Read to the end to see a cat who is definitely asleep and not up to ANYTHING suspicious…
In today’s edition:
- Cheers to the WordPress Plugin Review Team for digging themselves out of one hell of a backlog.
- HeroPress celebrates folks who have used WordPress to make the world a better place, and we’re here for it.
- Is your site’s CPU usage is off the charts? We’ve got some helpful tips to calm it down.
Hot Off The Presses: What’s New?
Well…
That was quite a thing that happened, wasn’t it?
ANYWAAAAAAAAY…
Plugin Review Team Achieves Inbox Zero
To cleanse your mental palate from all the drama and strife, how about an inspiring success story?
A year ago, the folks on the WordPress Plugin Review Team were staring down a backlog of 1,260 plugins awaiting review, following the departure of their long-time rep Mika Epstein in July of 2023.
It had gotten pretty bad. Developers were literally giving up on submitting plugins because they looked at the 91-day queue and thought, “Nope.”
But in a remarkable turnaround nothing short of #productivityporn, the team recently hit zero backlog, with a wait time of only seven days.
How’d they do it?
Well, they onboarded new members and put systems in place to get through plugin reviews quicker, of course. But one of the smartest changes was an email to plugin authors in the queue instructing them on how to self-check their plugins to meet basic security standards, so the queue wasn’t filled with the same 3-4 most basic errors.
They also built PluginCheck, which allows authors to self-review for common errors before submitting their plugin.
Of course, the volunteer team can’t rest on their virtual laurels now. After all, as SiteGround-sponsored reviewer Francisco Torres writes, hundreds more responses will continue to pour in so they need to keep working at a steady pace.
But still, we agree with Alex Standiford when he says, “Holy cow Francisco. That’s amazing.”
Let’s Hear it For HeroPress As They Celebrate 10 Years
You know what? Let’s stick with the theme of celebrating the accomplishments of the folks that make the WordPress community happen.
HeroPress, a site that features stories by people who’ve used WordPress to change the world in a positive way, is celebrating it’s 10 year anniversary – so cheers to that! 🥂
Founder Topher DeRosia started the site in 2014 and since then, they’ve published 278 essays in 29 languages, from 66 countries.
It’s worth taking a look through the story archive if you want to feel inspired, motivated and kinda…*sniff* emotional about the potential WordPress has to impact people’s lives.
Syed Laden writes in his essay, “the WordPress community taught me the value of respect and the beauty of collaboration,” and well, we couldn’t say it better ourselves.
(If you can spare a few bucks, DeRosia is seeking donations to keep the site running.)
6.7 Beta 3 Is Ready for Testing, Folks!
In the mood to poke around a beta version and hunt for bugs? 🐛
The target date for the final release of WordPress 6.7 is November 12, 2024. (OMG… that’s less than an month away!)
Beta releases have been available for testing for the last couple of weeks, and we’re currently up to Beta 3 which just dropped on October 15th.
If you want to give it a spin, you can test it using the WordPress Beta Tester plugin, direct download or through WordPress Playground.
Take a peek at the new default theme, Twenty Twenty-Five, try the Zoom Out view to compose with patterns and check out the enhanced Styles interface that allows you to edit and control font size presets.
And if you’re successful in your bug hunt, there’s good news. Until the final Release Candidate drops on November 5th, 2024, the monetary reward for reporting new security vulnerabilities is doubled, with the average bounty at around $300. Cha-ching, baby!
Mind Bloggling Facts & Stats
- According to the 2022 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability Survey, downtime costs businesses approximately $301,000 per hour. (Source)
- Based on the stats uncovered by the State of Headless 2024 research report, 73% of CTOs, CMOs and IT decision makers are now using headless web architecture. Very Sleepy Hollow of them. (Source)
- WordPress Developer Ciprian Popescu found adding a code that displayed the “estimated reading time” of his content increased the time visitors spent on his site by 13.8%. Visitors also followed and subscribed more, and retweeted articles 66.7% more often. (Source)
- The highest individual bug bounty ever paid in WordPress history (so far) was $14,400. John Blackbourn took it home, for reporting a critical inauthentic privilege escalation vulnerability in the LiteSpeed Cache Plugin. Nice one, John! (Source)
Deep Dive: CPU Later, Alligator! 🐊 How to Minimize High CPU Usage and Speed Up WordPress
Let’s be real—there’s nothing worse than a sluggish WordPress site. If your CPU usage is out of control, it drags your site’s performance down with it, causing slow load times, angry users, and an SEO ranking nosedive.
High CPU usage means your server is working overtime to keep up, often because of bloated plugins, inefficient queries, or too many background processes. Luckily, you can fix this before it becomes a full-on dumpster fire.
Here’s how to keep your site from gobbling up CPU:
- Monitor Resource Hogs: Use tools like Query Monitor or New Relic to spot what’s dragging your server down—whether it’s a bad query, plugin, or cron job.
- Ditch Greedy Plugins: Many plugins are power hungry and they’ll be running background tasks that’ll increase your CPU usage. Ditch any plugins you don’t need, especially those that collect data as they’ll be your worst culprit.
- Cache Is King: Dynamic content generation eats CPU. Instead, use caching plugins like WP Rocket, WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache to serve pre-built pages to users. You’ll cut server load and speed things up instantly.
- Lower Your Heartbeat: WordPress’ Heartbeat API syncs data between your browser and the server, but it’s a known resource killer. Use a plugin like Heartbeat Control to tame it.
- Go Easy on External Requests: External API calls (like fetching data from social media feeds) can spike CPU usage. Minimize or cache these requests when possible.
- Consider a Better Hosting Plan: Sometimes it’s not you, it’s your hosting. If you’ve outgrown shared hosting, it’s time to level up to VPS or managed hosting for better resource management
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Keeping CPU usage low is like changing the oil in your car—regular maintenance saves you from costly disasters. Stay proactive, keep an eye on your processes, and always be optimizing. Your users (and Google) will thank you.
Blogs & Resources You Shouldn’t Miss
If you’re responsible for marketing a WordPress product and you’re like, “Oh crap, what’s our Black Friday plan?!” – this episode of the Post Status Happiness Hour might help.
The most recent Developer Hours session is all about how to simplify client editing – and you can watch it on YouTube here.
Donata Stroink-Skillrud of Termageddon talks about “Privacy by Design” on the WP Tavern podcast. Basically, it’s all about integrating privacy measures from the start of every project. (aka a smart move.)
“Hello World!” WP Shout wants to hear what you think about the WordPress brand tone of voice. You can fill out the 5 minute survey here.
And in some pawsitive news, PupPress.org (“a WordPress fork run by dogs”) is currently fetching a lot of attention while raising money for abandoned pets in Ukraine.
