HeroPress, launched by Topher DeRosia, has turned ten. Born from the idea of amplifying the voices of those who have overcome significant challenges, HeroPress has spent the last decade celebrating the diverse and inspiring journeys of people who have found strength, opportunity, and success through their connection with WordPress. At its core, HeroPress is about…
The 2024 State of Enterprise WordPress Survey is now open. This marks the second year Big Bite, a UK-based enterprise WordPress agency, is conducting this survey. Last year, over 100 prominent organizations using WordPress, including Macy’s, New Statesman Media Group, and The Times, participated. The 2023 report highlighted how enterprises monetize their websites, with 9…
Yesterday, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg announced the forking of the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin into a new plugin called Secure Custom Fields. In the announcement, he stated: “On behalf of the WordPress security team, I am announcing that we are invoking point 18 of the plugin directory guidelines and are forking Advanced Custom Fields…
The ongoing WP Engine-Automattic issue shows no signs of being resolved and has, in fact, increased in intensity. The conflict started last month with Matt Mullenweg’s spiciest Word Camp presentation at WordCamp US 2024 where he accused WP Engine of being a “cancer to WordPress”. Yesterday, users who logged onto the WordPress.org home page were…
Matt Mullenweg has announced that Mary Hubbard will take over as the new Executive Director of WordPress.org on 21st October, 2024, following the resignation of Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Mary is taking on this new role after stepping down as the Head of TikTok Americas, Governance and Experience. She is not a stranger to the WordPress…
WPGraphQL, a popular plugin that provides an extendable GraphQL schema and API for WordPress sites, is set to become a canonical plugin on WordPress.org. Its creator and maintainer, Jason Bahl, has joined Automattic after spending 3.5 years at WP Engine, allowing him to continue his work on WPGraphQL. WPGraphQL adds a flexible and powerful GraphQL…
When WP Engine was blocked from accessing WordPress.org, users were left wondering what the future holds for ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) and how this ban will impact their sites moving forward. ACF Blocked from WordPress.org On October 03, 2024, ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) announced via X that “The ACF team has been blocked from accessing…
Josepha Haden Chomphosy has stepped down from Automattic, where she served as the Executive Director of the WordPress project. She was also leading Automattic’s open-source division, championing the efforts of developers, designers, community builders, and WordPress advocates. She has now updated her title in the WordPress Slack to “Community Steward.” Like Josepha, 159 employees left…
The Social Web Foundation was officially launched on September 24, 2024, with a mission to foster a “growing, healthy, financially viable, and multi-polar Fediverse.” This non-profit organization is spearheaded by Evan Prodromou (Research Director), Mallory Knodel (Executive Director), and Tom Coates (Product Director) and is dedicated to uniting social networks through the open standard protocol,…
While the controversy between Automattic and WP Engine was unfolding, social media discussions surged about whether Automattic employees not agreeing with Matt were offered an ultimatum to quit and exit with a generous payout. In response, Matt Mullenweg addressed the situation in a blog post titled Automattic Alignment. He has clarified that: “It became clear…
Security Review Lead Chris Christoff has announced two new changes for the WordPress Plugin Directory, effective from October 1, 2024. These changes aim to enhance plugin directory security and promote best practices among plugin developers. Mandatory Two-Factor Authentication As of October 1, 2024, all plugin owners and committers must enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) to submit…
As the Automattic-WP Engine controversy continues, Automattic published the term sheet delivered to WP Engine on September 20, 2024. “In the interest of transparency, we’ve published the term sheet we offered to @LeeEWittlinger and @heatherjbrunner, it’s a simple one-pager.”, tweeted Matt Mullenweg. The announcement post reveals that initial discussions between Automattic and WP Engine began in…
After a brief reprieve, WP Engine has been banned again from WordPress.org and the company took to X to share: “Thousands of WordPress community members have once again been blocked from accessing WordPress.org. WP Engine has commenced deployment of its solution for accessing updates and installations for plugins and themes across our customers’ sites. We…
InstaWP, known for its innovative one-click WordPress sandbox launcher, has launched AnyoneCanWP, the world’s first online hackathon dedicated to WordPress development. Registrations are open now, and participants can submit their projects until October 26. The hackathon will officially begin on October 11, 2024, with a keynote address by Joost de Valk, founder of Yoast SEO…
Matt Mullenweg has announced that the restrictions on WP Engine will be temporarily lifted until October 1, 00:00 UTC, allowing them to access WordPress servers. WP Engine was banned on September 25 from utilizing any WordPress.org resources following legal actions related to trademark disputes, which left WP Engine customers unable to access the Plugin/Theme directory…