</p>



<p>There is a great number of, kind of mission statements and taglines over the years for Jetpack. None of which I think have been fully fulfilled. So I really want to revisit that, revise that, and you&#8217;ll see a lot of updates coming to the website soon, soon-ish. Telling and bringing people along this journey.</p>



<p>If you look at the website and a lot of the marketing right now, it&#8217;s kind of on idle. So that&#8217;s another big part of what I&#8217;m being focused on, and that will help change the perception in the community and outside of it, of what Jetpack is and what it can do for you is, pulling up the curtain, if you will, on all the cool stuff we&#8217;re doing here.</p>



<p>You could read P2s all day here and many of them are so impressive and I feel like a lot of them should be public. There&#8217;s so much good content here that is really impressive. For somebody like me who&#8217;s been in the community for 15 years, like, oh my gosh, we have the best engineers, the best designers, and it&#8217;s all in this P2. Like, let&#8217;s get some of this published.</p>



<p>[00:26:42] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, well, that&#8217;s curious. So I was reading your mind a minute ago, you&#8217;ve just read my mind, because the next little bit was going to be all about marketing. Because it doesn&#8217;t matter, with the best will in the world, the best product in the world will probably fail, if not marketed correctly.</p>



<p>And it feels as if, when Jetpack began, because it was kind of the thing, a long, long time ago it was the thing, it had that success kind of built into it. You know, it was an Automattic thing, it was a WordPress thing, it became popular because it did so many things that nothing else could do.</p>



<p>Fast forward till today, it feels like the wheels have come off the marketing a little bit, or the train has completely pulled into the station and not moving at all. You know, I can&#8217;t remember the last time I saw something engaging, like a YouTube video or somebody experimenting on their YouTube channel with a Jetpack thing.</p>



<p>Whereas with third party plugins, it&#8217;s happening all the time, you know? And so it feels like that&#8217;s going to be a very big part of where you are, you know, you&#8217;ll build hopefully some amazing things, but then trying to turn the tide and get people to be engaged and interested and see the utility of it. I&#8217;m guessing that&#8217;s going to be a part of the job which is separate to the technological part.</p>



<p>[00:27:46] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> It will, absolutely. I think for quite some time it was almost build it and they will come here. And for many, many years they did come. And now it&#8217;s harder because the marketplace has expanded quite a bit. There&#8217;s a lot of other folks out there doing really cool things with WordPress and have a lot more focused marketing efforts behind them.</p>



<p>I mean, point and case was GiveWP, we were just, people weren&#8217;t turning to Woo or Gravity Forms because we made it that it was the number one solution you had to go do it. We just hammered that point through WordCamps, through videos, through podcasts, whatever it was, that was our mission.</p>



<p>And for Jetpack, we really need to refocus on that and do that a lot more. It&#8217;s very engineering led organisation. I think marketing to some point is built into their roles and they&#8217;re not doing that part as much as I would like.</p>



<p>And on another aspect, I think we definitely just need more marketers. I&#8217;m not going to say the exact numbers, but it was a surprisingly low number of marketers to the size of the organisation when I came in. I&#8217;m used to a much better ratio.</p>



<p>So I&#8217;m going to be hammering that point a little bit more home as I get through the door, but it&#8217;s something that I&#8217;ve mentioned a bit already in my 5 weeks here.</p>



<p>[00:29:02] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I don&#8217;t know what the install base is specifically. It&#8217;s a lot, right? Jetpack has a lot of installs and so presumably you&#8217;ve.</p>



<p>[00:29:08] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> The core is 4 million.</p>



<p>[00:29:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> 4 million. Okay, so, wow, gosh. So presumably that means anything that you do do, you&#8217;ve really got to tread carefully. So for a start, you can&#8217;t break things. You can&#8217;t just ship a brand new UI in let&#8217;s say the forms aspect of it overnight. And I presume that&#8217;s kind of like a bit of a noose around your neck in that, you know, you want to move fast and break things in some respects, but with 4 million installs, which is really right at the very top in the WordPress ecosystem, that&#8217;s big, big numbers. You are going to constrained in what you can do and how fast you can move things and how quickly you can break things.</p>



<p>[00:29:40] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Somewhat. Somewhat I agree with that. Right now we are on a monthly release cycle and there&#8217;s definitely a lot of caution around that. And Jetpack touches a lot of .com too, so there&#8217;s that extra added user base, which is humongous. So there is that bit of treading carefully.</p>



<p>But I want to balance that with being aggressive. We just shipped, prior to me coming on board, a new onboarding for getting connected. It&#8217;s just through the connection segment, getting connected to .com, and that really had positive results and saw an uptick in connected successful sites. I think we can take that to the next level and explain what Jetpack is, what they need it for, and really optimise it for the best use case based on what that particular site wants or needs.</p>



<p>Going beyond onboarding is then getting into the product UI itself, making the navigation much more clear and understandable.</p>



<p>You know, there&#8217;s three different areas in Jetpack right now where you can toggle on and off different modules or products.</p>



<p>[00:30:39] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Oh, I&#8217;ve discovered many them.</p>



<p>[00:30:41] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Yeah. So I think we need to consolidate that at least. And there&#8217;s more Easter eggs. I don&#8217;t even want to call them Easter, I don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;d call that, but interesting quirks that we can clean up.</p>



<p>And for the most part I think we do have to be a bit careful because it&#8217;s such a massive user base. Breaking things, just look at some of the Jetpack reviews. Breaking them and lack of support. Those are the two main cause of one star reviews. And with that many, I really want to get that review base above 4.0 stars. But with 3000 or whatever reviews it is, it takes a long shift to get that. And we&#8217;re not going to do that by continually breaking things, so it&#8217;s a balance.</p>



<p>[00:31:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It&#8217;s kind of interesting that me, a relatively inexperienced user of Jetpack, I was able to discover many of the quirks that you&#8217;ve just mentioned almost immediately. You know, just being curious. And I&#8217;m the kind of person that when I download anything, I go and look at every single menu item and kind of think, well, what does that do? How would that work? It really didn&#8217;t take me long to discover, well, hang on, that is somewhere else. If I engage that, does that mean it conflicts with this thing over here?</p>



<p>And I saw this over and over again. And so I think that, as you imagine, would be some of the very, very brilliant low hanging fruit. To just have a UI which does, you know, there&#8217;s one place for one thing, it works as expected that you don&#8217;t, I&#8217;m sure you know where I&#8217;m going with this, basically, just simplify things, make it elegant in the same way that we&#8217;ve seen with so many third party plugins.</p>



<p>Because at the moment it kind of feels like a whole range of different things that have been slammed together and forcefully told to get along with each other, as opposed to like a happy family that, just everything works and everybody&#8217;s happy and there&#8217;s bliss and rainbows everywhere. It feels a little bit like that, if you know what I mean?</p>



<p>[00:32:21] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Oh, I completely agree. I think we used in the pre-show and it&#8217;s a bit of a Frankenstein. We need to change it from that. If I had a nickel for every toggle in Jetpack, I don&#8217;t know if I&#8217;d need to work anymore. There are quite a few toggle on, toggle offs in just a row. You can imagine how this interface could be much more elegantly put together.</p>



<p>And we&#8217;re going to use user feedback for a lot of this and ask, hey, what do you guys think of this? Because we can&#8217;t do it successfully in a bubble.</p>



<p>[00:32:52] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well, and the other thing is, given the perfect UI, it does so much stuff. If you just had Jetpack, if you had a vanilla version of WordPress and you installed Jetpack and everything was easy to navigate and worked as expected first time and maybe there was no dependency on having a .com account or what have you. It does all the things. It would take you from like zero success to broadly speaking, okay, you&#8217;ve got a credible website. Maybe there&#8217;s going to be some interesting cases where you want a little bit more SEO finesse or something like that.</p>



<p>It would get you to the races, you know, it would get you to put your horse in the race and have a good go. And there&#8217;s not much like that out there. There really is nothing that I can think of in the WordPress space. But it&#8217;s a leviathan and it&#8217;s got many heads. We need it just to have the one head, I think.</p>



<p>[00:33:35] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Very much so, and that&#8217;s the challenge that I&#8217;m in here to work with this entire team and put a lot of thought behind it.</p>



<p>[00:33:44] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, so it&#8217;s all on you. So if Jetpack is a success in two years time, we know who to thank for that. And it does genuinely seem, for somebody with your obvious interest and capabilities, it does seem really, really enjoyable. I&#8217;m sure it&#8217;ll keep you awake, but an enjoyable challenge. Something that you get your teeth into. Something where the success can be measured fairly quickly. You know, does the discontent diminish? Does the UI improve? Tick, tick, tick. We did a good job.</p>



<p>And also, there&#8217;s loads of room for improvement. So you&#8217;ve entered on a, you&#8217;ve definitely got yourself into a position where you&#8217;ve taken on a project where the improvements are evident everywhere. I hope that you managed to grab hold of them and wrestle this to the ground.</p>



<p>[00:34:21] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Well, I really appreciate that, Nathan, and why don&#8217;t we have a check in in 12 months and see where we&#8217;re at on this journey. I think that would be a good way to keep us honest, follow along in this journey along the way, we&#8217;ll see how far we&#8217;ve gotten.</p>



<p>[00:34:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, well, for now then, go and install Jetpack. If you&#8217;re listening to this, we&#8217;ll be back in 12 months time, so go and have a play with Jetpack as it is now and see.</p>



<p>It sounds to me that Devin is like all ears. If you&#8217;ve got some quirks and you found something that&#8217;s curious or unexpected or dissatisfying or just downright annoying, where do we get in touch with you? Oh, also, I suspect Devin&#8217;s more than happy to receive positive commentary as well.</p>



<p>[00:35:01] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Yeah, I mean the positive stuff&#8217;s great too. Right now feedback@jetpack.com is a good place, but we&#8217;re going to make this a lot more public in the near future. You can also just tweet at me @innerwebs, I-N-N-E-R-W-E-B-S, or go to my website devin.org. But jetpack.com, jetpack.com/feedback is also a great place. So that&#8217;s a bit about me and where you can find the Jetpack information.</p>



<p>[00:35:27] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, thank you. So definitely a challenge out in the public for Devin to get his teeth into WordPress&#8217; Jetpack, and see if he can figure it out and make it better. Let&#8217;s check back in 12 months time and see how we&#8217;re going. Devin Walker, thanks for chatting to me today.</p>



<p>[00:35:38] <strong>Devin Walker:</strong> Thank you.</p>
</div></details>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://devin.org">Devin Walker</a>.</p>



<p>Devin’s journey in the WordPress ecosystem spans many years, with experience in development, design, marketing, and customer support. He’s best known as the co-founder of GiveWP, which he built and scaled before it was acquired. During his time there, he touched a variety of prominent WordPress brands including iThemes, Kadence, LearnDash, and The Events Calendar.</p>



<p>Today, Devin is starting a new role leading the Jetpack suite of services at Automattic. It’s a position with hefty responsibilities as Jetpack powers millions of WordPress sites, and integrates deeply across Automattic’s product portfolio.</p>



<p>I talk with Devin about why he took on this challenge, the divisiveness and complexity surrounding Jetpack, and his vision for refocusing the plugin and simplifying its user experience.</p>



<p>We start by hearing about Devin’s extensive WordPress background and the choices he weighed up when deciding to join Automattic. The conversation quickly moves to the scope of Jetpack, its evolution, the struggle to be a “jack of all trades, master of none”, and the recent efforts to bring greater focus and polish to key features like forms and SEO.</p>



<p>Devin gets into the organisational changes at Automattic, how Jetpack’s development teams now collaborate more fluidly with other product teams (such as WooCommerce), and the balancing act of shipping improvements to a 4 million strong user base without breaking things.</p>



<p>AI emerges as a massive new frontier, and Devin shares behind-the-scenes insights into Jetpack’s current and future AI capabilities, giving us a glimpse at content creation, block-building, and how AI might reshape user and developer expectations in WordPress.</p>



<p>Throughout, we hear about Devin’s approach to product marketing (and the need for more of it), the importance of listening to user feedback, and his plans for a more coherent and compelling Jetpack experience.</p>



<p>If you’re a WordPress user wondering where Jetpack is headed, what’s working, or how AI fits into the future of site building, this episode is for you.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Useful links</h2>



<p><a href="https://jetpack.com">Jetpack</a></p>



<p><a href="https://jetpack.com/submit-feedback/">Jetpack feedback form</a></p>



<p><a href="https://givewp.com">GiveWP</a></p>



<p><a href="https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-rollback/"> WP Rollback</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2025/05/announcing-the-formation-of-the-wordpress-ai-team/">Automattic AI team announcement post</a></p>



<p><a href="https://telex.automattic.ai">Telex</a></p>



<p><a href="https://devin.org">Devin&#8217;s website</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 19 Nov 2025 15:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:27:"Open Channels FM: Open Tabs";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:33:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=112264";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"https://openchannels.fm/the-everyday-chaos-of-open-tabs-and-browser-battles/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:180:"Bob and Nathan explore the chaos of browser tabs. One hoards thousands, while the other balances life with two. Tune in for witty banter, tech quirks, and questionable life advice.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 19 Nov 2025 11:52:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:226:"HeroPress: From carpentry to digital marketing, this is the story of how WordPress helped me rebuild my life. – De la carpintería al marketing digital, esta es la historia de cómo WordPress me ayudó a reconstruir mi vida.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=8280";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:266:"https://heropress.com/essays/from-carpentry-to-digital-marketing-this-is-the-story-of-how-wordpress-helped-me-rebuild-my-life/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=from-carpentry-to-digital-marketing-this-is-the-story-of-how-wordpress-helped-me-rebuild-my-life";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13418:"<img alt="Pull quote: I have a new job, new friends, and I could almost say a new family, and it’s all thanks to WordPress." class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/111825.webp" width="1024" /><p><a href="https://heropress.com/feed/#espanol">Este ensayo también está disponible en español.</a></p>








<section class="wp-block-newsletterglue-group" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
<figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls="controls" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/HeroPress_English_Version_JosepMoran.mp3"></audio><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Here is Josep reading his own story aloud.</figcaption></figure>
</section>




<h2 class="kt-adv-heading8280_0f0037-3f wp-block-kadence-advancedheading"><strong>My origins</strong></h2>



<p>I’m Josep, born and raised in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocafonda">Rocafonda</a>, a working-class and humble neighborhood in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matar%C3%B3">Mataró</a>.</p>



<p>I come from a family that has worked with wood lovingly for three generations. Carpentry was always our trade, our way of understanding life and making a living.</p>



<p>For many years, I worked with wood, shaping it with the same hands and patience I learned at home.</p>



<p>At the same time, my curiosity led me down other paths: interior design and technical drawing as a draftsman, where I discovered the joy of imagining spaces before building them.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-turning-point"><strong>The turning point</strong></h2>



<p>Everything changed during the COVID-19 pandemic when my heart decided to stop beating properly. A genetically inherited heart condition forced me to stop completely and look at life from a new perspective.</p>



<p>Suddenly, everything I took for granted; health, routines, the simple act of making plans disappeared, just as my life almost did.</p>



<p>But it didn’t.</p>



<p>I pulled through. With after-effects, yes, but with an incredible desire to live.<br />Out of that will to live came the decision to reinvent myself and study while recovering.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-life-new-goals"><strong>New life, new goals</strong></h2>



<p>There were twenty-six months of rehabilitation, relapses, and searching for an effective treatment.<br /><br />Yet, amid all that chaos, I managed to step back and turn my skills into a new opportunity.<br /><br />I studied Content Marketing and discovered a well-known secret for many, but something completely new for a carpenter from a neighborhood in Mataró.</p>



<p>WordPress.<br /><br />And with it, its community.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-metamorphosis"><strong>Metamorphosis</strong></h2>



<p>And then… everything changed.</p>



<p>I discovered WordPress through my marketing studies, and thanks to our beloved CMS, I created my first blog. I keep the logo and some of my early posts, remnants of a time when I was learning to tell stories and give shape to ideas.</p>



<p>In May 2023, I volunteered for my first WordCamp in Barcelona. The experience opened my eyes to a new universe full of generous, passionate people eager to share.</p>



<p>I quickly connected with the community and joined the Mentorship Program, a global initiative from the Community Team. I was one of the first eleven mentees in the world. For me, it was a dream come true.</p>



<p>Shortly afterward, I began combining my increasingly active contributions with the same program, but this time as a mentor. I had received so much from the community that my gratitude pushed me to give back that knowledge and share those values with anyone willing to listen.</p>



<p>I continued collaborating as a volunteer, speaker, and documentation table participant at <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2024/">WordCamp Europe Torino</a> 2024. It was a step forward in every sense from learning to teaching, from receiving to contributing.</p>



<p>I began managing the Spain Handbook documentation alongside my mentors <strong><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/javiercasares/">Javier Casares</a></strong> and <strong><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/glycymeris/">Jesús Yesares</a></strong>. Together, we laid the foundations for a project that, like everything in WordPress, is built with patience and community.</p>



<p>I also joined the global documentation team for WordPress version 6.6, “Dorsey.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rising-from-my-ashes"><strong>Rising from my ashes</strong></h2>



<p>Thanks to WordPress and its community, I grew as a person and as a professional in a new discipline as competitive as it is exciting and alive.</p>



<p>They supported me through the hardest moments and helped me rise again, like a phoenix from the ashes.</p>



<p>At the end of 2023, through the <strong><a href="https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/">Five for the Future</a></strong> initiative, <strong><a href="https://wetopi.com/">Wetopi</a></strong>, a high-performance managed hosting company that exclusively hosts WordPress sites, placed its trust in a newcomer to the industry and offered me a full-time position where I could unleash all the creativity I had inside.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-present-and-future"><strong>Present and future</strong></h2>



<p>If there’s one thing I learned during my illness, it’s to enjoy the moment and not worry so much about the future.</p>



<p>That’s my focus now, the present, always grateful to all those who helped me become who I am today, in 2025.</p>



<p>I have a new job, new friends, and I could almost say a new family, and it’s all thanks to WordPress.</p>



<p>Many people tell me that if I weren’t so resilient, persistent, and determined, I wouldn’t have achieved any of this.</p>



<p>I simply smile and think that all those qualities were brought to light one day by <strong><a href="https://heropress.com/contributors/hari-shanker/">Hari Shanker</a></strong>, during the <strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/contributor-day/contributor-working-group/contributor-mentorship-program-for-wordpress/">Mentorship Program</a></strong>, together with WordPress and its community.</p>



<p><strong>Thank you to all of them.</strong></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />



<h1 class="kt-adv-heading8280_df5daf-9a wp-block-kadence-advancedheading" id="espanol">De la carpintería al marketing digital, esta es la historia de cómo WordPress me ayudó a reconstruir mi vida.</h1>




<section class="wp-block-newsletterglue-group" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">
<figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls="controls" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/HeroPress_Spanish_Version_JosepMoran.mp3"></audio><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Escucha a Josep leer su propia historia en voz alta.</figcaption></figure>
</section>


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mis-origenes"><strong>Mis orígenes</strong></h2>



<p>Soy Josep, nacido y criado en <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocafonda">Rocafonda</a>, un barrio trabajador y humilde de <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matar%C3%B3">Mataró</a>.</p>



<p>Vengo de una familia que ha trabajado la madera con mimo durante tres generaciones. La carpintería siempre fue nuestro oficio, nuestra forma de entender la vida y de ganárnosla.</p>



<p>Durante muchos años trabajé la madera, moldeándola con las manos y la paciencia que aprendí en casa.</p>



<p>Al mismo tiempo, mi curiosidad me llevó por otros caminos: el diseño de interiores y el dibujo técnico como delineante, donde descubrí el placer de imaginar espacios antes de construirlos.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-el-punto-de-inflexion"><strong>El punto de inflexión</strong></h2>



<p>Todo cambió en plena pandemia de la COVID-19, cuando mi corazón decidió detener el ritmo.<br />Una enfermedad cardíaca de origen genético me obligó a parar por completo y mirar la vida desde otro lugar.</p>



<p>De repente, aquello que daba por sentado —la salud, las rutinas, el simple hecho de poder hacer planes— se desvaneció, como casi se desvanece mi vida.</p>



<p>Pero no.</p>



<p>Salí adelante. Con secuelas, sí, pero con unas ganas de vivir increíbles.<br />Y fruto de esas ganas decidí reinventarme y estudiar mientras me recuperaba.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nueva-vida-nuevas-metas"><strong>Nueva vida, nuevas metas</strong></h2>



<p>Fueron veintiséis meses entre rehabilitación, recaídas y la búsqueda de un tratamiento eficaz.<br />Pero, entremedio de todo ese caos, supe abstraerme y convertir mis habilidades en una nueva oportunidad.<br />Estudié Marketing de Contenidos y descubrí un secreto a voces para muchos, pero completamente nuevo para un carpintero de un barrio de Mataró.</p>



<p>WordPress.<br />Y con él, su comunidad.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-metamorfosis"><strong>Metamorfosis</strong></h2>



<p>Y entonces… todo cambió.</p>



<p>Conocí WordPress gracias a mis estudios de marketing y, gracias a nuestro querido CMS, pude crear mi primer blog.<br />Aún conservo el logo y algunos de mis primeros textos, vestigios de una etapa en la que aprendía a contar historias y a dar forma a ideas.</p>



<p>En mayo de 2023 me ofrecí como voluntario en mi primera WordCamp, en Barcelona. La experiencia me abrió los ojos a un universo nuevo, lleno de personas generosas, apasionadas y con ganas de compartir.</p>



<p>Rápidamente conecté con la comunidad y accedí al Mentorship Program, un proyecto global del equipo de Comunidad.<br />Fui uno de los primeros once mentees del mundo. Para mí, era un sueño.</p>



<p>Poco después, pasé a compaginar mis contribuciones, cada vez más activas, con el mismo programa, pero esta vez como mentor.<br />Había recibido mucho de la comunidad, y mi gratitud me empujó a devolver ese conocimiento y a compartir esos valores con todo aquel que quisiera escucharme.</p>



<p>Seguí colaborando como voluntario, ponente y participante en la mesa de documentación en la <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2024/">WordCamp Europe Torino</a> 2024.<br />Fue un salto de calidad, y también un salto personal: de aprender a enseñar, de recibir a aportar.</p>



<p>Comencé a gestionar la documentación del Spain Handbook junto a mis mentores <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/javiercasares/">Javier Casares</a> y <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/glycymeris/">Jesús Yesares</a>.<br />Juntos pusimos las bases de un proyecto que, como todo en WordPress, se construye con paciencia y en comunidad.</p>



<p>También formé parte del equipo de documentación global para la versión 6.6 de WordPress, “Dorsey”.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-renacer-de-mis-cenizas"><strong>Renacer de mis cenizas</strong></h2>



<p>Gracias a WordPress y a su comunidad crecí como persona y como profesional en una nueva disciplina: tan competitiva como apasionante y viva.</p>



<p>Me sostuvieron durante mis malos momentos e hicieron que resurgiese como si de un ave fénix se tratase.</p>



<p>A finales de 2023, gracias al proyecto <a href="https://wordpress.org/five-for-the-future/">Five For The Future</a>, <a href="https://wetopi.com/">Wetopi</a> —una empresa de hosting gestionado de altas prestaciones que aloja únicamente sitios web creados con WordPress— confió en un recién llegado al sector y me ofreció un proyecto a tiempo completo donde podía dar rienda suelta a toda la creatividad que llevaba dentro.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-presente-y-futuro"><strong>Presente y futuro</strong></h2>



<p>Si algo aprendí en mi época de enfermedad es a disfrutar más el momento y no pensar tanto en el futuro.</p>



<p>Y en eso me centro: en el presente, agradeciendo siempre a todas aquellas personas que me ayudaron a ser quien soy hoy, en 2025.</p>



<p>Tengo un nuevo empleo, nuevos amigos, casi puedo decir que una nueva familia, y es todo, todo, gracias a WordPress.</p>



<p>Mucha gente me dice que, si yo no fuese tan resiliente, resistente y tenaz, no habría conseguido nada.</p>



<p>Yo simplemente les sonrío y pienso que todas esas cualidades las hizo aflorar un día <a href="https://heropress.com/contributors/hari-shanker/">Hari Shanker</a>, en el <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/contributor-day/contributor-working-group/contributor-mentorship-program-for-wordpress/">Mentorship Program</a>, junto con WordPress y toda su comunidad.<br /><br /><strong>A todos ellos gracias.</strong></p>
<p>The post <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/from-carpentry-to-digital-marketing-this-is-the-story-of-how-wordpress-helped-me-rebuild-my-life/">From carpentry to digital marketing, this is the story of how WordPress helped me rebuild my life. &#8211; De la carpintería al marketing digital, esta es la historia de cómo WordPress me ayudó a reconstruir mi vida.</a> appeared first on <a href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 19 Nov 2025 09:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Josep Morán";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:39;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 6.9 Release Candidate 2";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=19350";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/11/wordpress-6-9-release-candidate-2/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10460:"<p>The second Release Candidate (“RC2”) for WordPress 6.9 is ready for download and testing!</p>



<p><strong>This version of the WordPress software is under development</strong>.<strong> Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites.</strong> Instead, it’s recommended that you evaluate RC2 on a test server and site.</p>



<p>Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.9 is the best it can be.</p>



<p>You can test WordPress 6.9 RC2 in four ways:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table class="has-fixed-layout"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Plugin</strong></td><td>Install and activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Direct Download</strong></td><td>Download the <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.9-RC2.zip">RC2 version (zip)</a> and install it on a WordPress website.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Command Line</strong></td><td>Use the following <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/cli/">WP-CLI</a> command:<br /><code>wp core update --version=6.9-RC2</code></td></tr><tr><td><strong>WordPress Playground</strong></td><td>Use the <a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/?php=8.0&amp;wp=beta&amp;networking=no&amp;language=&amp;multisite=no&amp;random=y4q1rn85xn">6.9 RC2 WordPress Playground instance</a> to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup.</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<p>The scheduled final release date for WordPress 6.9 is <strong>December 2, 2025</strong>. The full <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-9/">release schedule can be found here</a>. Your help testing RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible.</p>



<p>Please continue checking the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">Make WordPress Core blog</a> for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/6-9/">6.9-related posts</a> in the coming weeks for more information.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What’s in WordPress 6.9 RC2?</h2>



<p>Get a recap of WordPress 6.9’s highlighted features in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/10/21/wordpress-6-9-beta-1/">Beta 1 announcement</a>. For more technical information related to issues addressed since RC1, you can browse the following links:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/commits/wp/6.9?since=2025-11-11&amp;until=2025-11-18">GitHub commits for 6.9</a> since November 11</li>



<li><a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&amp;changetime=11%2F11%2F2025..11%2F18%2F2025&amp;milestone=6.9&amp;group=component&amp;col=id&amp;col=summary&amp;col=milestone&amp;col=changetime&amp;col=type&amp;order=id">Closed Trac tickets</a> since November 11</li>
</ul>



<p>Want to look deeper into the details and technical notes for this release? These recent posts cover some of the latest updates:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/15/notes-feature-in-wordpress-6-9/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Notes Feature in 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/10/abilities-api-in-wordpress-6-9/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Abilities API in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/18/wordpress-6-9-frontend-performance-field-guide/">WordPress 6.9 Frontend Performance Field Guide</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/interactivity-apis-client-navigation-improvements-in-wordpress-6-9/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Interactivity API’s client navigation improvements in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/block-bindings-improvements-in-wordpress-6-9/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Block Bindings improvements in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/changes-to-the-interactivity-api-in-wordpress-6-9/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Changes to the Interactivity API in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/17/consistent-cache-keys-for-query-groups-in-wordpress-6-9/">Consistent Cache Keys for Query Groups in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/11/dataviews-dataform-et-al-in-wordpress-6-9/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">DataViews, DataForm, et al. in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/preparing-the-post-editor-for-full-iframe-integration/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Preparing the Post Editor for Full iframe Integration</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/theme-json-border-radius-presets-support-in-wordpress-6-9/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Theme.json Border Radius Presets Support in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/heading-block-css-specificity-fix-in-wordpress-6-9/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Heading Block CSS Specificity Fix in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/17/miscellaneous-developer-focused-changes-in-6-9/">Miscellaneous Developer-focused Changes in 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/18/modernizing-utf-8-support-in-wordpress-6-9/">Modernizing UTF-8 support in WordPress 6.9</a></li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How you can contribute</h2>



<p>WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Get involved in testing</h2>



<p>Testing for issues is crucial to the development of any software. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. </p>



<p>Your help testing the WordPress 6.9 RC2 version is key to ensuring that the final release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2025/10/21/help-test-wordpress-6-9/">detailed guide</a> will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.9. For those new to testing, follow <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/handbook/get-setup-for-testing/">this general testing guide</a> for more details on getting set up.</p>



<p>If you encounter an issue, please report it to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta area</a> of the support forums or directly to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">WordPress Trac</a> if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report.  You can also check your issue against a list of <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">known bugs</a>. </p>



<p>Curious about testing releases in general?  Follow along with the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/">testing initiatives in Make Core</a> and join the<a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/messages/core-test/">#core-test channel</a> on <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/">Making WordPress Slack</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Update your theme or plugin</h2>



<p>For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.</p>



<p>Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.9 beta releases. If you haven’t yet, make sure to conclude your testing and update the <em>“Tested up to”</em> version in your <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/how-your-readme-txt-works/">plugin’s readme file</a> to 6.9.</p>



<p>If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">support forum</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Test on your hosting platforms</h2>



<p>Web hosts provide vital infrastructure for supporting WordPress and its users. Testing on hosting systems helps inform the development process while ensuring that WordPress and hosting platforms are fully compatible, free of errors, optimized for the best possible user experience, and that updates roll out to customer sites without issue.</p>



<p>Want to test WordPress on your hosting system? <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/test-results-getting-started/">Get started with configuring distributed hosting tests here</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Help translate WordPress</h2>



<p>Do you speak a language other than English? ¿Español? Français? Русский? 日本語? हिन्दी? বাংলা? मराठी? ಕನ್ನಡ?  You can<a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev/"> help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages</a>. This release milestone (RC2) also marks the<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#hard-freeze"> hard string freeze</a> point of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/11/wordpress-6-9-release-candidate-phase/">6.9 release cycle</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">An RC2 haiku</h2>



<p>A calm hillside sighs,<br />Work of many now complete —<br />RC2 stays true.</p>



<p class="has-text-align-right"><em>Props to <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/amykamala/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>amykamala</a>, <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>annezazu</a>, <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>davidbaumwald</a>, <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/westonruter/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>westonruter</a> and <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/joedolson/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>joedolson</a> for proofreading and review.</em></p>



<p></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 18 Nov 2025 15:26:53 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Akshaya Rane";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:40;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"Weston Ruter: WordPress 6.9 Performance Landings";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:33:"https://weston.ruter.net/?p=38085";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://weston.ruter.net/2025/11/17/wordpress-6-9-performance-landings/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7991:"<p>WordPress 6.9 includes so many performance improvements! Scripts with <code>fetchpriority</code>, increased inline CSS, minified theme styles, on demand block styles in classic themes, the template enhancement output buffer, and much more! Check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/18/wordpress-6-9-frontend-performance-field-guide/">field guide</a> I just published:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-make-wordpress-core wp-block-embed-make-wordpress-core"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/18/wordpress-6-9-frontend-performance-field-guide/">WordPress 6.9 Frontend Performance Field Guide</a></blockquote>
</div></figure>



<p>There were many contributors from the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/performance/handbook/about-the-team/">Core Performance Team</a> involved in making this possible. Personally, this is a culmination of a year of work, including a bunch of research and development I <a href="https://weston.ruter.net/2025/08/27/the-site-speed-frontier-with-performance-lab-and-beyond/">wrote about previously</a> and spoke about at WordCamp US:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-weston-ruter wp-block-embed-weston-ruter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://weston.ruter.net/2025/08/27/the-site-speed-frontier-with-performance-lab-and-beyond/">The Site Speed Frontier with Performance Lab and Beyond</a></blockquote>
</div></figure>



<p>I&#8217;ve been working nights and weekends (and days) to help make sure all of this lands in time for the December 2nd release. This is evident from looking at the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2025/11/15/a-month-in-core-october-2025/">“A Month in Core” post for October</a>! It has been fun—feeling like the <a href="https://weston.ruter.net/2025/05/14/a-decade-as-a-core-committer-my-wordpress-contribution-history/">good ol&#8217; contribution days</a> when I was deep in the Customizer up through <a href="https://weston.ruter.net/2017/11/03/wordpress-4-9/">WordPress 4.9</a> (2013–2017). But I&#8217;m really looking forward to being able to unwind for the holidays.</p>



<p><em>I hope your sites get a great speed boost for Christmas!</em> <img alt="🎄" class="wp-smiley" src="https://weston.ruter.net/wp-content/plugins/local-twemoji/images/emoji/72x72/1f384.png?ver=17-0-2-2" style="height: 1em;" /></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" />



<p class="has-medium-font-size">Where I&#8217;ve shared the field guide:</p>



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<p>The post <a href="https://weston.ruter.net/2025/11/17/wordpress-6-9-performance-landings/">WordPress 6.9 Performance Landings</a> appeared first on <a href="https://weston.ruter.net">Weston Ruter</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 18 Nov 2025 06:07:21 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Weston Ruter";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26:"Matt: Rothko Chapel Garden";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:23:"https://ma.tt/?p=150583";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://ma.tt/2025/11/garden/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4806:"<p>It&#8217;s been hard for me to write about Friday because it was so overwhelming, to see so many friends and loved ones and teachers and mentors there, including friends of my late Father&#8217;s I hadn&#8217;t seen in years, and to be with all of the people who have been driving <a href="https://www.rothkochapel.org/learn/vision-mission/">the mission of the Rothko Chapel</a> over decades, and gosh. There were literally monarchs and dragonflies (my Mom&#8217;s favorite) flitting about as each person spoke. Although the Houston heat beat down upon us on an unseasonably warm November day, you couldn&#8217;t have imagined a more perfect scene.</p>



<p>Speaking before me were Troy Porter (Board Chair), Abdullah Antepli (the new director), Christopher Rothko, Abbie Kamin (City Council member), Adam Yarinsky (architect), Lanie McKinnon (landscape architect), and my sister, <a href="https://charleen.mullenweg.com/">Charleen</a>. Here is what I offered to the proceeding:</p>



<p>I can&#8217;t believe we&#8217;re all here; it&#8217;s been so long coming to this point. </p>



<p>So I should start by saying that part of the reason I started blogging and WordPress is I have a terrible memory, I forget everything.</p>



<p>But as I remember it, my conscious relationship to the chapel begins in my teenage years, when exploring the city with some friends from the <a href="https://khspva.houstonisd.org/">High School for the Performing and Visual Arts</a>, some of whom are here today. We were always bumming around the area. HSPVA at the time was in Montrose, and we bummed around the <a href="https://www.stthomas.edu/">Saint Thomas campus</a> and the related parks and stumbled across the <a href="https://www.rothkochapel.org/">Rothko Chapel</a>.</p>



<p>I was totally taken aback, and couldn&#8217;t wait to call up my parents about what I had discovered. &#8220;Mom! <em>Look what I found!</em>&#8220;</p>



<p>She just started laughing.</p>



<p>Of course, I hadn’t discovered it; it turns out that almost a decade before, she had brought me there as a small child. Apparently, we had been playing in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Park_(Houston)">Bell Park</a>, and rain clouds started to form, so she was looking for someplace we could go inside, and the Rothko Chapel was, of course, open.</p>



<p>I’ve been to the Chapel countless times now. I’ve been when I’m grieving, I’ve been when I’m celebrating, I&#8217;ve been when I needed a reset, I’ve brought friends that loved it, that hated it, that cried, I&#8217;ve brought friends that laughed.</p>



<p>Some of my favorites when I was training for a half-marathon and would run here, take a quick meditation break, and then run back home</p>



<p>There’s a milion stories about how people come to the chapel, and many more about how they leave it, it’s a nexus or Schelling point. Whatever your experience, you’ll always remember it and leave changed.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m so glad to be able to celebrate this opening with all of you. Here are of course my family that raised me, but also friends and teachers that shaped me as a man and without which I wouldn&#8217;t have been able to accomplish anything I have in my life. I see some teachers here, I see <a href="https://docfestjazz.org/dr-robert-doc-morgan/">Doc Morgan</a>, <a href="https://www.davidcaceresorchestra.com/">David Caceres</a>. Thank you so much for being here.</p>



<p>My father, <a href="https://ma.tt/2016/04/in-memoriam-chuck-mullenweg/">Chuck Mullenweg, passed in 2016</a>, but Mom, I know he would have loved this. <a href="https://literary-arts.org/bio/christopher-rothko/">Christopher</a>, thank you for the opportunity to contribute in a small way to our shared mission of honoring our fathers&#8217; legacy.</p>



<p>My mother, Kathleen Mullenweg, is right here, I hope you get a chance to meet her. A garden seemed very fitting as her lifelong green thumb and love of gardening has always been grounding and inspiring to me. Mom, I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you again for being the best mother a boy could hope for, and giving me such a broad extracurricular education, especially in the arts.</p>



<p>I work in technology, which has already transformed society and is poised to do even more with the age of AI beginning, and I believe it is incredibly important for technologists building the future to be connected and informed by the arts, because we need our software to have soul.</p>



<p>What I hope for most, though, is that the peace and reflection garden and birch grove bring some mother and child someday, who perhaps wander into the chapel looking to escape rain, and that kid later goes back to his mother a decade later and says, <em>Look what I found!</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 17 Nov 2025 07:35:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:107:"Gutenberg Times: WordPress 6.9 Dev Notes, WordCamp Canada talks, Interactivity API — Weekend Edition #349";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=42773";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:111:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/wordpress-6-9-dev-notes-wordcamp-canada-talks-interactivity-api-weekend-edition-349/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:25267:"<p>Hi there, </p>



<p>We are getting close to the WordPress 6.9 release. Below you find links to published Developer notes. You can also wait for the Source of Truth to be published next week to learn about besides developer changes coming to WordPress 6.9.</p>



<p>On a personal note, I had great fun facilitating the first WordPress Meetup in München after an 11-month hiatus. I met the wonderful people who co-founded the meeting back in 2014, the same year I started co-organizing a meetup in Naples. It&#8217;s quite a mixed group of bloggers, developers, designers and agencies. I am glad to now have a local meetup to go to every month and learn more about the German WordPress users and businesses.  If you don&#8217;t have a local WordPress meetup, you might <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/">consider starting one</a>. It&#8217;s a lot of fun networking with like-minded people. </p>



<p>Yours, <img alt="💕" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f495.png" style="height: 1em;" /><br /><em>Birgit</em></p>




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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="0-word-press-release-information">Developing Gutenberg and WordPress</h2>



<p><strong><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v22.1.0-rc.1">Gutenberg 22.1 RC1</a></strong> is now available for testing.</p>



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<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2025/11/wordpress-6-9-release-candidate-1/"><strong>WordPress 6.9 RC1</strong></a> is now available and it&#8217;s time for you, if you haven&#8217;t yet, to test your themes, plugins and custom code against the new version. The contributors also published Dev Notes for this release.</p>



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<p>The <strong>Source of Truth for WordPress 6.9 </strong>is in review and on the publishing schedule here for November 18th, 2025. You can take a sneak peek of the draft on <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SJm3E0yE0yyYV_Vo8O-3lkor_Q4E4dQYLs3Nobwc9Q4/edit?tab=t.x6i0zoiizlje">Google Doc</a>, in case you need it earlier to comply with any of your publishing deadlines. </p>



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<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/state-of-the-word/">State of the Word 2025</a> will include highlights and demos of the most important features of this release. The event will be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/wordpress">livestreamed on YouTube</a>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="dev-notes-for-wordpress-6-9">Dev notes for WordPress 6.9 </h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="Highlight grid WordPress 6.9 " class="wp-image-42826" height="375" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/WordPress-6.9-Highlight-grid-2025-11-14.png?resize=652%2C375&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



<p>More dev notes are available on the Make Core blog. </p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/theme-json-border-radius-presets-support-in-wordpress-6-9/">Theme.json Border Radius Presets Support in WordPress 6.9</a>.</li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/heading-block-css-specificity-fix-in-wordpress-6-9/">Heading Block CSS Specificity Fix in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/interactivity-apis-client-navigation-improvements-in-wordpress-6-9/">Interactivity API’s client navigation improvements in WordPress 6.9</a> </li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/changes-to-the-interactivity-api-in-wordpress-6-9/">Changes to the Interactivity API in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/preparing-the-post-editor-for-full-iframe-integration/">Preparing the Post Editor for Full iframe Integration</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/block-bindings-improvements-in-wordpress-6-9/">Block Bindings improvements in WordPress 6.9</a> </li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/12/theme-json-border-radius-presets-support-in-wordpress-6-9/">Theme.json Border Radius Presets Support in WordPress 6.9</a> </li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/11/dataviews-dataform-et-al-in-wordpress-6-9/">DataViews, DataForm, et al. in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/10/abilities-api-in-wordpress-6-9/">Abilities API in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/09/04/prettier-emails-supporting-inline-embedded-images/">Prettier Emails: Supporting Inline Embedded Images</a></li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Dev notes</strong> on accessibility updates, frontend performance enhancements, the underlying architecture of the new Notes feature, updates to the HTML API, the new Block Processor, and PHP and UTF_8 supports are still in the works and are expected to be published next week together with the Fieldguide. </p>



<p>I mentioned them before, there are a few tutorials on the <strong>WordPress Developer blog</strong> about how to use WordPress 6.9 features. </p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/11/how-wordpress-6-9-gives-forms-a-theme-json-makeover/">How WordPress 6.9 gives forms a theme.json makeover</a></li>



<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/10/styling-accordions-in-wordpress-6-9/">Styling accordions in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/09/border-radius-size-presets-in-wordpress-6-9/">Border radius size presets in WordPress 6.9</a></li>



<li><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/08/registering-custom-social-icons-in-wordpress-6-9/">Registering custom social icons in WordPress 6.9</a></li>
</ul>



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<p><img alt="🎙" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f399.png" style="height: 1em;" /> The latest episode is <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/gutenberg-changelog-125-wordpress-6-9-gutenberg-22-1-and-gutenberg-22-2/">Gutenberg Changelog #125 – WordPress 6.9, Gutenberg 22.1 and Gutenberg 22.2</a> with <strong>JC Palmes</strong>, WebDev Studios</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-style-no-vertical-margin"><img alt="Gutenberg Changelog 125 with JC Palmes and host Birgit Pauli-Haack" class="wp-image-43283" height="186" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-28-at-18.19.29.png?resize=652%2C186&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>


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<p>The latest monthly roundup post is <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/11/whats-new-for-developers-november-2025/"><strong>What’s new for developers? (November 2025)</strong></a> was again stoke full of information. It covers al lot you might already know, but also lesser-known updates, like PHP-only block registration, enhanced Gallery aspect ratios. WordPress Playground gains file browser capabilities; AI team stabilizes core packages implementing server-side Abilities API.</p>



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<p><strong>Jonathan Bossenger</strong> published an <strong><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/11/introducing-the-wordpress-abilities-api/">introduction to the WordPress Abilities API</a> </strong>that&#8217;s coming to WordPress in the next release. You&#8217;ll learn what this new Ability will unlock for developers and how to use it in your plugins and themes now.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/11/introducing-the-wordpress-abilities-api/"><img alt="Featured image of the Abilities API article on the WordPreess Developer Blog" class="wp-image-42843" height="372" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/aiblities-api.png?resize=652%2C372&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></a></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="block-editor-related-talks-from-wordcamp-canada">Block editor-related talks from WordCamp Canada </h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><a href="https://wordpress.tv/event/wordcamp-canada-2025/"><img alt="WordCamp Canada feature image" class="wp-image-42856" height="435" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/welcome-scaled.webp?resize=652%2C435&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></a></figure>



<p>The team of <a href="https://wordpress.tv/event/wordcamp-canada-2025/">WordCamp Canada </a>published the recordings of the talks on WordPress TV here is a selections: </p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2025/11/10/back-on-the-block-my-reasons-for-returning-to-the-full-site-editor/"><strong>Back on the Block: My Reasons for Returning to the Full Site Editor</strong></a> with <strong>Joe R Simpson</strong>. This interactive presentation explores WordPress&#8217;s current state, Full Site Editor capabilities, and emerging features like AI and the Style Guide.</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2025/11/10/building-for-content-editors-why-designers-and-developers-need-to-care-more/"><strong>Building for Content Editors: Why Designers and Developers Need To Care More</strong></a> with Jesse Dyck. Block editors offer powerful flexibility but require deliberate curation through guardrails and customization to prevent brand inconsistency, accessibility failures, and editor overwhelm while empowering content teams to work efficiently.</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2025/11/10/interactivity-api-for-common-dom-interactions/"><strong>Interactivity API for common DOM interactions</strong></a> with Austin Atkinson. Leveraging WordPress&#8217;s Interactivity API to handle typical front-end interactions—like clicks, hovers, form submissions, or dynamic content updates—by directly manipulating the Document Object Model (DOM) rather than relying on separate JavaScript frameworks or libraries.</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2025/11/10/the-block-developer-cookbook-wceh-2025-edition/"><strong>The Block Developer Cookbook: WCEH 2025 Edition</strong></a> with <strong>Ryan Welcher</strong>. Expand your block development skills with hands-on guidance and real-world examples.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="0-p">Plugins, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners</h2>



<p>In <a href="https://wpbuilds.com/2025/11/13/445-more-fun-in-wordpress-how-nick-hamze-uses-ai-to-build-unusual-wordpress-blocks/"><strong>episode 445 of the WPBuilds podcast</strong></a>, <strong>Nathan Wrigley </strong>interviews <strong>Nick Hamze</strong>, a lawyer-turned-Pokemon-card-shop-owner who builds peculiar WordPress blocks using AI. Hamze championed fun over convention, running Automatic&#8217;s merch operations before launching Izzy&#8217;s Gym. Armed with Telex, he constructs dozens of quirky blocks—dice rollers, glitchy text effects, custom integrations—in minutes. He dismisses distribution concerns, arguing WordPress needs personality restored; creation trumps monetization. Hamze advocates democratizing development: AI enables everyone, not just coders, to build niche solutions.</p>


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<p>In his post <a href="https://justintadlock.com/archives/2025/11/08/breadcrumbs-reimagined-again"><strong>Breadcrumbs Reimagined. Again.</strong></a>, <strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> announced the update to version 4.0 of his <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/x3p0-breadcrumbs/">Breadcrumbs block plugin.</a> The update makes previously developer-only features available in the editor, including customizable labels and options for post taxonomy. The public API has been simplified, now offering easier function calls and JSON-LD support for SEO. While the change may affect some users, the plugin now allows for advanced breadcrumb setup without needing coding skills, while still providing robust tools for developers. Check out <a href="https://github.com/x3p0-dev/x3p0-breadcrumbs/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md">the full changelog</a> with all the updates.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="Screenshot from the Breadcrumbs block plugin" class="wp-image-42829" height="350" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/breadcrumbs-labels.webp?resize=652%2C350&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



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<p><strong>Andrew Butler</strong>, a Content Strategist over at WordPress VIP, reported on <strong><a href="https://wpvip.com/blog/collaborative-editing-wordpress-vip/">the future of collaborative editing</a></strong> and how it’s making teamwork way easier. Think Google Docs-style editing right in WordPress! Now, multiple folks can jump in and edit posts together, seeing each other’s cursors and presence indicators in real time. Plus, those in-line Notes are super handy for providing feedback without having to leave the editor. WordPress VIP tested and implemented what will come to WordPress core in upcoming releases. <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> mentioned contributor efforts in her <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/06/update-on-phase-3-2025/">Update on Phase 3: Collaboration efforts (Nov 2025)</a></p>



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<p><strong>Joe Fylan</strong> shared via WordPress.com blog, <a href="https://wordpress.com/blog/2025/11/13/wordpress-blocks-made-with-telex/"><strong>12 Cool AI-Powered WordPress Blocks Made with Telex</strong></a>, showcasing Automattic&#8217;s free browser-based <a href="https://telex.automattic.ai/">Telex</a> tool that transforms plain-language descriptions into functional WordPress blocks. Featured blocks range from interactive games like Minesweeper and personality quizzes to practical tools like recipe publishers, weather forecasters, and scroll indicators. If you have an idea for block but are not a programmer, you can create, customize, download, and share blocks without coding knowledge, making block development accessible to everyone.</p>



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<p>If you are keen to learn how to do some more comprehensive prompting, Check out <strong>Tammie Lister</strong>&#8216;s site <a href="https://blocktober.fun/">Blocktober.fun</a> where you can look at her collection of blocks and the instructions she gave to the AI.</p>



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<p><strong>Jake Spurlock</strong> shared an update on his Raptorize plugins to bring it into the block ear: <a href="https://jakespurlock.com/2025/11/raptorize-it-15-years-later-now-with-blocks/"><strong>Raptorize It: 15 Years Later, Now With Blocks</strong></a>. &#8220;Look, I could tell you it’s about maintaining legacy code or demonstrating modern WordPress development practices. And sure, those are valid reasons. But really, it’s 2025 and the world still needs more velociraptors on websites. Some traditions are worth preserving.&#8221;, he wrote. You can see it in <a href="https://icodeforapurpose.com/raptorized/">action on my other site.</a> Switch on sound for the full experience. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><a href="https://icodeforapurpose.com/raptorized/"><img alt="Still image from the Raptorized plugins in action. " class="wp-image-42838" height="380" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-14-at-17.32.43.png?resize=652%2C380&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></a></figure>



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<p>New in the WordPress Plugin repository: <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/native-blocks-carousel/"><strong>Any Block Carousel Slider</strong></a> by <strong>Arthur Ballan</strong>, aka Web Lazer, a freelancer from Rennes, France. It stands out as it is implemented with CSS only. A &#8220;carousel slider block plugin that instantly converts supported native WordPress blocks (Query Loop/Post Template, Group, Gallery) into a responsive carousel slider without adding a dedicated block or loading a JavaScript library.&#8221; Ballan wrote in the description. I tested it with a few images and it&#8217;s super fast. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="Screenshot using the Any Block Carousel Slider." class="wp-image-42840" height="304" src="https://i0.wp.com/gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-14-at-17.38.57.png?resize=652%2C304&#038;ssl=1" width="652" /></figure>



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<p><strong>Wes Theron</strong> published another short tutorial using WordPress. This time on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_E-E4N6ds8"><strong>how to create a custom 404 page</strong></a>, a page that&#8217;s displayed when someone comes from a bad or broken link. He walks you through the process of changing the template and also shows a few examples you can use as inspiration.</p>


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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="2-word-press-6-0-1-and-6-1-scheduled">Themes, Blocks and Tools </h2>



<p><strong>Rich Tabor</strong> started a new series called <a href="https://rich.blog/wordpress-explorations/"><strong>WordPress Explorations</strong></a>, &#8220;where I’m exploring new, far-out ideas about WordPress&#8221;. In his first post, <a href="https://rich.blog/pages-and-layers/"><strong>Pages &amp; Layers</strong></a>, Tabor explores a WordPress interface concept addressing user confusion: navigating pages requires leaving the editor entirely. He proposes a persistent sidebar with tabbed navigation between pages and block layers, allowing seamless page switching and creation without context-switching. </p>



<p>As a follow-up to his post on <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/10/styling-accordions-in-wordpress-6-9/">styling an accordion block</a>, <strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> published <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/news/snippets/schema-org-microdata-for-accordion-block-faqs/"><strong>Snippet: Schema.org microdata for Accordion block FAQs</strong></a>. It&#8217;s a short example of how to add structured data for FAQs via the HTML API in plugin of functions.php.</p>



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<section class="wp-block-newsletterglue-callout undefined not-color-set" style="border-color: #f9f9e5; border-radius: 22px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: left; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: #f9f9e5;">
<p><strong> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2025&#8221;</a> </strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test, and Meta team from Jan. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly. The previous years are also available: <strong><strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/">2020</a> | <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2021/">2021</a></strong> | <strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2022/">2022</a></strong></strong> | <strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2023">2023</a></strong> | <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/gutenberg-index-2024/"><strong>2024</strong></a></p>
</section>


<p>In his livestream <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs2ZurEpdmg"><strong>Using every Interactivity API feature in one site: Part 2</strong></a>, <strong>Ryan Welcher</strong> continues his series on the Interactivity API and his attempt to build something that uses every directive and feature it offers. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmOrpp8ygbA">Part 1 is also available on YouTube</a>.</p>


<section class="wp-block-newsletterglue-callout undefined not-color-set" style="border-color: #eeeeee; border-radius: 26px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; text-align: left; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; background-color: #f3efe9;">
<p><strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s master branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. </p>



<p>Now also available via <a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https://gutenbergtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/playnightly.json">WordPress Playground</a>. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? <a href="mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com">Email me </a>with your experience</p>



<p><img alt="GitHub all releases" src="https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/bph/gutenberg/total?style=for-the-badge" /></p>
</section>


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<p class="has-text-align-center has-small-font-size"><em>Questions? Suggestions? Ideas? </em><br /><em>Don&#8217;t hesitate to send <a href="mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com">them via email</a> or</em><br /><em> send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph</em>.</p>



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<p class="has-text-align-center has-small-font-size">For questions to be answered on the <a href="http://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast">Gutenberg Changelog</a>, <br />send them to <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a></p>



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<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity is-style-wide" />
</section>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 15 Nov 2025 01:20:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Birgit Pauli-Haack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:43;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:20:"Matt: Kanye’s Back";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:23:"https://ma.tt/?p=150571";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://ma.tt/2025/11/kanyes-back/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1471:"<p>In case you missed it, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJRHEqp-yKQ">Kanye has started apologizing for the event he went through</a>. I didn&#8217;t comment on it publicly when it happened because it seemed so strange to me that such a beautiful soul, who had created so much life-changing music with so much love, could express such hate. I&#8217;ve had close friends who are bipolar, so I&#8217;m familiar with the disease, and seeing Ye&#8217;s episode was really heartbreaking, both for the things he was saying and also that it was clearly a medical issue, unfortunately, playing out in the public sphere. (I can&#8217;t imagine anything worse.) Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. </p>



<p>Who knows what&#8217;s next, but hopefully this is the start of a new generative era for Ye, who clearly has the ability to innovate across many fields. <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/drake-drops-booking-agent-shared-kendrick-lamar-1236113230/">Especially with no rap songs in the Billboard 40 for the first time since 1990</a>! It does feel like we&#8217;re living through a New Renaissance right now, there&#8217;s an explosion of creativity and access. I&#8217;m wishing Ye peace and equanimity with the challenges he&#8217;s facing, and I&#8217;m definitely going to revisit some of his early work (<em>The College Dropout</em> (ha!) through <em>Cruel Summer</em>) that was so influential on me as I was growing up.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 14 Nov 2025 08:59:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:44;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"Jake Spurlock: Raptorize It: 15 Years Later, Now With Blocks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:33:"https://jakespurlock.com/?p=51971";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"https://jakespurlock.com/2025/11/raptorize-it-15-years-later-now-with-blocks/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4407:"<p>Fifteen years ago, I <a href="https://jakespurlock.com/2010/11/raptorize-this/">released a WordPress plugin</a> that answered a question nobody asked: &#8220;What if your website needed more velociraptors?&#8221; The Raptorize It plugin took the brilliant jQuery work from Zurb and made it dead simple to unleash Jurassic proportions on any WordPress site.</p>



<p>The motivation back then was simple: you&#8217;re deep in a coding session, fueled by questionable snacks, and you realize your project is missing something critical. Not another feature request. Not better documentation. A velociraptor.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="what-was-old-is-new-again">What Was Old Is New Again</h2>



<p>Fast forward to 2025, and the web has changed significantly. WordPress has evolved from the simple days of jQuery-powered effects to a modern block editor powered by React. The old Raptorize It plugin still worked, but it was time for an update.</p>



<p>I recently modernized the entire plugin to work seamlessly with current WordPress versions (5.0+) and PHP 8.0+. But more importantly, I brought it into the Gutenberg era with two new ways to raptorize your content.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="new-gutenberg-blocks">New Gutenberg Blocks</h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="1-invisible-raptor-block">1. Invisible Raptor Block</h3>



<p>The Invisible Raptor block lets you add raptor functionality anywhere on your page with a visual editor interface. In the block settings panel, you can:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Enable Konami Code</strong>: Trigger the raptor with the classic ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A sequence</li>



<li><strong>Enable Timer</strong>: Automatically trigger the raptor after page load</li>



<li><strong>Adjust Timer Delay</strong>: Control exactly how long visitors have before the inevitable</li>
</ul>



<p>The block is invisible on the frontend (hence the name), but shows you which triggers are active right in the editor.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="2-raptorize-button-variation">2. Raptorize Button Variation</h3>



<p>For a more direct approach, there&#8217;s now a Button block variation that adds a &#8220;Raptorize Button&#8221; style option to the core WordPress button block. Visitors click the button, raptor appears. Simple. Elegant. Prehistoric.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="whats-under-the-hood">What&#8217;s Under The Hood</h2>



<p>For the developers curious about what changed:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Utilized better internal WordPress APIs for script enqueuing. </li>



<li>Updated jQuery from <code>.bind()/.unbind()</code> to <code>.on()/.off()</code></li>



<li>Added comprehensive PHP CodeSniffer configuration (WordPress-Core, WordPress-Docs, PHPCompatibilityWP)</li>



<li>Built block development workflow with <code>@wordpress/scripts</code></li>



<li>Set up automated WordPress.org deployment via GitHub Actions</li>



<li>Added wp-env configuration for local testing</li>
</ul>



<p>The entire codebase now follows modern WordPress coding standards and passes all linting checks.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="try-it-yourself">Try It Yourself</h2>



<p>The updated Raptorize It plugin is now available for download at the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/raptorize-it/">WordPress Plugin Directory</a>.</p>



<p>You can also explore the complete codebase and contribute to future developments on <a href="https://github.com/whyisjake/raptorize-it">GitHub</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="why-though">Why Though?</h2>



<p>Look, I could tell you it&#8217;s about maintaining legacy code or demonstrating modern WordPress development practices. And sure, those are valid reasons.</p>



<p>But really, it&#8217;s 2025 and the world still needs more velociraptors on websites. Some traditions are worth preserving.</p>



<p>Now if you&#8217;ll excuse me, I have a Konami code to input.</p>





<div class="wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-a89b3969 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-75 is-style-raptorize is-style-fill raptorize-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-large-font-size has-custom-font-size wp-element-button">Don&#8217;t push this button.</a></div>
</div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 12 Nov 2025 23:16:38 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jake Spurlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"Akismet: Version 5.6 of the Akismet WordPress plugin is available now";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://akismet.com/?p=284654";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:37:"https://akismet.com/blog/akismet-5-6/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:628:"<p>Version 5.6 of <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/">the Akismet plugin for WordPress</a> is now available. In this release, we&#8217;ve improved performance, updated the setup process to more clearly explain errors when they happen, and cleaned up and standardized our UI across all of the Akismet wp&#8209;admin screens.</p>


<p></p>


<p>To upgrade, visit the Updates page of your WordPress dashboard and follow the instructions. If you need to download the plugin zip file directly, links to all versions are available in <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/">the WordPress plugins directory</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 12 Nov 2025 16:55:21 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17:"Christopher Finke";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"WPTavern: #193 – Roger Williams on How We Might Reimagine Sponsoring WordPress Contributions";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=200658";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:108:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/193-roger-williams-on-how-we-might-reimagine-sponsoring-wordpress-contributions";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:57604:"<details>Transcription<div>
<p>[00:00:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p>Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, how we might reimagine sponsoring WordPress contributions.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice, or by going to wptavern.com/feed/podcast, and you can copy that URL into most podcast players.</p>



<p>If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea, featured on the show. Head to wp tavern.com/contact/jukebox, and use the form there.</p>



<p>So on the podcast today we have Roger Williams. Roger leads community and partner engagement at Kinsta, a company specializing in offering managed hosting for WordPress. His role involves bridging the gap between Kinsta and the wider WordPress community, working closely with agency partners, technology collaborators, and open source initiatives.</p>



<p>Throughout his career, Roger has been deeply involved in community efforts and has recently played a key part in Kinsta&#8217;s implementation of a sponsored contributions program, helping to funnel time and resources back into WordPress and other open source projects.</p>



<p>Many longstanding members of the WordPress community have contributed out of passion and a spirit of philanthropy, but as the project has grown to power over 40% of the web, the need for sustainable funding and sponsorship has become more pronounced.</p>



<p>Roger joins us today to explore this shift. He shares insights from his WordCamp US presentation titled Figuring Out Sponsored Contribution. Discussing how companies can start funding contributors, why that matters, and how to balance the business need for a return on investment with the grassroots spirit of open source.</p>



<p>We begin with Roger&#8217;s background, his work at Kinsta, and how he became involved in WordPress community sponsorship.</p>



<p>The conversation then gets into the ever evolving dynamics of sponsored contributions. How businesses can approach funding contributors. Ways to surface and support valuable work, and strategies for aligning company goals with broader project needs.</p>



<p>Roger breaks down the practical arguments companies can use to get internal buy-in, and the importance of clear processes for both organizations looking to sponsor, and individuals seeking support.</p>



<p>Towards the end, Roger reflects on the challenges and opportunities of connecting those both from the philanthropic and commercial sides of WordPress, and he shares advice for anyone hoping to get their organization involved in similar programs.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re interested in how WordPress sponsorships work, how business and community might collaborate, or you&#8217;re seeking practical advice as a contributor or company, this episode is for you.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;d like to find out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you&#8217;ll find all the other episodes as well.</p>



<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Roger Williams.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast by Roger Williams. Hello, Roger.</p>



<p>[00:03:46] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Hey Nathan, how are you?</p>



<p>[00:03:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;m very good. We could pretend that we&#8217;re recording this at WordCamp US because that was the plan, but it never happened for one reason or another. So we took it offline. And several weeks ago, WordCamp US finished, but the intention was very much to talk about what you were presenting at WordCamp US. So we&#8217;ll get into that in a moment.</p>



<p>Before we do that though, Roger, would you mind just telling us a little bit about who you are, who you work for, what your role involves, all to do with WordPress, I guess.</p>



<p>[00:04:14] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Yeah, no, absolutely. So my name&#8217;s Roger Williams. I work at Kinsta, managed hosting provider for WordPress. Currently my position is partnership and community manager for North America. Very long title. What does that mean? My job is to interface with the public, with the WordPress community, with our agency partners and various technology partners, and just make sure that we&#8217;re all on the same page, and that whatever&#8217;s going on outside of Kinsta is getting communicated inside of Kinsta, and whatever&#8217;s happening inside of Kinsta is getting communicated outside. So I&#8217;m basically boiling the ocean. So a very easy thing. No problem at all.</p>



<p>Truth be said, it&#8217;s one of the, this is like the highlight of my career, I have to say. I get to travel, I get to meet a lot of neat and interesting people, I get to make amazing friends, and I get to talk about technology, the web, WordPress and Kinsta hosting, which are all things that I&#8217;m very passionate about and enjoy talking about this ad nauseam. You can ask my wife, that I am probably too much, need to turn it off a little bit.</p>



<p>But specifically talking about community and WordPress, gosh, it was January of this year, 2025, that we implemented our sponsored contributions program, and I played a role in that. I played a role in getting the conversation happening around that inside of Kinsta. And then once we got budget approval, actually figuring out, hey, who do we want to sponsor? What projects outside of WordPress? Because we also sponsor various open source projects that affect us directly and indirectly.</p>



<p>And so that has been a whole new aspect of my career that has really opened up new doors and opportunities and discussions and friendships that I&#8217;m still feeling like a bit of an interlocutor. I&#8217;m an outsider trying to understand how to best do this, and play a part in helping the projects that we all depend on to do all of our work.</p>



<p>[00:06:17] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Nice. Thank you. Yeah, there&#8217;s a lot in there to unpack, isn&#8217;t there? It sounds like a full and varied role, but also you kind of sound a little bit like you&#8217;re figuring this out over the course of 2025 and into 2026 and who you are sponsoring and what have you. And that was very much the tenor of the talk.</p>



<p>So the title was very simple. The presentation that you gave was simply called figuring out sponsored contribution. But I&#8217;ll just read into the record the blurb, not all of it, but much of it because it will give everybody who&#8217;s listening an idea of where you were going with that. So it says, open source software runs on passion, but passion doesn&#8217;t pay the bills. WordPress powers over 40% of the web, yet many people maintaining it aren&#8217;t funded. That&#8217;s starting to change and your company can be part of it. In this talk, we&#8217;ll explore how sponsored contribution works, why it matters, and how companies big and small can participate. We&#8217;ll walk through my experience, AKA your experience, working with companies to sponsor contributors from promoting the idea internally, identifying key areas of the WordPress project to support, finding and interviewing contributors, and building an internal framework for long-term sponsorship. And there&#8217;s a little bit more, but that basically sums it up.</p>



<p>So basically, I guess my first question is, what exactly are you trying to do here? Are you kind of regarding this as a sort of philanthropic thing? What I&#8217;m really kind of asking is, do you kind of expect things in return? So if Kinsta, for example, sponsor somebody, do you have like a tick list of things that we need to see that you&#8217;ve done? Or is it more, you are a trusted person, we&#8217;ve seen you interacting in the WordPress space for many years, here&#8217;s a bunch of cash, go off and just do whatever you like?</p>



<p>[00:07:53] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Yeah, excellent question. And thanks for reading that blurb. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve read that blurb in quite a few months and it sounds really good.</p>



<p>[00:07:59] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It was a great talk.</p>



<p>[00:08:00] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Somebody really put something together here. Really interesting question and I think this kind of gets to the core of what I was trying to talk about in this talk, in the exploration that I&#8217;m trying to figure out in my own head, figure out inside of Kinsta, and possibly figure out in the larger community.</p>



<p>There&#8217;s a lot of humility involved in this Nathan, I hope you can appreciate. I feel a lot of the times very, the imposter syndrome, right? Wow, I&#8217;m coming into a project that&#8217;s over 22 years old. Many, many thousands of people have been involved. Many, many companies have been involved in this. Here&#8217;s this new guy, you know, I mean I&#8217;ve been around for a little while, but relatively new guy on the scene just coming in trying to tell people how all this is done. And I really hope that it doesn&#8217;t come across that way. I&#8217;m really trying to explore this topic and understand it better for a few reasons.</p>



<p>The first one is the most immediate. How can I get Kinsta involved in contributing and sponsoring WordPress and other open source projects? And so there&#8217;s a combination of things happening there, right? And you brought it up in terms of, are there tangible things that we&#8217;re looking for here? Or is this simply just philanthropic, hey, we&#8217;re giving money away and everything will work out?</p>



<p>And I think that there&#8217;s a spectrum. And we&#8217;re playing on the spectrum with it. Traditionally, and this is something that I talk about a lot in the talk is, traditionally in open source the argument has been that I&#8217;ve seen, hey, you&#8217;re using this software, you should give back to the software and to the project.</p>



<p>But then you have on the other side the business that is very much, hey, we need to generate revenue from our activities so that we can remain a business.</p>



<p>And so they&#8217;re a little bit at odds in some ways, right? But it doesn&#8217;t have to be that way. And I think that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m exploring in this talk, and I&#8217;m exploring in this conversation, and as many conversations as I can have with people is, how do we play on that spectrum of finding a happy medium where for a company, a lot of times you go to the executives and you&#8217;re like, hey, we need to be giving back to this thing that we get for free? And you get a very perplexed look. And so I think we need to adjust that conversation.</p>



<p>I think that the people that are inside of the project, it&#8217;s very obvious. Hey, we put a ton of time and effort into making this happen. Whether you give back in terms of time and actually help us work on the project, or give us money so we can sponsor people and pay for hosting costs and different things involved in it, to make the project happen. I think it&#8217;s very obvious for people inside of the project how that works.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s less obvious, and I kind of see there&#8217;s three groups in all, right? You have the people inside of the project, very obvious. There&#8217;s very little argument needs to be made.</p>



<p>You have the second group, which is somewhere like, a Kinsta will fall into, or someone like myself, who I&#8217;ve used open source software for many years, but I don&#8217;t necessarily see exactly how to contribute back, or the immediate benefits, or the need, right? Hey, this thing&#8217;s already here. I can go to the website, click download, and I&#8217;ve got it. There&#8217;s that group that kind of see it but they need a little nudging.</p>



<p>And then there&#8217;s the general public or people that just don&#8217;t really interface with open source software directly and just have no idea. They&#8217;re just like, whoa, what is going on over there? People are just working on stuff for free and giving it away for free. That&#8217;s crazy. And so there&#8217;s another conversation that needs to happen there.</p>



<p>I think with this specific talk, the group I&#8217;m trying to get to is that second group. The people that are just right there, it&#8217;s just in a little bit of nudging of like, hey, you&#8217;re really close to understanding the benefits of sponsoring and contributing back to the project. What are we missing in the conversation to really get them to understand it? So the answer I&#8217;m proposing is we need to talk more about return on investment and ROI, and how do we frame that?</p>



<p>So really long-winded answer here, but I think that there&#8217;s a mixture of what are the things we&#8217;re trying to achieve by giving back? How can we bring that back in a business sense to show executives, hey, look, the money that we&#8217;re putting out here is benefiting us in certain ways?</p>



<p>But then also being like, hey, there&#8217;s also just kind of this nebulous aspect to it of, if you help contribute to it, it will give you some benefit. So how do we balance and how do we find the spectrum here to land on? I hope that that made some sort of sense.</p>



<p>[00:12:36] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, it does. And it&#8217;s interesting because where you got to about a third of the way through the answer, I think you said the word tension or conflict or something like that. But I think that&#8217;s a really interesting part, because if we were to rewind the clock to, let&#8217;s say 19 years ago when WordPress was still relatively new. I wasn&#8217;t around in the WordPress space, but I was involved in other open source projects at the same time. And philanthropy was the word.</p>



<p>There were just people donating loads of time because it was more or less this hobby thing. And then in some cases the hobby thing collapsed and nobody ever heard of it again. And in the case of some software projects, WordPress most notably, it took off. It just absolutely skyrocketed and became the underpinning of, as you say in the presentation notes that you made, kind of 40% of the web. It became this critical piece of the puzzle.</p>



<p>And so during the last 18, 20, 22 years, whatever it may be, the project has evolved. It&#8217;s become critical. Like it or dislike it, companies both big and small are now relying upon it. They require it as part of their business, Kinsta being one of those companies. And so this tension exists. How do the companies do their bit and how do the individuals do their bit?</p>



<p>And the tension that I feel is, on the one hand, the people who&#8217;ve got that heritage of the more philanthropic side sort of saying, can&#8217;t we just go back to how it was? Can we never talk about finance? Can we not think about money at all?</p>



<p>And then on the other hand, you&#8217;ve got places like where you work, who are, with the best will in the world, it&#8217;s about making some revenue, and making money, and paying the bills and all of that. You&#8217;ve got to figure out, how the heck do you make contributions? How do you justify that to your bosses? How do they communicate what they&#8217;ve done effectively?</p>



<p>And presumably part of your talk as well is about finding people that you would like to just give some money to as a helping hand to say, okay, off you go. You&#8217;re not a part of the Kinsta organisation, but we would like to help you. And in return, presumably there&#8217;s a bit of mutual back rubbing. We&#8217;ll pat your back, you pat ours, and so on and so forth. So hopefully I&#8217;ve parsed that about right?</p>



<p>[00:14:39] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Yeah, no, I think you&#8217;re laying it out very much as I&#8217;m going through in the talk is, we need to talk business. And I know that for a lot of people inside of open source, this can be cringey and not pleasant and not what we want to do. And my argument is we have to get over that phase. We have to learn to start talking business and thinking business, thinking about return on investment.</p>



<p>And so to me it&#8217;s becoming practical, right? We have this optimistic idea of like, well, people will just come to their senses and realise that if they sponsor and contribute to the project, it&#8217;s going to help them. And we need to be much more strategic and more practical about it. And I break it down into three reasons to start kind of looking at when you&#8217;re talking to executives, you&#8217;re talking to businesses. And so there&#8217;s strategic, operational and second order benefits.</p>



<p>So when I&#8217;m talking about strategic benefits, I mean this is where it&#8217;s just obvious, right? For a hosting company that does WordPress, it just makes sense. Like, if WordPress isn&#8217;t working well, then we&#8217;re going to have trouble with our product. So strategically, it makes sense if WordPress works well, if it&#8217;s performing, if it&#8217;s secure, this is going to lower our cost as a hosting company. So those are arguments to be putting forward there.</p>



<p>From an operational perspective, you can start talking about technical debt, right? And this is where the CTO&#8217;s eyes should light up, because technical debt is a real problem for any company that builds software. As you&#8217;re building software, you now have to maintain that software. Well, if you&#8217;re able to offload part of that software into the open source project, it now becomes something that the open source project maintains. It&#8217;s the technical debt of the project.</p>



<p>That now creates a vicious cycle, or not even vicious, but just a cycle of, you now need to contribute to the project to help maintain that technical debt. But you&#8217;re now, as an organisation, offloading that to a larger organisation and having more people being able to help maintain that software. So I think from an operational perspective, those are arguments that you can hit people with.</p>



<p>And then finally, the second order benefits, and this is really where it kind of encompasses the arguments that have been traditionally the philanthropic argument, the just maker taker argument and stuff like that. With second order benefits, you start seeing these additional benefits that maybe you can&#8217;t exactly measure.</p>



<p>This is where networking is happening. People are meeting and talking to each other. Maybe your developers are talking to their developers, or in the case of sponsoring contributors, those contributors can come into your organisation and help the organisation maybe understand how to use WordPress better and these different benefits.</p>



<p>And so breaking it down into these practical arguments, these practical reasons for contributing can really help people who are not necessarily as well versed with open source or don&#8217;t directly see the benefits, see that a little bit better.</p>



<p>And then getting into what you&#8217;re also talking about, finding contributors who, maybe they align with your values, making sure that they&#8217;re working on the stuff that you need them to be working on. The parts of the project that could use attention as far as your organisation is seeing.</p>



<p>And then also, you know, one of the big things I look for is contributors who are mentors and are helping other contributors get into the project and help to grow the project&#8217;s contributions overall.</p>



<p>There&#8217;s direct, tangible things. Hey, there&#8217;s this ticket, could you go work on this ticket? I&#8217;ll be honest, I&#8217;m not that in depth yet. I&#8217;ve had contributors be like, hey, usually organisations are that pointed. And I&#8217;m like, okay, well there&#8217;s a goal for me to achieve at some point.</p>



<p>But for me it&#8217;s more like, hey, are you doing good work? What are other people saying about you in the project? And then, are you mentoring people and helping other people do their first bug squash, and do their first push and commit and things like that? And I&#8217;m butchering the language of course here but, you know, I hope that that kind of helps answer some of those questions.</p>



<p>[00:18:36] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s interesting because I fear that there&#8217;s a possibility that the community kind of bifurcates along these lines at the moment. So you get the people, and I was using the word philanthropic, so the people that have been contributing their time for gratis, just because they saw that as a useful thing to do for humanity, let&#8217;s put it that way.</p>



<p>So there&#8217;s that on the one hand. And then on the other hand, you&#8217;ve got people such as yourself who are talking about the necessary things in order for your job and your institution to function, the money. And I suppose I&#8217;m kind of worried that we will have these two sides that kind of can&#8217;t figure out a way to communicate with each other, that can&#8217;t see across the chasm that has been created. And so figuring out ways to make those work to sort of have a happy balance so that the two sides can communicate, that they can be back in touch with each other.</p>



<p>So that&#8217;s kind of a concern that I have, this sort of two tier system. The fear more broadly is that, if the money side of things becomes more prevalent, and people find that intolerable, that ultimately will push people away who have been philanthropic and amazing in the use of their time and pushing the project forward. They&#8217;ll see this as something that they can&#8217;t cope with in the future, and they&#8217;ll wish to step away, not contribute to it. That would be a shame.</p>



<p>[00:19:52] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> So I can absolutely empathise and understand the argument that you&#8217;re putting forth there. I think the way I would counter that is to say, hey, currently if we&#8217;re only going to talk in a philanthropic sense, are we just going to exclude everybody from what you&#8217;re talking about, the second tier, right? The more money focused. So we&#8217;re just not even having a conversation in that case.</p>



<p>[00:20:15] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Right. That&#8217;s the concern, yeah.</p>



<p>[00:20:17] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> So what I&#8217;m trying to argue is, hey, by bringing in more people into the project and maybe starting to talk in these practical ROI business terms, were now at least having a conversation that before wasn&#8217;t even happening. Because just to kind of back up a second, the way I&#8217;m looking at it is, if the only argument is, hey, this is philanthropic, you&#8217;re doing it for the good of the project, kumbaya, then we&#8217;re just going to exclude a lot of the business community who&#8217;s going to go, well, yeah, I volunteer time on the weekend at my church, or do different things, but I need to do business during the week so I can buy groceries and pay the rent.</p>



<p>And so I think what I&#8217;m trying to suggest is, hey, if we expand the conversation beyond just philanthropic, beyond just the second order benefits, and we talk about operational and strategic benefits in addition, we&#8217;re now adding more people to the conversation that weren&#8217;t in the conversation before.</p>



<p>And eventually we&#8217;re bringing them into the second order conversation, but we have to start by bringing them in with the strategic and the operational, because that&#8217;s where their mindset is in the nine to five. And so to me, I think this is the opportunity to actually expand the pie and expand the amount of people in the project and talking about the project.</p>



<p>The concern I see that is a fair argument and concern is, are we going to turn open source projects into just commercial enterprises? That is definitely a concern. I don&#8217;t see that happening because you still have the core people in the project. They&#8217;re doing it because they believe in what the project is and they have passion for it. And if they are able to expand and have these conversations, these larger conversations, or additional conversations, about strategic and operational benefits, we&#8217;re going to bring more people in and hopefully help to influence those people to see the second order benefits, and hopefully eventually it&#8217;s all just philanthropic, right?</p>



<p>But I think right now, the argument that has been put forth by different people in open source and in the WordPress community, is that we don&#8217;t have enough people contributing. We don&#8217;t have enough sponsorship money coming in, and so we need to figure out how to bridge that gap. And my suggestion is the way to do that is to expand the conversation beyond just the philanthropic, beyond just the second order, and talking about strategic and operational in addition to those.</p>



<p>[00:22:40] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I have so many thoughts about this. So the first thing that comes into my head is trying to bridge a gap between the people out there at the moment who have been contributing. But you go around on Twitter, X, I guess, and you see people, don&#8217;t you? You see it all the time. They even sometimes change their Twitter handle to, you know, seeking sponsorship or something like that.</p>



<p>But periodically you&#8217;ll see somebody who you know has been in the WordPress space for many years and, I don&#8217;t know, maybe they have been contributing in some way, shape, or form, but it&#8217;s pretty clear that they would like to be sponsored for this particular rabbit hole that they&#8217;ve gone down. And so building a bridge to them is something I think really useful about what you&#8217;re saying.</p>



<p>Because maybe there is no way of these two sides talking to each other. Maybe there is no kind of like a la carte menu, if you like. If you are one of these philanthropic contributors, and you&#8217;ve never sought sponsorship before, but you&#8217;d like the idea of, well, wouldn&#8217;t it be nice if, for these two days a week that I typically contribute my time, wouldn&#8217;t it be nice to get some finance? I&#8217;ll do the exact same thing, but I&#8217;ll actually receive some money for that.</p>



<p>But I don&#8217;t have the time to go out to a hundred different companies with my, I&#8217;m going to use the word begging bowl. That is probably the wrong term, but you get the point. To these a hundred different companies saying, look, I&#8217;ve been doing this for ages. Can you help me out?</p>



<p>That kind of feels, there&#8217;s something quite icky about that, isn&#8217;t there? I think we can all identify that going out and sort of saying to companies repeatedly, please can I have some money? And then getting the inevitable 99% pushback. No, we haven&#8217;t got any money for you.</p>



<p>But I think what you are saying is you are going to build a system where that kind of stuff will be more obvious. Where you&#8217;ll say, these are the kind of things that we&#8217;re looking for. Here&#8217;s the application form if you want to sponsor. This is the kind of process that we&#8217;re going to go through. These are the interview questions that we&#8217;re typically going to answer. This is the pot of money that we&#8217;ve got available. This is how many people we want, and so on and so forth.</p>



<p>So it&#8217;s kind of bridging the gap, so that the people who have been contributing, who are maybe nervous or don&#8217;t see a way forward, can suddenly step into something more obvious, more a la carte, more straightforward and easy to kind of cherry pick.</p>



<p>[00:24:46] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Yeah. I think that, you know, this is getting to the heart of it, right? How do you individually sponsor people? How do individuals find sponsorship? And how do we make this all work? And backing up just for a second , there&#8217;s two ways to look at contributing to open source projects.</p>



<p>We&#8217;re talking a lot about sponsoring individual contributors, which I would argue is the best way for an organisation to get started, because it&#8217;s the easiest way in some sense, right? There&#8217;s an established person who&#8217;s working in the project. You are giving them cash to do that work.</p>



<p>The other way to contribute to the project is to actually spend time working on the project, right? So maybe you&#8217;ve got engineers inside of the company and you&#8217;re like, okay, 10% of your time is, or 5% of your time you&#8217;re going to actually work on this project. That&#8217;s a much bigger ask, right? Because usually when you hire an employee, you have a very specific set of tasks that you need to work on them for the company.</p>



<p>And so asking the manager to figure out, hey, how can this person give 5% of their time to something that&#8217;s outside of the company? That&#8217;s a bigger ask. So I think, for companies and organizations that are starting to dip their toe into contributing to open source, sponsored contributions is a great place to start.</p>



<p>So that was a long way to get around to the question that you&#8217;re posing here, is how do you actually do that? There&#8217;s a chicken and the egg kind of situation that you&#8217;re bringing up, right? At what point does an individual contributor know that, hey, Kinsta is a company to reach out to, and ask for sponsored contribution. And then on the flip side, how does Kinsta know who to reach out to to sponsor?</p>



<p>And so my suggestion is to create a couple of different systems. So first, from the organisational perspective, really understanding, what are the priorities for the organisation? What would benefit them the most by sponsoring individual contributors?</p>



<p>My argument is it&#8217;s a pretty wide swath. A lot of people get focused on core contributors and, actually working on tickets and things like that. I think it&#8217;s a much broader effect. I think sponsoring people that are on the Polyglots team, Kinsta, over half of our customers don&#8217;t speak English. So having WordPress in non-English versions is huge for us. So sponsoring the Polyglots team.</p>



<p>The documentation team is huge, right? People need to be able to use WordPress . So are they going to contact Kinsta support for how to use WordPress, or can they just go to the WordPress site and look at documentation?</p>



<p>So as an organization, you can get really strategic on this, but my argument would be, don&#8217;t overthink it at the beginning. Just get started. And I think that&#8217;s how I kind of end my talk is, my biggest piece of advice is don&#8217;t wait. Just get started. Set aside some budget that you&#8217;re comfortable with, that your executives are comfortable with, and then go and find some contributors.</p>



<p>And then have kind of a process, right? Have an intake form. You mentioned having an intake form. Have an intake form. Ask them questions about, what do they currently work on? What have they worked on in the past? What are their hopes and goals and aspirations on the project?</p>



<p>And then, you know, some very practical questions. Hey, would you be open to doing a blog post about your work and how Kinsta has helped with this? Very low level asks, right? We&#8217;re not trying to ask people to get a tattoo of the logo on their forehead or something insane. It&#8217;s very low effort, and my argument to companies is be very cautious. Step lightly into the marketing aspect of all of this. That should not be your primary focus.</p>



<p>The primary focus is contributing to the open source project, not getting all this marketing benefit out of it. And so, you know, make sure to frame it that way.</p>



<p>From the individual contributors thing, one thing I do point out is, up until recently, I&#8217;ve never actually been formally approached by somebody asking for sponsorship to contribute. You kind of talked about, hey, if someone needed to spend a time reaching out to a hundred different companies, you don&#8217;t need to go that crazy. Just reach out to like the major hosting companies to start.</p>



<p>But my argument is you need to do more than just say, hey, I work on WordPress, you need to sponsor me. You need to put together a little bit more of a pitch of, hey, I work on X, it accomplishes Y. I see this benefiting your organisation in these specific ways. And if you&#8217;re approaching it that way, that&#8217;s going to catch someone&#8217;s attention much better.</p>



<p>You know, and then just ask also just simple questions. Hey, do you have a formal sponsorship contribution project for WordPress? And if they say no, maybe, hey, would you like me to help you set that up? If they say yes, then it&#8217;s, hey, what&#8217;s the process for getting involved in that?</p>



<p>These are just very simple questions. It&#8217;s just a conversation, right? I say this, I&#8217;ve been in sales for decades now. It&#8217;s second nature to me. I understand that for a lot of people, this isn&#8217;t second nature for them. And that&#8217;s also what I&#8217;m trying to help with in this conversation is, it&#8217;s not just the organisations I&#8217;m trying to educate, but it&#8217;s also the contributors and the people that are in the project. Helping them to understand how to speak business a little bit more, so that they can get the businesses to really understand the benefits of this.</p>



<p>[00:29:58] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> There was a few things that you said a few moments ago where the implication was basically just get started. So put aside some cash, decide that you&#8217;re going to do it, so this is from the business side, and then just begin and see what happens. I don&#8217;t suppose you&#8217;re going to be able to simulate the perfect system first time around. It&#8217;ll be an iterative process, but just commit to it.</p>



<p>But the ROI thing was also kind of interesting because you know, if you are senior management in Kinsta or whichever hosting company you want to imagine, there&#8217;s got to be I suppose some aspect of that in the back of your mind. Okay, we&#8217;re going to give away, I don&#8217;t know, a hundred thousand dollars this year, but we&#8217;re not going to ask anybody at all, at any point to sort of mention our company name. That&#8217;s probably unrealistic, but I like what you said there about the gentle approach to it, the write a blog post about it.</p>



<p>But there&#8217;s something to be explored there because there&#8217;s got to be a way of surfacing good work. So it doesn&#8217;t have to necessarily be a big clarion call. Look, I did this because Kinsta paid for it. More tangentially, I did this great work and I did this, and WordPress benefited as a result of this, and I would just like to thank Kinsta for making that possible.</p>



<p>I guess we&#8217;ve just got to figure out what that piece looks like because, you know, you can&#8217;t give away money for free. There does need to be some ROI, but we have to figure out how gentle that approach is, and how gung ho it can be or not. That&#8217;s going to be interesting to figure out.</p>



<p>[00:31:22] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Just to kind of elaborate on that for a second. So the way I would say to companies to approach looking at this is, this is branding, right? And so when you&#8217;re doing brand marketing, it&#8217;s very nebulous, right? You&#8217;re kind of putting stuff out there and there&#8217;s a little bit of goodwill to it, I guess, you know, the philanthropy part plays into it a little bit. This definitely, I would say, falls under your branding budget. And so you should treat it as such.</p>



<p>I think that there&#8217;s a few different ways that the marketing, and I&#8217;m using air quotes around marketing here, because I understand that for people in open source this can be a little bit of kryptonite, a little bit repellent to talk about it this way. So I&#8217;m trying to be cautious or gentle here.</p>



<p>But I think the marketing benefits are, there&#8217;s a ton of indirect benefits, right? So if I&#8217;m sponsoring a contributor, and they&#8217;re working on the project, it means they&#8217;re interacting with other contributors of the project. They&#8217;re going to mention, oh, hey, by the way, Kinsta is sponsoring me, in conversation.</p>



<p>And now you&#8217;ve got that one-on-one marketing, as it were, happening where that&#8217;s getting put into the project and that gets noticed. And I think that&#8217;s my big urge to companies who really want to step on the pedal of ROI. Like, hey, we need to really maximise the ROI here. Is it&#8217;s like, hey, the community notices as soon as you do something, good, bad, or indifferent. But as soon as you start sponsoring people, it gets noticed inside of the community right away, whether you immediately see it or not.</p>



<p>So allow that to happen, for sure. I think from like the blog posts and things like that, there&#8217;s two ways I approach it. I love it if a sponsored contributor writes a blog post on their blog and mentions Kinsta. That&#8217;s amazing. I&#8217;m not expecting that. So instead what I&#8217;ll do is I&#8217;ll invite them onto the Kinsta Talks podcast and, hey, let&#8217;s spend 20 minutes and just talk about what you&#8217;re doing on the project.</p>



<p>I mentioned Kinsta at the beginning of it, in the fact that that&#8217;s where I work. Other than that, I don&#8217;t talk about Kinsta at all. It&#8217;s all about this individual and what they&#8217;re doing on the project, what they&#8217;re excited about, how they would suggest people get involved in the project. And so using that as a promotion, and again, the indirect branding benefits. My fingers are crossed, I&#8217;m sure my CMO&#8217;s watching this and going, either he is loving it or he is gritting his teeth. I get the sense everybody&#8217;s very happy. Hey Matt, how are you?</p>



<p>The way I am approaching this is very much as an outsider and I&#8217;m trying to be very respectful of the fact that this community&#8217;s been around for a very long time. I am sure this is not the first time that these conversations have happened. I&#8217;m not the first person to bring these things up. I just see it as, I&#8217;m here as a unique person in this point in time and I see a need and I&#8217;m, we&#8217;ve gotten our organisation to help, start helping. And what I&#8217;m trying to promote is getting other organisations to also realise this, and also start promoting and sponsoring and contributing to the project.</p>



<p>[00:34:13] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think one of the things that will be really interesting is if, let&#8217;s say that you become the fulcrum for all of this, and so Roger Williams is known at Kinsta. He&#8217;s the person to go and speak to. Having that clarity is going to be really beneficial. So you don&#8217;t have to go through those email hoops of, okay, you just use the contact form on the website and then get put through nine different people who all say, actually it&#8217;s not me. Knowing who you&#8217;ve got to speak to, and having that clear process, that contact form, whatever that may be, that intake form that we talked about earlier, that&#8217;s really interesting.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m just going to pivot it slightly, and I&#8217;m wondering what the kind of contributions that might fall into scope for you at Kinsta. So obviously the software itself, the core project, WordPress Core would I&#8217;m sure be in view.</p>



<p>But what about other things like, oh, I don&#8217;t know, people who write documentation, you mentioned Polyglots? There&#8217;s obviously people who do event organising. There are people who do content creation, podcasts, YouTube channels, those kind of things. Do you have any constraints around the kind of contribution that you&#8217;d be interested in looking at, or will you listen to anybody?</p>



<p>[00:35:16] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Excellent question. And before I dive into that, I want to make sure that I&#8217;m not the only person taking credit for this at Kinsta. I have two amazing colleagues on the front lines with me. Marcel Bootsman, as you&#8217;re very familiar with, I think he&#8217;s been on your show before, he handles for Europe. And then Alex Michaelson, who is in APAC region. These are both amazing individuals who, we all three of us are on the front line, talking with contributors, sponsoring them, figuring all of this stuff out. So I definitely don&#8217;t want to take all of the credit here and make it seem that way.</p>



<p>As far as figuring out who to sponsor and who to contribute, this is the big question. The amazing thing is that this point in time, my bosses, our bosses at Kinsta have given us amazing leeway to really choose who we want to be sponsoring, and who we want to be working with.</p>



<p>And so there&#8217;s a bit of objective focus for who we&#8217;re sponsoring. Core contributors obviously, like they&#8217;re directly impacting the project by actually changing the code and adding features and fixing bugs. So that&#8217;s obviously very important.</p>



<p>But just as important is these other groups that are making sure that when a new person wants to use WordPress, there&#8217;s documentation that explains how to use the WordPress. When they want to go to a WordCamp and meet somebody, I mean Aaron Jorbin has a great story about meeting someone at one of the first contributor days that he went to. And they then became a core contributor within a short amount of time. And so that contributor day didn&#8217;t just happen, right? Like, people had to make that event happen, and organise it and have coffee and treats and lights and all of the things that go into that.</p>



<p>So I think that there&#8217;s a lot of levels here. Whether it&#8217;s directly sponsoring a contributor inside of the open source project. It&#8217;s sponsoring WordCamps, it&#8217;s sponsoring amazing podcasts that help to spread the word and market WordPress.</p>



<p>There&#8217;s people that have brought up that WordPress has kind of a marketing issue because it is this open source project that has just benefited from just a ton of people realising, wow, this is amazing software to build websites with. And they just started doing that, and 40% of the internet runs on WordPress.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s happened very, very organically. And I think though that we&#8217;re now at an inflection of the internet and the web where we maybe need to start becoming a little bit more intentional about the marketing and the promotion of WordPress.</p>



<p>[00:37:44] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> What I&#8217;m gathering from this is that, certainly from Kinsta&#8217;s point of view, you just want to make this whole bi-directional thing just clearer. Kinsta&#8217;s got some intention to sponsor, and we know who the people are, we know the kind of things that they want to sponsor. Maybe there&#8217;s going to be some sort of landing page for that or some intake form. And so hopefully people who have it in mind that they wish to be sponsored, they&#8217;ll be clearer on what kind of things are in scope, what kind of things are out of scope. How many people they need to jump through the hoops to get that sponsorship sorted out. So that kind of thing is really interesting.</p>



<p>What do you think about the idea of, so we haven&#8217;t discussed this, I&#8217;m just going to throw this in there. Do you think this is a company by company thing? So in other words, is Kinsta always going to be siloed in its approach to sponsoring? Or is there any kind of, I don&#8217;t know how this would work, but some kind of more overarching approach that may be required? So let&#8217;s say for example that, I don&#8217;t know, Kinsta do, they sponsor person X, person Y, person Z, as we say in the UK, but obviously that leaves all these other myriad people without sponsorship. Is there a way that you could communicate to other organisations?</p>



<p>Look, this person, they came to us, it was very close, but we didn&#8217;t manage to get them on the sponsorship roster this year. But we feel that they were really credible. Here&#8217;s somebody else that you can go and talk to. Do you know what I mean? Something just a little bit, a bigger umbrella organisation above Kinsta, maybe. Organisation, substitute that word for any kind of structure or governance as you like.</p>



<p>[00:39:12] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Yeah, there is a lot of stuff already around this. Courtney Robertson has WPCC.</p>



<p>[00:39:18] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> WP Community Collective.</p>



<p>[00:39:20] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Thank you. And so the idea with that group is kind of to create an organisation that handles the mechanism aspect of distributing funds and finding people to sponsor and contribute. I could see a consortium of hosting companies coming together and somehow working on this, but that adds additional complexities, right? You have now more organisations, you have more bodies deciding things and making decisions.</p>



<p>And again, going back to what I propose at the very end of the project is, don&#8217;t wait, just get started. My worry about having consortiums and larger organisations is it&#8217;s going to slow the process down, it&#8217;s going to complicate the process.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s mostly just because I have a big phobia of organisations and meetings. This is a personal kind of thing rather than, you know, I&#8217;m sure there&#8217;s ways to figure this out more. I have a job, right? I have to balance all of these things between working on what I need to actually work on inside of the company. Working on sponsoring contributors and focusing on the open source. So there&#8217;s a lot of balancing that goes on. I am open to having these discussions with people and organisations and seeing what can come of it.</p>



<p>Again, going back to feeling like an outsider and knowing that there&#8217;s already a ton of people and a ton of organisations involved in doing all of this work. I&#8217;ve reached out to many of them. They&#8217;ve given me great advice. They&#8217;ve really helped me get our program organised the way it is. They help me with my presentation and kind of figuring out what to talk about in here. And so I want to remain mindful that I don&#8217;t have all the answers, I&#8217;m not the only person that&#8217;s doing all of this, and I welcome people to come to me with suggestions and ideas, and I&#8217;m always open to talking.</p>



<p>[00:41:03] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s one size fits all really, is there? Because the WPCC feels like a really great initiative. It has more of a kind of escrow kind of service feel to it. In other words, Kinsta, you put in your X amount of dollars and then the WPCC will figure out where that might go. But it may be that, you know, you guys at Kinsta would like to have more of a kind of one-to-one relationship with the people that you are sponsoring. And so that&#8217;s fine.</p>



<p>Maybe you will have back channels to the people who do similar work at different companies. And so it will be more kind of laissez-faire than something a little bit more organised. Maybe it&#8217;ll just be more back channel kind of thing.</p>



<p>But that&#8217;s really interesting. Honestly, the time has got away with us. We&#8217;re at 45 minutes so far, so I think we&#8217;re fast approaching the amount of time that we&#8217;ve got available for us. Is there anything in this that we missed out? Was there any kernel, any little nugget somewhere that we failed to mention, or do you think we&#8217;ve covered the whole thing off?</p>



<p>[00:41:57] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> You know, I think the one thing that maybe we skipped through a little bit is how to get your organisation bought into this. We&#8217;ve talked about the reasoning. We&#8217;ve talked about how to sell it from the outside. We&#8217;ve talked about how to deal with the individual contributors. Inside of your organisation there&#8217;s, again, three ways that I approach this. I like the number three, I guess.</p>



<p>So when you&#8217;re making your internal pitch, this is all in the slide deck as well, understanding your organisational goals. So understand like, hey, we&#8217;re a hosting company, what&#8217;s important for a hosting company? Well, performance and security are pretty top things. So maybe that&#8217;s where you want to focus.</p>



<p>Again, also we have a ton of customers that are non-English speaking, so Polyglots makes a lot of sense. Understand the organisational goals so that when you go to your executives, you go to your leadership, whoever&#8217;s got the money, you&#8217;re framing this out in terms of how it benefits your organisation.</p>



<p>The second one is being patient, but being ready. So I started this conversation, I want to say late 2023, inside of Kinsta. And then about a year later, suddenly, out of the blue, hey, here&#8217;s your budget, go get to work. And so I needed to be ready. So we all needed to be ready. And we were. The good news is Marcel and Alex and myself, were already out in the community talking with people. We already were having some conversations about, ooh, who would we like to sponsor, who could use the sponsorship?</p>



<p>And so as soon as the budget was given to us, we were ready to go. And the reason that I recommend being ready is, these can be fleeting, right? Just because the executive has approved it this month doesn&#8217;t mean it&#8217;s necessarily going to be there the next month.</p>



<p>[00:43:37] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> And also the contributor might not be, you know, I&#8217;ve got two weeks now, I can do something right away.</p>



<p>[00:43:42] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Yeah, so be ready because they&#8217;re going to want to see results. And the results should be, the way you framed it, the results should just be, hey, we&#8217;re sponsoring contributor X, they&#8217;re doing Y and Z, oh, and I had them on a Kinsta Talk, and here&#8217;s actual proof of we&#8217;re doing stuff. So have all of that ready to go. Have a spreadsheet that tracks everything so you can track where the money&#8217;s going and it&#8217;s all clear.</p>



<p>Understand how your organisation wants to handle these things, right? Is it going to be as simple as, hey, here&#8217;s a credit card and here&#8217;s a GitHub sponsorship page? Is that going to be okay? Or does it need to be a little bit more, I say complicated, involved, right? Do you need to have a non disparaging contract, right? So that it&#8217;s understood, hey, we&#8217;re sponsoring you, it&#8217;d be best if you didn&#8217;t say bad things about us, please. Get that cleared, like figure that stuff out.</p>



<p>And then be ready for common objections, right? So they&#8217;re going to immediately come to you with, hey, why would we spend money on this? It&#8217;s something that we get for free. And be ready with that strategic and the operational and the second order benefits conversations. And know which of those is going to land with which manager, executive best. So getting that internal pitch ready and really creating the project so it&#8217;s ready for success from day one is really important.</p>



<p>[00:45:03] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, that&#8217;s really interesting because a lot of it, most of what we talked about in this conversation didn&#8217;t really dwell on that. It was more about the nuts and the bolts of trying to connect the two different sides. But you&#8217;ve obviously laid out the groundwork inside Kinsta to have this ready. And then the minute that the CEO or the CMO or whoever it is, says, right, Roger, here&#8217;s some money, you&#8217;re off, you&#8217;re ready to actually go and start seeking this stuff out.</p>



<p>I very much doubt that this conversation is going to have a perfect outcome. I don&#8217;t suppose there is a perfect system, but I appreciate the fact that you&#8217;re giving it a lot of thought over there, and you&#8217;re trying to figure out how to make these two sides collide in a way that is mutually beneficial. Because it certainly seems that with WordPress at 40% of the web, the money question is not going away, the philanthropic side of things is not going away, and we do have to have ways for these two sides to communicate successfully with each other.</p>



<p>So, okay, I will put links to anything that we have mentioned in the show notes. So if you go to wptavern.com, search for the episode with Roger Williams, you&#8217;ll be able to find everything there.</p>



<p>Just one last thing, Roger. Where can we find you apart from kinsta.com? Is there a place where you hang out online if somebody wants to pick this conversation up and run with it?</p>



<p>[00:46:11] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Yeah, absolutely. I am a big user of LinkedIn. I post there pretty regularly. If you interact with me in the comments, I will love you forever, you&#8217;re my best friend. I love it when people ask me questions, or challenge me in the comments like, let&#8217;s have conversations there. Feel free to reach out to me and let&#8217;s talk, I wanna figure this stuff out.</p>



<p>[00:46:30] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Roger Williams, thank you so much for chatting to me today. I really appreciate it.</p>



<p>[00:46:34] <strong>Roger Williams:</strong> Thank you very much, Nathan. I appreciate everything that you do for the community and thank you for the time and letting me be on.</p>
</div></details>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerwilliamsmedia/">Roger Williams</a>.</p>



<p>Roger Williams leads community and partner engagement at Kinsta, a company specialising in offering managed hosting for WordPress. His role involves bridging the gap between Kinsta and the wider WordPress community, working closely with agency partners, technology collaborators, and open source initiatives. Throughout his career, Roger has been deeply involved in community efforts and has recently played a key part in Kinsta’s implementation of a sponsored contributions program, helping to funnel time and resources back into WordPress and other open source projects.</p>



<p>Many long-standing members of the WordPress community have contributed out of passion and a spirit of philanthropy, but as the project has grown to power over 40% of the web, the need for sustainable funding and sponsorship has become more pronounced. Roger joins us today to explore this shift, he shares insights from his WordCamp US presentation titled ‘Figuring Out Sponsored Contribution’, discussing how companies can start funding contributors, why that matters, and how to balance the business need for a return on investment with the grassroots spirit of open source.</p>



<p>We begin with Roger’s background, his work at Kinsta, and how he became involved in WordPress community sponsorship. The conversation then gets into the ever evolving dynamics of sponsored contributions: how businesses can approach funding contributors, ways to surface and support valuable work, and strategies for aligning company goals with broader project needs.</p>



<p>Roger breaks down the practical arguments companies can use to get internal buy-in, and the importance of clear processes, for both organisations looking to sponsor, and individuals seeking support.</p>



<p>Towards the end, Roger reflects on the challenges and opportunities of connecting those from both the philanthropic and commercial sides of WordPress, and he shares advice for anyone hoping to get their organisation involved in similar programs.</p>



<p>If you’re interested in how WordPress sponsorships work, how business and community might collaborate, or you’re seeking practical advice as a contributor or company, this episode is for you.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Useful links</h2>



<p><a href="https://kinsta.com">Kinsta</a></p>



<p><a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2025/session/figuring-out-sponsored-contribution/">Figuring Out Sponsored Contribution</a> &#8211; Roger&#8217;s presentation at WordCamp US 2025</p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/about/">Polyglots team</a></p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/">WordPress Documentation</a></p>



<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhYfuAN3YCfxLV7E6_q_8lClVU-TPyRBS">Kinsta Talks Podcast</a> on YouTube</p>



<p><a href="https://www.thewpcommunitycollective.com">WPCC</a></p>



<p>Roger on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerwilliamsmedia/">LinkedIn</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 12 Nov 2025 15:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"Open Channels FM: Building a Culture of Openness and Growth Around Accessibility in Tech";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:33:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=112121";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"https://openchannels.fm/building-a-culture-of-openness-and-growth-around-accessibility-in-tech/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:252:"In this episode, Anne Bovelett discusses web accessibility with Marc Haunschild, emphasizing its benefits and challenges. They provide practical advice for developers, advocate for diverse teams, and promote small, iterative changes toward inclusivity.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 12 Nov 2025 10:09:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:48;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26:"Matt: Buffett Thanksgiving";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:23:"https://ma.tt/?p=150541";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"https://ma.tt/2025/11/buffett-thanksgiving/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:849:"<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>Choose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them. You will never be perfect, but you can always be better.</p>
</blockquote>



<p>I&#8217;m an unabashed fan of Warren Buffett and the late Charlie Munger, <a href="https://www.berkshirenerds.store/">I even have bronze busts of them in my office</a>! I was very lucky to <a href="https://ma.tt/2025/05/berkshire/">attend his last shareholder meeting</a>, as part of stepping down he&#8217;ll no longer write their <a href="https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html">legendary shareholder updates</a>, but he will keep doing his Thanksgiving letters.</p>



<p> <a href="https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/nov1025.pdf">You should give it a read</a>. It&#8217;s heartbreaking and beautiful.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 12 Nov 2025 07:33:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:49;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:21:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 6.9 Release Candidate 1";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=19317";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wordpress.org/news/2025/11/wordpress-6-9-release-candidate-1/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9329:"<p>The first Release Candidate (“RC1”) for WordPress 6.9 is ready for download and testing!</p>



<p><strong>This version of the WordPress software is still under development</strong>. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, it’s recommended to evaluate RC1 on a test server and site.</p>



<p>WordPress 6.9 RC1 can be tested using any of the following methods:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table class="has-fixed-layout"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Plugin</strong></td><td>Install and activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream.)</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Direct Download</strong></td><td>Download the <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.9-RC1.zip">RC1 version (zip)</a> and install it on a WordPress website.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Command Line</strong></td><td>Use this <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/cli/">WP-CLI</a> command: <br /><code>wp core update --version=6.9-RC1</code></td></tr><tr><td><strong>WordPress Playground</strong></td><td>Use the <a href="https://playground.wordpress.net/?php=8.3&amp;wp=beta&amp;networking=no&amp;language=&amp;multisite=no&amp;random=y4q1rn88xn">6.9 RC1 WordPress Playground instance</a> to test the software directly in your browser. No setup is required &#8211; just click and go! </td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



<p>The scheduled final release date for WordPress 6.9 is <strong>December 2, 2025</strong>. The full <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-9/">release schedule can be found here</a>. Your help testing Beta and RC versions is vital to making this release as stable and powerful as possible.</p>



<p>Please continue checking the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">Make WordPress Core blog</a> for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/6-9/">6.9-related posts</a> in the coming weeks for more information.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What’s in WordPress 6.9 RC1?</h2>



<p>Check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/10/21/wordpress-6-9-beta-1/">Beta 1 announcement</a> for details on WordPress 6.9.</p>



<p>You can browse the technical details for all issues addressed since Beta 4 using these links:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/commits/wp/6.9?since=2025-11-07&amp;until=2025-11-11">Gutenberg commits for 6.9</a> since November 7, 2025</li>



<li><a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/log/?revs=61183-61203">Core commits for 6.9</a> since November 7, 2025</li>



<li><a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&amp;changetime=11%2F07%2F2025..11%2F11%2F2025&amp;milestone=6.9&amp;group=component&amp;col=id&amp;col=summary&amp;col=milestone&amp;col=changetime&amp;col=type&amp;order=id">Closed Trac tickets</a> since November 7, 2025</li>
</ul>



<p>Want to know more about this release? Here are some highlights:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Site Editor improvements and Refined content creation
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Ability to hide blocks</li>



<li>New blocks </li>



<li>Notes on blocks</li>



<li>Universal command palette in wp-admin</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li>Developer updates
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Updates to dataviews and dataforms components</li>



<li>New abilities API</li>



<li>Updates to interactivity API </li>



<li>Updates to block binding API</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li>Performance Improvements
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Improved script and style handling</li>



<li>Optimized queries and caching</li>



<li>Added ability to handle “fetchpriority” in ES Modules and Import Maps</li>



<li>Standardizing output buffering</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



<p>The final release is on track for December 2nd. As always, a successful release depends on your confirmation during testing. So please download and test!</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How you can contribute</h2>



<p>WordPress is open source software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the world’s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Get involved in testing</h3>



<p>Testing for issues is crucial to the development of any software. It’s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. </p>



<p>Your help testing the WordPress 6.9 RC1 version is key to ensuring that the final release is the best it can be. While testing the upgrade process is essential, trying out new features is equally important. This <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2025/10/21/help-test-wordpress-6-9/">detailed guide</a> will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.9.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Calls for testing</h4>



<p>Thank you to everyone who helps test the following enhancements and bug fixes:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2025/10/06/call-for-testing-accordion-block/">Accordion Block</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2025/10/04/call-for-testing-ability-to-hide-blocks/">Ability to Hide Blocks</a></li>



<li><a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/64099">Classic themes loading block styles on demand</a></li>



<li><a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/64204">Modified notes notifications</a></li>



<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2025/11/10/abilities-api-in-wordpress-6-9/">Abilities API</a></li>
</ul>



<p>If you encounter an issue, please report it to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta area</a> of the support forums, or directly to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">WordPress Trac</a> if you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report. You can also check your issue against a list of <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">known bugs</a>.</p>



<p>Thank you to everyone who helps with testing!</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Update your theme or plugin</h3>



<p>For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.</p>



<p>Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.9 beta releases. With RC1, you’ll want to conclude your testing and update the <em>“Tested up to”</em> version in your <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/how-your-readme-txt-works/">plugin’s readme file</a> to 6.9. </p>



<p>If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">support forum</a>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Test on your hosting platforms</h3>



<p>Web hosts provide vital infrastructure for supporting WordPress and its users. Testing on hosting systems helps inform the development process while ensuring that WordPress and hosting platforms are fully compatible, free of errors, optimized for the best possible user experience, and that updates roll out to customer sites without issue.</p>



<p>Want to test WordPress on your hosting system? <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/test-results-getting-started/">Get started with configuring distributed hosting tests here</a>. Thank you to all <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/hosting/test-results/">web hosts who help test WordPress</a>!</p>



<p>Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/">testing initiatives in Make Core</a> and join the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/messages/core-test/">#core-test channel</a> on <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/">Making WordPress Slack</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">An RC1 haiku</h2>



<p><em>As the sun rises</em>,</p>



<p><em>RC1 breaks its cocoon</em></p>



<p><em>and emerges strong</em>.</p>



<p class="has-text-align-right"><em>Props to </em><a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/akshayar/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>akshayar</a><em>, </em><a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>davidbaumwald</a>, <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffpaul/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>jeffpaul</a>, <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>desrosj</a>, <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/westonruter/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>westonruter</a>, <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ellatrix/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>ellatrix</a>, <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/priethor/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>priethor</a>, <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/krupajnanda/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>krupajnanda</a> <em>and</em> <a class="mention" href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbravobernal/"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>cbravobernal</a> <em>for proofreading and review.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 11 Nov 2025 15:34:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Amy Kamala";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";a:9:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Mon, 08 Dec 2025 16:59:48 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Mon, 08 Dec 2025 16:45:18 GMT";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:16:"content-encoding";s:4:"gzip";s:7:"alt-svc";s:19:"h3=":443"; ma=86400";s:4:"x-nc";s:9:"HIT ord 1";}s:5:"build";i:1760618736;s:21:"cache_expiration_time";i:1765256390;s:23:"__cache_expiration_time";i:1765256390;}