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In episode 24 of the WordPress Briefing, the Project’s Executive Director reviews three big-picture goals for the year: Increased Gutenberg adoption, support of all open source alternatives, and stewarding the open source ethos.

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

Credits

• Editor: Dustin Hartzler
• Logo: Beatriz Fialho
• Production: Chloé Bringmann
• Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod

References

• Big Picture Goals 2022
• Preliminary Roadmap for 6.0 (Gutenberg Phase 2)
• A New News Design
• Making WordPress: Unofficial aggregator for all Making WordPress blogs

Transcript

Episode 24

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  00:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project. Some insight into the community that supports it and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go!

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  01:07

A couple of weeks ago, I published a post about the big picture goals for the WordPress project in 2022. As I was thinking through our planned releases for the year and looking out toward what would spell success for WordPress over the next three years, three things really lined up in both sets of answers for me.

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  01:23

I provided some detail on how we can work toward these goals in the post, which I will link for you in the show notes, but I also wanted to take some time to explain why I feel we have to work toward these goals this year. So these all build on one another. To refresh your memory of the three big focuses, they are one to drive adoption of the new editor in WordPress, support open source alternatives for site building necessities, and three, open source stewardship. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  01:52

So the first one; is driving the adoption of the new WordPress editor. Early on in the start of the Gutenberg Project, folks could not go two days without hearing me talk about the phases of adoption and how those line up with the phases of Gutenberg, and who would need our support the most in each of those phases.

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  02:09

I have always believed that what we would be shipping at this point in our project would prove the plausible promise of what we were doing in phase one. That’s definitely what I’m seeing from what was shipped in 5.9, as well as what we plan to ship in May with 6.0. And the people who need the most support right now are absolutely our users, your clients, no matter whether they were not keeping up with WordPress developments or simply were waiting to see what all the fuss was about. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  02:37

There will be people who look to you as someone who has been here a while to help them make sense of what they’re seeing. And what I find so exciting about this adoption, sort of, work in the WordPress project is that this is the time when we as practitioners of WordPress, no matter whether you are a designer or a developer or builder, business coach. This is the time when we get to guide others through the hardest parts of our learning processes. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  03:07

The process of helping people to learn new technologies relies not only on your hard-won expertise but also on the belief that the future is worth fighting for. Enabling someone’s success is an investment in the future and investment for that person or for WordPress or your community. All investments are welcome here. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  03:28

Fortunately, table stakes are just that you care. And speaking of future investments, the second focus is open source alternatives for site building necessities. So things like images, forms, stores, themes, etc. It literally just things you need to build a site. I would like to start by saying that I am completely aware of the fact that 99% of WordPress users will never care about open source freedoms and philosophies in the same way that WordPress maintainers and contributors care about open source freedoms and philosophies. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  04:04

You could substitute the name of any other open source project right there, and the statement would still be true. And yet, I will always believe that people should have the rights and freedoms that open source brings to them even if they do not know they are there. And so it makes all the sense in the world to me that as a project and open source community, we should strive to make choosing Open Source as easy as possible. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  04:33

And finally, open source stewardship is one of the focuses for this year. This one is obviously about supporting open source as a concept and maintaining WordPress as a project. But I also think that it is relevant to our current global circumstances. Open Source suddenly became very visible to the public eye last year following the Log4J vulnerability, and ever since then, I’ve been hearing consistent concern over how We make sure that WordPress is sustainable moving into the future. Fortunately, this is a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. And I have been delighted to see so many community members bringing that conversation to the forefront. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  05:14

There is a lot that is done in the WordPress project to keep us from the tragedy of the commons. But that work honestly never ends. Not only does it not end, but as we get bigger, there is more and more that we can and should be doing to keep us around for the long term. And, of course, for the keen readers of my posts, there’s a bonus focus. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  05:39

The bonus focus is, of course, that WordPress turns 20 years old next year. This year, we will also be seeing some preparatory work for that major milestone as well.

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  05:56

So that brings us today to our small list of big things. There is a redesign of the News Page coming. We’ve been talking about this over on make.wordpress.org/design for a bit since like June of last year or something. But it’s coming in the next few weeks. I’ll share a link to the GitHub repo in case anyone has any specific things that they see as they are reading through all of our many news stories that come out on that particular page. I think it’s beautiful, and I’m very excited to take a look at it. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  06:30

The second thing is that planning is underway for WordPress 6.0; that release that we’re doing in May. I’ll add the project page link to the show notes. I’ve had a few raised hands for that release squad. But if you’re interested in participating in the release, I encourage you to keep an eye out on make.wordpress.org/core for updates and any news about how to get involved. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  06:53

And my third thing is actually that, in general, there are a lot of opportunities to contribute right now. There are discussions about projects, goals, and dreams happening all over the place. I’ll link in the show notes below the unofficial project “firehose” where you can see all the headlines and quickly find discussions that might be interesting to you. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  07:18

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

There are a few significant moments in the history of the WordPress project. January 2022 is one of them, with the release of WordPress 5.9! But that’s not all. Read on to learn more about the latest updates and achievements from the community.

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WordPress 5.9 Joséphine is here

Meet WordPress 5.9 Joséphine. Named in honor of the acclaimed jazz singer, Joséphine Baker, this is one of the much-awaited releases. Version 5.9 brings full site editing to WordPress, among other exciting updates! Download WordPress 5.9 and try the new features!

Check out the WordPress 5.9 Field Guide to learn more. Lastly, everyone’s invited to participate in a retrospective of the WordPress 5.9 Joséphine release!

Are you interested in contributing to WordPress core? Join the #core channel, follow the Core Team blog, and check out the team handbook. Also, don’t miss the Core Team’s weekly developer chat on Wednesdays at 8 PM UTC.

Gutenberg releases: Versions 12.3, 12.4, and 12.5 are here

The Core Team launched three new versions of Gutenberg since last month’s edition of the Month in WordPress.

• Gutenberg 12.5 brings global styles variations and Query Loop block enhancements, along with the Code Editor view to the Side Editor. Moreover, inserting new buttons is now easier than ever!
• Gutenberg 12.4 was released on January 19, 2022. This version includes accessibility improvements, suggestions for assigning categories, keyboard shortcuts for the Site Editor, and more. 
• Gutenberg 12.3 was released on January 5, 2022. This release brings new blocks, like the Author Name, Comments Next Page, and Comments Previous Page blocks, and many other cool updates!

Want to get involved in developing Gutenberg? Follow the Core Team blog, contribute to Gutenberg on GitHub, and join the #core-editor channel in the Make WordPress Slack. Follow the #gutenberg-new tag for details on the latest updates.

Team updates: Proposals, announcements, and more for 2022

• Executive Director Josepha Haden shared a proposal on 2022 major release timing. 
• The Core Team made a proposal regarding proper attributions for contributions to WordPress on GitHub, but it has since then been withdrawn. 
• Check out the preliminary roadmap for WordPress 6.0 (Gutenberg Phase Two). 
• Core Team members proposed improvements to the Core Editor chat agenda and format. 
• The Accessibility Team made some major goal proposals for WordPress 6.0.
• The Polyglots Team shared a proposal for a milestone template for polyglots locale teams.
• The January 2022 edition of the Polyglots monthly newsletter is out!
• The Community Team shared an open invitation for the Diverse Speaker Training group Zoom call.
• Although the WordPress Photo Directory hasn’t fully launched yet, you can now submit your images. You can also contribute in other ways, as there’s currently a call for volunteers.
• The Community Team will be hosting open discussion sessions to collaborate on the Community Team goals for 2022. 
• The January 2022 edition of the Meetup Organizer Newsletter was published.
• The Community Team shared a proposal for mandatory safety measures for in-person WordPress events this year. 
• Openverse has now a redesigned user interface and includes support for audio files. Check out this post to learn what’s new.
• The Training Team published its February 2022 Team Sprint.

Take the course on Learn WordPress to learn about the full site editing features in WordPress 5.9!  Also, help spread the word about social learning spaces on Twitter!

Feedback/Testing requests: Share your thoughts on WordPress 5.9 Joséphine

• There’s currently a call for testing WordPress for Android 19.1 and iOS 19.1, along with Android 19.0 and iOS 19.0.

Share your feedback on the release of WordPress 5.9 Joséphine.

WordCamp Europe 2022 wants volunteers, photographers and media partners

• WordCamp Birmingham, Alabama has been postponed until spring. 
• The WordPress Foundation published a post explaining more about the nonprofit’s mission and why it exists.
• Don’t miss the following upcoming WordCamps: 
  • WordCamp Prague, Switzerland on February  26, 2022 (online)
  • WordCamp Genève, Switzerland on April 9, 2022 (in-person)
  • WordCamp Athens, Greece between April 9 and 10, 2022 (in person)
  • WordCamp Vienna, Austria from April 23 to 24, 2022 (in person)
  • WordCamp Europe in Porto, Portugal from June 2 to 4, 2022 (in person)
  • WordCamp US in San Diego, CA USA from September 9-11, 200  (in person)

WordCamp Europe 2022 opened a new call for volunteers, photographers, and media partners!

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Have a story that we could include in the next ‘Month in WordPress’ post? Let us know by filling out this form.

The following folks contributed to January 2022’s Month in WordPress: @anjanavasan @harishanker @rmartinezduque @lmurillom

Earlier this month we announced that we were giving some customers early access to Full Site Editing, a new set of powerful tools to give you more control over every aspect of your site’s design. Now, we’re excited to let you know Full Site Editing will be rolling out to all customers, starting today and continuing over the next few weeks.

Why we’re excited (and you should be too!)

With Full Site Editing, controlling the appearance of your website is easier than ever:

• You can now use the same tools you use to create your content to edit every part of your site. This new release lets you edit your header and footer with blocks and simply by dragging and dropping the different pieces where you want them. No coding required.
• This release also comes with the ability to edit specific page templates from your home page to a single post, to your 404 page, and even your archive pages. What’s even cooler is that you can drill down into specific template parts to edit them with more focus. 

Here’s another look at Full Site Editing in action:

• It’s easier than ever to change the entire look and feel of your site with subtle changes in the Styles Editor. Set global colors and fine-tune your typography to give your entire site a consistent look and feel. 

What you need to know:

• There is no action needed from you. Your current site(s) will not be changed and you can continue managing your site and creating your content in exactly the same way. 
• We’ve been rolling this feature out to some new sites and will be switching over to all new sites in the coming days. When you start a new site, you will have a chance to choose a theme that leverages the new Full Site Editing experience. We’re actively working to put together resources to help make learning those new features easier, and maybe even fun. 
• Over the next few weeks we will be rolling out the ability to switch your existing site over to a theme that will give you access to these features. It will not be something that we do for you so watch out for that announcement and the details on how to access these new tools. 

Again, we want to make sure you know that there’s no action needed from you. That’s one of the major benefits of WordPress.com managed hosting after all  

What you need to know about versioning and WordPress

All changes to WordPress come in what is called a release. We keep track of these changes with a numbering system called versioning. These new tools were released in the WordPress 5.9 release, which went out on January 25th. 

As with all major releases, the WordPress.com team takes a little extra time to integrate them into our platform to help ensure that all of our users have a great first experience with these exciting new features. We’re excited to share these details of our rollout plan with you today so you know what to expect in the coming weeks. As always, please reach out if you have any questions!

Hungry for more?

• Check out some of the full feature demos in the official WordPress 5.9 intro video 
• Check out some of the detailed deep-dive content in our support docs.
• Looking for more help with the new Full Site Editor (FSE)? Join our WordPress experts for a webinar and be among the first to learn how to use the new tools, which allow you to edit all parts of your site without the need for code! Register for free today!

Even though you can build any type of website on WordPress.com, from an eCommerce store to a photography portfolio, blogs still make up the majority of our 60 million plus sites. To improve interaction and connection with these bloggers, we tried something new: Bloganuary, a writing challenge throughout the month of January, where we provided daily prompts to inspire people to publish blog posts.

Never having run a month long blogging challenge before, we didn’t know what to expect. Would bloggers join in? Would the community appreciate this? 

But the results were incredible! Thousands of participants joined in from around the world, blogging in different languages. Perhaps what warmed our hearts the most, though, was we got to see first-hand how close our community of global bloggers really is. People liked and commented on shared posts, watched their audiences grow, and followed new sites they didn’t previously know about. 

But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what some of Bloganuary’s participants had to say (some grammar edits were made for clarity purposes):

An excellent initiative. So much variety. I think, “what will I say?” and then come up with something unexpected. Have been on hiatus with my account through some of [the] lockdown. What a great way to get back into the swing of things. Thank you

– Storyteller, artandidioms.com

The #Bloganuary blogging challenge has been interesting! I have been writing a different kind of post from the usual – more personal posts. At first I was a little uninspired but have grown into it and am enjoying it (also meeting a diverse group of bloggers!) @wordpressdotcom

— Emma Lewis (@Petchary) January 24, 2022

#bloganuary was a chance for me to actually live in a community where we write, we read what others have to say and perhaps share our stories with each other. Every individual has a distinctive power through which he communicates with others, some by painting, others sing and we…WRITE. The spark of this whole challenge was how one topic can cause ripples in many ways and how many unique perspectives there are in a single topic.

– SaniaDiary, saniadiary.wordpress.com

@wordpressdotcom Thank you for #Bloganuary as it's gotten me back into the groove of writing my blog. I was stagnant and struggling bit your daily prompts have me, once again, excited about writing! pic.twitter.com/m8PsHJai3D

— Fiona (@daddiesgrl45) January 27, 2022

This is a real challenge, something I have never done before. I normally write a blog every few months but starting in February, I think it will be weekly. I have thoroughly enjoyed #bloganuary so far and intend to go all the way.

– johnarthurbetts

With such a great response to Bloganuary, we’re working to find new ways to engage with our WordPress.com community, so keep an eye out for some new and exciting challenges this year!

And if blogging publicly isn’t your preferred way to write, consider the Day One app, which allows you to journal privately.

The promise of the internet is nearly as big as the internet itself. With endless knowledge at your fingertips and electrifying inspiration everywhere you look, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to build your own website — your own way. 

Today, that became easier. We’re thrilled to announce the brand-new WordPress.com YouTube channel.

Whether you’re just starting out or are the seasoned pro your friends turn to, this channel is here to support all your website-building needs. Our step-by-step tutorials will have you up and running in 10 minutes — turning frustration into celebration. Follow along, find the answers you need, and become the authority in your own experience. 

And we’re not stopping at education and support. Above all, this channel will showcase you. Nothing speaks louder than our users’ success stories, and we want to share them all.

From first-time bloggers to ecommerce wizards, we’re going to bring them together to share their stories. What better way to learn than from each other?

With more than 15 years powering the open web, we’re here to support your journey: your successes, your learning experiences, and your fabulous ideas coming to life. Wherever you are on that path, we’ve got you covered.

Join us on YouTube — you won’t want to miss the educational content and community highlights coming to the channel.

For users on our Business and eCommerce Plans, plugins are a critical part of the WordPress.com experience. We’re always looking for ways to simplify the process of discovering and installing powerful WordPress plugins.

As a result, we’re now making it possible to purchase certain plugins directly on the WordPress.com plugin page. Not only that, but WordPress.com will offer monthly and annual plugin pricing which provides site owners more flexibility.

Initially, you can purchase six of our most popular WooCommerce plugins on the WordPress.com plugins page.

• WooCommerce Subscriptions — Allow customers to subscribe to your products or services and pay on a weekly, monthly or annual basis.
• WooCommerce Bookings — Allow customers to book appointments, make reservations or rent equipment without leaving your site.
• WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping — Advanced, flexible shipping. Define multiple shipping rates based on location, price, weight, shipping class or item count.
• WooCommerce AutomateWoo — Powerful marketing automation for WooCommerce. AutomateWoo has the tools you need to grow your store and make more money.
• WooCommerce Shipment Tracking — Add shipment tracking information to your orders.
• WooCommerce Xero — Save time with automated sync between WooCommerce and your Xero account.

Purchasing a plugin via the new WordPress.com interface is simple. On the plugins page, click on one of the paid plugin cards to be redirected to a detailed product listing page. When you’re ready, click the purchase button in the top right of the product listing page. Your purchase won’t be final until you confirm your payment method and details on the following page. The plugin will be installed automatically.

This announcement is just the start — look for more paid plugins and other exciting updates over the coming months. Let us know in the comments below what plugins you would like to see available for purchase directly on WordPress.com.

Stay tuned and click here to begin exploring plugins now!

As a reminder, all plugins (free or paid) are currently only available to customers with a WordPress.com Business or eCommerce Plan. If you’re interested in purchasing or upgrading to an annual Business Plan, click here for a 25% discount off your first year.

Promo code: PLUGINSBLOG25

Welcome to Joséphine!

Introducing 5.9, Joséphine. Named in honor of acclaimed international jazz singer Joséphine Baker, this latest, most versatile WordPress release is here: download it or update it directly from your dashboard.

As a lifelong civil rights campaigner, Joséphine Baker believed that all people could live in harmony together, just as different instruments in a jazz band blend together to make a whole piece. Turn on a playlist from your favorite music service and enjoy her famous renditions of “You are the greatest love”, “Sans Amour”, and “Love is a Dreamer” as you discover all the features of this brand-new WordPress release. 

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Full site editing is here.

It puts you in control of your whole site, right in the WordPress Admin.

Say hello to Twenty Twenty-Two.

And say hello to the first default block theme in the history of WordPress. This is more than just a new default theme. It’s a brand-new way to work with WordPress themes.

Block themes put a wide array of visual choices directly in your hands, from color schemes and font combinations to page templates and image filters, all from the Site Editor. So in one place, you can give Twenty Twenty-Two the same look and feel as your organization’s other materials—or take your site’s look in another direction.

You already have the Twenty Twenty-Two theme—it came installed with WordPress 5.9. You will find it with your other installed themes.

Your personal paintbox awaits

Twenty Twenty-Two is not the only theme built for full site editing. More block themes are in the Themes directory, and the number will grow. 

When you use any of those new themes, you no longer need the Customizer. Instead, you have all the power of the Styles interface inside the Site Editor. Just as in Twenty Twenty-Two, you build your site’s look and feel there, with the tools you need for the job in a fluid interface that practically comes alive in your hands.

The Navigation block

Blocks come to site navigation, the heart of user experience.

The new Navigation block gives you the power to choose: an always-on responsive menu or one that adapts to your user’s screen size. And your choices are remembered! In 5.9, the block saves menus as custom post types, which get saved to the database.

More improvements and updates

Do you love to blog? New tweaks to the publishing flow help you say more, faster.

Better block controls

WordPress 5.9 features new typography tools, flexible layout controls, and finer control of details like spacing, borders, and more—to help you get not just the look, but the polish that says you care about details.

The power of patterns

The WordPress Pattern Directory is the home of a wide range of block patterns built to save you time and add to your site’s functionality. And you can edit them as you see fit. Need something different in the header or footer for your theme? Swap it out with a new one in a few clicks.

With a nearly full-screen view that draws you in to see fine details, the Pattern Explorer makes it easy to compare patterns and choose the one your users need.

A revamped List View

In 5.9, the List View lets you drag and drop your content exactly where you want it. Managing complex documents is easier, too: simple controls let you expand and collapse sections as you build your site—and add HTML anchors to your blocks to help users get around the page.

A better Gallery block

Treat every image in a Gallery Block the same way you would treat it in the Image Block.

Style every image in your gallery differently, or make them all the same, except for one or two. Or change the layout with drag-and-drop.

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WordPress 5.9 for developers

Theme.json for child themes

In 5.9, theme.json supports child themes. That means your users can build a child theme right in the WordPress Admin, without writing a single line of code. 

This dev note has all the details. Take a look!

Block-level locking

Now you can lock any block (or a few of them) in a pattern, just by adding a lock attribute to its settings in block.json—leaving the rest of the pattern free for users to adapt to their content. 

Multiple stylesheets in a block

Now you can register more than one stylesheet per block, which lets a given block load only the styles its markup requests, and not a whole sheet. Read the details in this dev note.

A refactored Gallery Block

The changes to the Gallery Block listed above are the result of near-complete refactor. Have you built a plugin or theme on the Gallery Block functionality? Be sure you read this dev note. It tells you what you need to do for compatibility.

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Learn more about the new features in 5.9

Want to dive into 5.9 but don’t know where to start? Check out this free course about Simple Site Design from Learn WordPress. There are a variety of learning materials including short how-to video tutorials and resources on new features in WordPress 5.9, with much more planned.

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Check the Field Guide for more!

Check out the latest version of the WordPress Field Guide. It has lots of useful information with links to detailed developer notes to support you building in WordPress for everyone you serve. WordPress 5.9 Field Guide.

The Squad

The WordPress 5.9 release was led by Matt Mullenweg, and supported by this highly enthusiastic release squad:

• Release Lead: Matt Mullenweg
• Core Tech and Release Coordinator: Tonya Mork
• Triage Leads: Jb Audras and Ahmed Chaion
• Editor Tech: Robert Anderson and George Mamadashvili
• Theme Leads: Kjell Reigstad and Jeff Ong
• Technical Writer: Jonathan Bossenger
• Documentation Leads: Marcus Kazmierczak and Milana Cap
• Marketing & Communications Leads: Mary Baum, Abha Thakor, and Josepha Haden Chomphosy
• Test Leads: Piotrek Boniu and Anne McCarthy

WordPress 5.9 also reflects the hard work of 624 generous volunteer contributors. Collaboration occurred on 370 tickets on Trac and more than 1900 pull requests on GitHub.

2linctools, Aaron D. Campbell, Aaron Jorbin, Aaron Robertshaw, abesell132, Abha Thakor, acosmin, Adam - WPMU DEV Support, Adam Bosco, Adam Morgan, Adam Silverstein, Adam Zielinski, Addie, Adil Ali, aduth, Aezaz Shekh, Ahmed Chaion, ajotka, Akash Soni, Akira Tachibana, Alain Schlesser, Alan Jacob Mathew, Alex Concha, Alex Lende, Alexandru Vornicescu, alexeydemidov, Alexis Lloyd, alexstine, AlGala, allilevine, almendron, Amanda Riu, Anand Upadhyay, André, Andrea Fercia, Andrei Draganescu, Andrew Nacin, Andrew Nevins, Andrew Ozz, Andrew Serong, André, Andy Fragen, Andy Peatling, Andy Schmidt, andynick, Angelika Reisiger, Anjana Vasan, Ankit K Gupta, Ankit Panchal, Anne McCarthy, Anthony Burchell, Anthony Eden, Anthony Ledesma, Anton Vlasenko, Antonis Lilis, arena, Ari Stathopoulos, Arthur Chu, Ashfame, Ayesh Karunaratne, baelx, Bartlomiej, Beatriz Fialho, Beau Lebens, Beda, Benachi, benitolopez, Benjamin Denis, Benjamin Gosset, benjamin.anakena, Bernhard Reiter, bgardner, bijayyadav, BinaryKitten, Birgir Erlendsson (birgire), bobbingwide, Boone Gorges, Brad Jorsch, Brad Parbs, Bradley Taylor, Brandon Kraft, bravokeyl, Brennan Goewert, Brian Richards, bronsonquick, Bruno Ribaric, Brylie Christopher Oxley, Caleb Burks, calebwoodbridge, carepsules, Carike, Carlos Bravo, Carlos Garcia, Carolina Nymark, cdyerkes, Ceyhun Ozugur, Chad, Chiaki, Chintan hingrajiya, Chip Snyder, Chloe Bringmann, Chouby, Chris Klosowski, Chris Van Patten, chriscct7, Christian Tamayo, Christina Workman, Christopher Churchill, clucasrowlands, Colin Stewart, Collieth Clarke, Collins Agbonghama, Copons, Corey, Cory Hughart, Courtney Robertson, craigfrancis, Crisoforo Gaspar, critterverse, Csaba (LittleBigThings), Dávid Szabó, Daisy Olsen, Damon Cook, Dan Farrow, Dan Soschin, Daniel Bachhuber, Daniel Post, Daniel Richards, Daniel Shaw, danieldudzic, Daniele Scasciafratte, darerodz, Daria, Daschmi, datagutten, datainterlock, Dave Page, David Anderson, David Baumwald, David Biňovec, David Calhoun, David Gwyer, David Herrera, David Kryzaniak, David Mosterd, David Rozando, David Ryan, David Smith, davidwebca, Debabrata Karfa, Deepak Lalwani, Denis Yanchevskiy, Dennis Snell, Dhanendran, dhusakovic, DiedeExterkate, Dilip Bheda, dingo-d, Dion Hulse, dlt101, Dominik Schilling, donmhico, Donna Botti, dontgo2sleep, Doug Wollison, dpegasusm, Dr. Ronny Harbich, dratwas, Drew Jaynes, drosmog, dustinrue, ecotechie, ehtis, EkoJR, Ella van Durpe, Emmanuel Hesry, empatogen, Enchiridion, Enej Bajgorić, Enrique Sánchez, erayalakese, Eric Malalel, Erick Hitter, Erik, etoledo, Evan Mullins, Fabian Kägy, Fabian Todt, Faisal Alvi, fedepia, Felipe Elia, Felipe Santos, Felix Arntz, Florian TIAR, FPCSJames, fperdaan, Francesca Marano, Francesco, fullofcaffeine, Gal Baras, Garrett Hyder, Gary Jones, Gary Pendergast, gazchap, generosus, Gennady Kovshenin, George Hotelling, George Mamadashvili, George Stephanis, Gerardo Pacheco, Gilbert Pellegrom, Glen Davies, goldsounds, Govind, Grant M. Kinney, Greg Rickaby, Greg Ziółkowski, Guillaume TURPIN, Héctor Prieto, Hans-Christiaan Braun, haosun, Hareesh, Hasanuzzaman, Hauwa Abashiya, Haz, Henry Wright, herbmiller, Herm Martini, Herre Groen, hilayt24, hirofumi2012, Hitendra Chopda, Hossein Farahani, htmgarcia, Hudson Atwell, Hugh Lashbrooke, hugod, Ian Dunn, ianhayes94, ianmjones, Ignat Georgiev, Igor Benic, ilovecats7, infected, Ipstenu (Mika Epstein), Isaac, Isabel Brison, ismaeld, J.D. Grimes, Jack Reichert, Jake Spurlock, jakub.tyrcha, Jam Viet, James Huff, James Koster, Jan Thiel, janw.oostendorp, Jason Johnston, Jason R. Johnston, Javier Arce, Javier Casares, Jay Upadhyay, Jean-Baptiste Audras, Jean-Philippe, Jeff Bowen, Jeff Ong, Jeffrey Paul, Jenny Dupuy, Jeremy Felt, Jeremy Herve, Jeremy Scott, Jeremy Yip, Jesús Amieiro, Jesper van Engelen, Jessica Lyschik, Jignesh Nakrani, Joe Dolson, Joe McGill, joegasper, Joel James, Joen Asmussen, John Blackbourn, John Espiritu, John Godley, John James Jacoby, john zenith, JohnRDOrazio (CLPTE), Jonathan Bossenger, Jonathan Desrosiers, Jonny Harris, Jono Alderson, Joost de Valk, Jorge Costa, Jos Klever, Joseph Dickson, Josepha Haden, Joy, jsnajdr, JuanMa Garrido, juanruitina, Juhi Saxena, Juliette Reinders Folmer, Junaid Bhura, Junko Nukaga, Justin Ahinon, Justin DoCanto, Justin Tadlock, K. Adam White, KafleG, Kai Hao, kallookoo, Kalpesh Akabari, kaneva, Kapil Paul, Kelly Choyce-Dwan, Kelly Hoffman, keoshi, Keramot UL Islam, kero, Kerry Liu, Kevin Fodness, keyur5, Kharis Sulistiyono, Kjell Reigstad, Knut Sparhell, Koen Van den Wijngaert, Konstantin Obenland, Konstantinos Xenos, kurudrive, kwisatz, Kyle Nel, KZeni, lalitjalandhar, laurelfulford, Laxman Prajapati, leemon, leogermani, Liam Gladdy, liammitchell, Linkon Miyan, linux4me2, Loïc Antignac, Loran A. Rendel, Lucas Karpiuk, lucasw89, lucatume, Luis Felipe Zaguini, Luke Carbis, Luke Cavanagh, luovalabs, lynk, M Asif Rahman, Madalin Gorbanescu, Madison, Maggie Cabrera, Mai, Malae, malthert, manfcarlo, Manisha Makhija, Manzoor Wani, Marco Ciampini, Marcus Kazmierczak, Marek Hrabe, Marin Atanasov, Marius L. J., Mark-k, Mary Baum, Mateus Machado Luna, Matias Ventura, Matt, Matt Chowning, Matt Mullenweg, Matt Wiebe, mattoakley, Max, MaxD, Maxime Culea, mclaurent, MEDUSOR, Meg Phillips, Meher Bala, Mel Choyce-Dwan, mgol, Micah Wood, Michael Adams (mdawaffe), Michael Beckwith, Michael Burridge, Michael Nelson, Michal Czaplinski, Michel - xiligroup dev, Miguel Fonseca, mikaelmayer, Mike Jolley (a11n), Mike Schroder, Milan Dinić, Milana Cap, Minal Diwan, mirka, mjaschen, mjulian7, mmxxi, moch11, Mohammad Rockeybul Alam, moto hachi, mqudsi, mreishus, mrjoeldean, mtoensing, Muhammad Arslan, Muhammad Faizan Haidar, Mukesh Panchal, Musab Shakeel, Mustaque Ahmed, Nadir Seghir, Nalini Thakor, Namith Jawahar, Naoko Takano, NateWr, Ned Zimmerman, NettSite, Nicholas Garofalo, Nick Diego, Nick Halsey, nickcernis, Nico, Nidhi Jain, Niels Lange, Nik Tsekouras, Nikhil Chavan, nlpro, ockham, Olga Gleckler, Oliver Campion, Omar Alshaker, Omar Reiss, opr18, Outzen Larkin, Ov3rfly, ovann86, ovidiul, Paal Joachim Romdahl, Pablo Honey, page-carbajal, palmiak, Pankaj Mohale, Pascal Birchler, Patrick B, Paul Bearne, Paul Biron, Paul Bunkham, Paul Kevin, Paul Schreiber, Paul Von Schrottky, Paulo Pinto, pbking, Pedro Mendonça, pepe, Peter Wilson, Petter Walbø Johnsgård, Phil Johnston, Philip Jackson, Pierre Gordon, Pieterjan Deneys, Piotrek Boniu, Pooja Derashri, powerbuoy, praem90, Pramod Jodhani, Presskopp, presstoke, procodewp, psealock, psufan, pwtyler, Rachel Baker, Radixweb, Rahul Mehta, ralucastn, Ramon Ahnert, ramonopoly, ravipatel, Rehan Ali, Renatho (a11n), retrofox, Riad Benguella, Rian Rietveld, Rich Tabor, Richard Foley, richards1052, Rick Curran, Rishabh Budhiraja, Riyadh Ahmed, rmartinezduque, Robert Anderson, robertght, robtarr, Rodrigo Arias, Rohan Rawat, Rohan Sharma, Ronak Ganatra, Roxy Kohilakis, Ruslan, rviscomi, Ryan Welcher, S Page, Sébastien SERRE, Sören Wrede, Sabbir Hasan, Sabri Bouchaala, Safirul Alredha, Samir Shah, Samuel Wood (Otto), Sandip Mondal - a11n, Sanket Chodavadiya, Sarah Norris, sarayourfriend, Sathiyamoorthy V, savicmarko1985, Sayedul Sayem, Scott Buscemi, scribu, scruffian, Sean McMillan, Sebastian Pisula, Segayuu, Sergey Biryukov, Sergio Cinos, SergioEstevao, Shaharyar Afzal, shaunandrews, Shazahanul Islam Shohag, shimon246, Shital Marakana, Shiva Poudel, siddharth, Siddharth Thevaril, siliconforks, simonhammes, Siobhan, Siobhan, sirreal, sjlevy, skunkbad, Smit Rathod, snapfractalpop, Sourov Roy, spytzo, ssergei, stacimc, Stefano Minoia, Stefanos Togoulidis, Stephen Bernhardt, Stephen Edgar, Stephen Rider, Steve Dufresne, Steve Henty, stevegs, Storm Rockwell, Sybre Waaijer, Synchro, szaqal21, Taco Verdonschot, Takahashi Fumiki, Tammie Lister, Tara King, Tarei King, Tellyworth, terraling, Terri Ann, Tetsuaki Hamano, theMikeD, Thierry Muller, Thijs Hulshof, Thimal Wickremage, thisiswilliam, Thomas Patrick Levy, timlappe, Timothy Jacobs, titsmaker, tjcafferkey, tmatsuur, TobiasBg, tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn Fjellner), Tomek, Tomoki Shimomura, Tony G, Tony Tahmouch, Tonya Mork, Toro_Unit (Hiroshi Urabe), Torsten Landsiedel, Tracy, Travis Northcutt, tubys, Tung Du, twstokes, Udit Desai, umesh84, Utpol Deb Nath, Venkat Raj, versusbassz, verybg, Vicente Canales, Viktor Szépe, Vishit Shah, Vlad T, Vondelphia.com, vortfu, wb1234, WebMan Design | Oliver Juhas, Wes Theron, Weston Ruter, WFMattR, Will Skora, William Earnhardt, williampatton, wojsmol, woodyhayday, wp_kc, wpnomad a11n, wpweaver, Yagnik Sangani, Yui, Yvette Sonneveld, Zebulan Stanphill, and zoiec.

By release day, 71 locales had translated 90 percent or more of WordPress 5.9 in their language. Community translators are hard at work ensuring more translations are on their way. Thank you to everyone who helps to make WordPress available in 205 languages.

Many thanks to all of the community volunteers who contribute in the support forums. They help to answer questions from people across the world. The success of releases from the first one in 2003 owes much to the efforts of the support contributors. 

If contributing to WordPress appeals to you, it’s easy to learn more and get involved. Discover the different teams that come together to Make WordPress website and find out the latest plans on the core development blog.

Integrating your social media presence with your WordPress.com website has never been easier. We offer many options and tools that are available on all plans, at no additional cost. Whether you want to auto-share your website posts to a social media platform, display your social media posts on your website, provide links to your various accounts, or encourage your website visitors to share your content, we’ve got what you need to connect with your audience. 

Posting to Social Media

All WordPress.com plans include Publicize, a feature that lets you automate posting to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Tumblr. When you set up and configure these social media accounts to your site, every new post you publish will automatically post to the platforms you’ve selected. This is a great way to repurpose your website content on your social channels, reach your audience where they already are, and drive traffic to your site. 

It’s important to note that Publicize cannot push posts to Instagram since Instagram doesn’t allow auto-posting from third-party services. However, if you’re on the Business plan or ecommerce plan, then you could consider using a third-party automation tool such as Buffer or Hootsuite, both of which can be connected to your WordPress.com site using plugins. There may be other tools that offer this feature as well, though you’ll want to research their limitations and plans to learn more.*

*Please note that third-party tools and plugins are outside the scope of WordPress.com support.

Social Media Feeds on Your Site

Another option that WordPress.com offers is displaying your social media platforms on your website. You can add widgets, blocks, or feeds to your WordPress.com site to display posts from your social media accounts in real-time. This can help you stay connected with your audience when they’re taking a break from social media, but still checking your site.

WordPress.com offers built-in features for displaying your social media feeds from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok, to name a few. We also provide a number of support documents to help walk you through the options for these embedding features.

Social Media Menus

You can also strengthen the cross-connection between your website and your social media platforms with the addition of social media menus. Many WordPress.com themes offer a dedicated Social Menu that allows you to connect your site to various social media platforms and display their respective icons on your site.

If your theme doesn’t offer this menu option, you can still create social media-style menus using our Social Icons Block. This ensures that your audience knows how to easily find you on your preferred social media platforms.

Social Sharing

Last but not least, don’t forget to enlist your visitors to share the love from your website to their social accounts by setting up WordPress.com’s Social Sharing option.

This feature allows you to choose which social platforms you want to encourage your visitors to spread the word by providing a Share button on every piece of content you publish. Nothing connects your audience more than the ability to share.

WordPress.com provides you with multiple built-in tools to make your website the centralized hub for connecting and integrating with your social media platforms—at no additional cost—so you can connect to your audience smoothly and seamlessly, all while driving traffic to your WordPress.com website.

WordPress.com will be hosting a live special topic webinar on Tuesday, February 22, 2022 at 19:00 UTC. Join our WordPress experts to learn all of the essential tips to integrate social media with your website and how to add Link in Bio pages to your website. Register for free today!

The third Release Candidate (RC3) for WordPress 5.9 is here!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed thus far toward testing and filing bugs to help make WordPress 5.9 a great release. WordPress 5.9 is slated to land in just one week—on January 25, 2022. You still have time to help! Since RC2 arrived last week, testers have found and fixed two bugs, 14 fixes from Gutenberg. There has been one additional Gutenberg fix today.

Testing the release

You can test the WordPress 5.9 release candidate in three ways:

Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).

Option 2: Download the beta version here (zip).

Option 3: When using WP-CLI to upgrade from Beta 1, 2, 3, 4, RC1, or RC2 on a case-insensitive filesystem, please use the following command sequence:

Command One:

wp core update --version=5.9-RC3

Command Two:

wp core update --version=5.9-RC3 --force

Your help to test the third Release Candidate is vital: the more testing that happens, the more stable the release, and the better the experience for users, developers, and the WordPress community.

Thank you to all contributors who tested the RC2 release and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and is a great way to contribute to WordPress.

How to help

Help test WordPress 5.9 features – this post provides a guide to set up your testing environment, a list of testable features, and information about how to submit feedback you find as you go.

Skilled in languages other than English? Help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages! Thanks to every locale that is working on translations.

Developers and those interested in more background to the features can find more in the Field Guide. You can also follow the 5.9 development cycle and timeline.

If you have found a bug, you can post the details to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums.

If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, you can file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also check the issue against a list of known bugs.

For their help in compiling this post, props to @cbringmann, @webcommsat, @psykro,@marybaum, @chanthaboune, @davidbaumwald, and @hellofromtonya.

A big change is coming to WordPress to make it easier than ever to create websites called Full-Site Editing. You can be one of the first to try it exclusively on WordPress.com, before it gets merged into core open source WordPress with the upcoming release of WordPress version 5.9. 

What is Full Site Editing?

If you caught the State of the Word or follow along with news on WordPress.org, you may have heard about “Full Site Editing”, a set of new features that will allow you to edit all parts of your site. This collection of powerful new features empowers WordPress users to easily create and customize their entire websites without needing to know how to code. 

Some highlights of Full Site Editing include:

• Point and click edits in all parts of your site, including headers, footers, and sidebars!
• Drag and drop blocks to design beautiful and complex navigation menu bars.
• Edit items like your header, page content, and footer all in one place. You’ll no longer need to jump out of your page editor to make changes in the Customizer! Everything is available to edit right where you already are.
• Use all the power of blocks, reusable blocks, and pre-designed block patterns to design every part of your site.

If you’ve struggled to make your entire WordPress website look just the way you wanted in the past, we encourage you to give it another try. Full Site Editing may be exactly what you’ve needed.

What’s Available Right Now?

The WordPress.com team is excited to announce that we’re now offering early access to Full Site Editing (Beta) for all new sites created by our existing English-speaking users! If this describes you, then you don’t have to wait. 

Eager to give it a try? Just spin up a new site from your dashboard.

If FSE is not yet available to you, don’t worry. Stay tuned for more updates as the rollout continues for both existing sites and new users.

Want to know more about Full Site Editing Beta? Check out this free Full Site Editing course created by the WordPress.org team to help you get started!