Read to the end to see a very satisfying performance by a hard-working stripper…
In today’s edition:
- Why can’t the web be both weird AND accessible, at the same time?
- The 6.8 Release Squad is assembled and ready to roll out.
- ⚠️Content Warning: There’s a really dumb knock-knock joke in this one. Watch out.
Hot Off The Presses: What’s New?
My Resolution is to Stop Procrastinating. Gonna Start Tomorrow for Sure.
Welcome to 2025, you gorgeous thing. Missed you! How ARE you? You look great. 💕
We’ve finally emerged from our festive roast potato coma and we’re in full New Year mode. Everyone’s “circling back” and “touching base” and “putting their left foot in and shaking it all about” or whatever. We’re just gonna simply join in and pretend we know what’s going on.
We were going to quit all of our bad habits this year but hey… no one likes a quitter.
So instead let’s start this year full of energy and potential, like a goofy kid at the top of a waterslide, ready to flail screaming, hair flying, swim trunks flapping, into 2025!
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Radio.
Radio who?
Radio not, it’s a new year, baby!
Ooof… okay sorry about that. But anyway…
In The Words of Shania Herself, “Let’s Go Girls!”
The WordPress community team has proposed hosting women-centric events on International Women’s Day (March 8th) throughout local WordPress communities around the world.
We’re talking networking sessions, workshops, learning activities and talks and all that awesome, collaborative stuff. The initiative, proposed by Pooja Derashri, aims to “spark meaningful conversations and encourage more women to join, lead and contribute to WordPress.” We love to see it!
Keen to host an event? Apply via the Creative WordPress Events Form. Want to help out by designing banners, logos and female Wapuu designs? Comment on the post here.
“Make the Web Weird Again!”
In a recent blog post, Nick Hamze raises a call to arms to all us creative little freaks out there to “make the web weird again.”
Lamenting the samey and monotonous look of many websites, Nick wants us to embrace quirky and distinctive designs that truly reflect our “unique voice and vision.” He even put together a collection of the kind of wacko themes that he has in mind, including a pretty bitchin’ 80s vaporwave aesthetic theme that we wish we had a reason to use.
Of course, we’re totally big fans of creativity, thinking outside the box and strange, personality-packed websites. But as Amber Hinds points out, accessibility is important too.
And when it comes to that, we’re with the Old El Paso kid when she says, “¿por qué no los dos?”
As Amber points out, “Themes can be both accessible and weird. They’re not conflicting goals.” As Steve Jones adds to the conversation, “Accessible isn’t a type of theme. All themes should aim to be accessible.”
There’s room for personal expression AND inclusion on the web. Thinking about how to make your sites accessible and easy-to-use for all is part of the creative challenge.
As the W3C Statement on Ethical Web Principles states, “the web is for all people.” But, unfortunately, at the moment that’s far from reality. A new report reveals that no U.S. state website fully meets the upcoming Department of Justice accessibility requirements. Over 96% of the world’s top one million web pages are not accessible to WCAG 2 standards.
Does accessibility restrict the possibilities of your design? Well, yeah of course it does. There are certain limits on what you can build and still have it accessible.
But does that hinder your creativity? Not necessarily. Sometimes, restrictions can enhance creativity and provide opportunities for brilliant problem solving.
Want to learn more about making WordPress more accessible?
6.8 Release Squad… Assemble!
The lean, mean, release machine of WordPress 6.8 was just announced a few days ago. The tight team is focused less on new features this time around and more on fine-tuning and bug-fixing, to make sure everything is as polished as possible.
The squad is helmed by Matt Mullenweg, with Jeffrey Paul and Michelle Frechette coordinating efforts.
In addition to Mullenweg and the coordinators, we’ve got:
So, why so minimalist? This smaller crew continues the experiment that started with 6.7 of merging together the Marketing and Communications Lead with Release Coordination in order to gather more feedback on that experiment.
Turns out, after reviewing ongoing initiatives, the team decided fewer features were ready for primetime. That means WordPress 6.8 is laser-focused on stability and performance. But hey, if something shiny is ready to go, we’re sure they won’t hold it back.
Key Dates to Remember
- Beta 1: March 4, 2025
- Release Candidate 1: March 25, 2025
- General Release: April 15, 2025
Want to get involved? Although the release squad has already been chosen, it takes a village to raise a new version of WordPress. If you want to roll up your sleeves and take part, you can join the #core channel in Slack, where the next weekly chat is happening on Wednesday January 15th at 8pm UTC.
One Last Dumb Joke for You…
Did you hear about the guy who was caught shoplifting a calendar on New Years?
He got 12 months.
Mind Bloggling Facts & Stats
- According to the Cloudflare Radar 2024 Year in Review, Global internet traffic rose more than 17% in 2024. That might sound crazy, but it’s actually a slow down from last year when traffic grew by 25%. (Source)
- Over 41% of that traffic came from mobile devices. Plus, there are nearly 100 countries where mobile traffic is the majority! For example, over 77% came from mobile devices in Syria, Cuba and Sudan. (Source)
- In 2024, there were approximately 4,740 enhancements and fixes across all areas of WordPress between the three major new releases. Talk about a glow-up! (Source)
- Can you believe we’re on the 200th release of Gutenberg already? And that it’s been four years since the 100th release? Time flies, man. (Source)
Blogs & Resources You Shouldn’t Miss
A LOT happened in the WordPress world in 2024. Martin Dubovic over at Themeisle recaps it well in this post. | The 2024 WP Awards have been well, awarded… and you can check out the full results here. | Stefana offers some smart advice on the art and strategy of building a community. | “Sheep are not like ideas.” Seth Godin muses on the magic of the commons. | Love the free tools Meta Box offers for custom fields and dynamic content? Now there’s a Lite version. | On this episode of the Seriously, Bud? Podcast, Bud Kraus has a fascinating conversation with Anna Hurko from Kherson, Ukraine about running Crocoblock while trying to stay safe during the war. | Karol Krol figured out a FREE way to export all your WordPress posts to Google Sheets… automatically. Say whaaat? Now that’s clever.
Coffee Break Distractions
Oohh this little song maker gadget is so fun… could waste a LOT of time on this one.
Or you could play the simple but addictive old-school Minesweeper.
If one of your 2025 goals is to read more, check out this very handy reading tracker spreadsheet.
