


<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A Lasting Momentum</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Over three days in Mumbai, WordCamp Asia 2026 brought together contribution, learning, and community. From Contributor Day through the closing keynote, the event balanced hands-on work with bigger conversations about publishing, technology, education, and the open web.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The event also created space for many kinds of participation. Some attendees contributed to Core, Training, Polyglots, Photos, and other teams. Others came for the conference program, workshops, or the chance to reconnect with collaborators and meet new people. Across session rooms, tea breaks, shared meals, sponsor hall conversations, and the after party, the community side of the event remained just as important as the formal program.</p>



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large wp-lightbox-container"><img alt="" class="wp-image-20412" height="769" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/04/WordPress-AI-1-21.jpg?resize=1024%2C769&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /><button class="lightbox-trigger" type="button">
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large wp-lightbox-container"><img alt="" class="wp-image-20407" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/04/IMG_9867-1-scaled-2.webp?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /><button class="lightbox-trigger" type="button">
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<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Thank you to the organizers, volunteers, speakers, sponsors, attendees, and everyone who joined online. WordCamp Asia 2026 was a reminder that WordPress continues to grow through the people who show up to contribute and build together.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There is still more to look forward to this year. The community will gather again at <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2026/">WordCamp Europe 2026 in Kraków, Poland</a> from June 4–6, followed by <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2026/">WordCamp US 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona</a> from August 16–19.</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:"Sat, 11 Apr 2026 18:21:14 +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:"Brett McSherry";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:23;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:83:"Open Channels FM: How AI Is Reshaping Release Communication in Open Source Projects";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2551276";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:90:"https://openchannels.fm/how-ai-is-reshaping-release-communication-in-open-source-projects/";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:184:"AI is revolutionizing release communication for open source projects by automating updates, enhancing clarity, and maintaining human oversight, ensuring effective information delivery.";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, 10 Apr 2026 08:47:07 +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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:24;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:"Gary: Claudaborative Editing 0.4: Twice the fun!";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:25:"https://pento.net/?p=5741";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:70:"https://pento.net/2026/04/10/claudaborative-editing-0-4-twice-the-fun/";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:5369:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;ve been taking an iterative approach to building Claudaborative Editing: build something to prove that the underlying concept works, then evolve on top of that. The first two iterations were answering a question I had: <a href="https://pento.net/2026/03/28/claudaborative-editing-0-2-now-with-500-more-collaboration/">can an LLM genuinely improve the writing process</a>? Along the way, I found a more important question: <a href="https://pento.net/2026/04/07/the-human-in-the-loop/">can it be done without contributing to the masses of generated slop we see</a>? </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Having seen the underlying idea working, I needed to answer the next question: can it be brought into the actual writing environment? Can it be useful, but keep out of the way?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Can you talk to an LLM from within WordPress, and have it talk back? I think I&#8217;m onto something, and it&#8217;s <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/60000">alot</a> of fun.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Coming to a WordPress Near You</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Naturally, the next step was to build a WordPress plugin that provided a straightforward interface to the LLM backend. You still install the tool to run with your local copy of Claude Code, but once it&#8217;s running, you can do everything directly from the block editor. The plugin is waiting to be approved for the WordPress.org plugin directory, but you can <a href="https://github.com/pento/claudaborative-editing/releases">download it directly from the GitHub repo now</a>.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-4 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex">
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="A screenshot of the Collaborative Editing Menu. It shows 5 options: Compose, Proofread, Review, Edit, and Translate." class="wp-image-5779" height="682" src="https://pento.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/menu.png" width="640" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="A screenshot of the Edit box, where a user can have the LLM make broad changes to their post." class="wp-image-5778" height="865" src="https://pento.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/edit-1024x865.png" width="1024" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="A screenshot of the Translate box, where the user can have the LLM translate their post into other languages. Because this is a freeform field, they're not limited to the normal options: they can also translate into weird languages, like &quot;pirate&quot;, or &quot;emoji&quot;." class="wp-image-5777" height="838" src="https://pento.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/translate-1024x838.png" width="1024" /></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="A screenshot of the pre-publish panel, showing the featured image, a suggested excerpt, and suggestions for new and existing tags and categories to use." class="wp-image-5794" height="1024" src="https://pento.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/pre-publish-419x1024.png" width="419" /></figure>
</figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Tools are easily accessible when you need them, but otherwise stay out of your way. You choose how much input you want the LLM to have in your writing: it can fix things up for you, or you can ask it to just leave notes and you&#8217;ll decide how you want to proceed. Personally, I prefer to do the work myself, but everyone can choose their level of comfort.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That said, one of the things I often forget to do when writing a post is to tag it properly. If I do remember, I&#8217;m never sure what to tag it with. By the time I get to publishing, I&#8217;m impatient just to get it out in the world! So, now there&#8217;s a button that&#8217;ll give suggestions right before publishing, letting you pick and choose which suggestions to use, and what to drop.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Planning is a Conversation</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I always start Claude Code in planning mode, and I wanted that for posts, too. That&#8217;s where I started this post, and I can absolutely see myself using this every time I need to write a post. Not to do the writing for me, but to help me organise my thoughts. I opened the Compose mode in the sidebar, I had it summarise the changes that I&#8217;ve made in the last 2 weeks, and present a few options for how to collate them. Some I kept, some I dropped.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In a lot of ways, it&#8217;s more like a very advanced <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA">ELIZA</a>, though rather than just reflecting your words back, it reflects your ideas back in a more structured form.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What&#8217;s next</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;ll be honest, I&#8217;m really happy with how this has turned out so far! I&#8217;d love to hear your feedback as you use it. What would you like to see here? I&#8217;ve already noted down a bunch of ideas that came up just while I was writing this post, so there are definitely more things to come!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Go ahead and give it a shot now:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><code>npx claudaborative-editing start</code></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, 10 Apr 2026 05:40:37 +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:"Gary";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:25;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:87:"Open Channels FM: How Hosting Companies Empower Agencies Through Effective Partnerships";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2552187";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:94:"https://openchannels.fm/how-hosting-companies-empower-agencies-through-effective-partnerships/";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:147:"In this episode, Adam Weeks and Carrie Smaha discuss agency partner programs, emphasizing ongoing commissions, risk management, and building trust.";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, 09 Apr 2026 10:33:00 +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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:26;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:70:"Greg Ziółkowski: Research: Architecting Tools for AI Agents at Scale";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:26:"https://gziolo.pl/?p=14544";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:80:"https://gziolo.pl/2026/04/09/research-architecting-tools-for-ai-agents-at-scale/";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:420:"Loading all available tools into an LLM&#8217;s context simultaneously is one of the most consequential architectural mistakes teams make when building AI integrations. The solution isn&#8217;t bigger context windows, and it&#8217;s progressive tool exposure: dynamically presenting only the tools relevant to each interaction. This post surveys the major patterns for doing so, drawn from production servers, [&#8230;]";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, 09 Apr 2026 05:04:03 +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:"Greg Ziółkowski";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:27;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:80:"Weston Ruter: Adding an MCP Server to the WordPress Core Development Environment";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=39124";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:103:"https://weston.ruter.net/2026/04/08/adding-an-mcp-server-to-the-wordpress-core-development-environment/";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:13938:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I wanted to hook up Claude Code to be able to interact with my local <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop">wordpress-develop</a> core development environment via MCP (Model Context Protocol). I couldn&#8217;t find documentation specifically for doing this, so I&#8217;m sharing how I did it here.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Assuming you have <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop#getting-started">set up the environment</a> (with Docker) and started it via <code>npm run env:start</code>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">1. Install &amp; Activate the MCP Adapter plugin</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The MCP adapter is not currently available as a plugin to install from the plugin directory. You instead have to obtain it from GitHub and <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/mcp-adapter#installation">install</a> it from the command line. I <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/mcp-adapter#as-a-plugin-alternative-method">installed it as a plugin</a> instead of as a Composer package:</p>


<pre class="wp-block-code"><span><code class="hljs language-shell">cd src/wp-content/plugins
git clone https://github.com/WordPress/mcp-adapter
cd mcp-adapter
composer install</code></span></pre>


<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Next,  activate the plugin. Naturally, you can also just activate the “MCP Adapter” plugin from the WP admin. You can also activate it via WP-CLI (but from the project root working directory, since you can&#8217;t run this command from inside of the <code>mcp-adapter</code> directory:</p>


<pre class="wp-block-code"><span><code class="hljs language-shell">npm run env:cli -- plugin activate mcp-adapter</code></span></pre>


<h2 class="wp-block-heading">2. Register the MCP server with Claude</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here&#8217;s the command I used to register the <code>wordpress-develop</code> MCP server with Claude:</p>


<pre class="wp-block-code"><span><code class="hljs language-shell shcb-wrap-lines">claude mcp add-json wordpress-develop --scope user '{"command":"npm", "args":&#91;"--prefix", "~/repos/wordpress-develop/", "run", "env:cli", "--", "mcp-adapter", "serve", "--server=mcp-adapter-default-server", "--user=admin"]}'</code></span></pre>


<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here&#8217;s the JSON with formatting:</p>


<pre class="wp-block-code"><span><code class="hljs language-json">{
	<span class="hljs-attr">"command"</span>: <span class="hljs-string">"npm"</span>,
	<span class="hljs-attr">"args"</span>: &#91;
		<span class="hljs-string">"--prefix"</span>,
		<span class="hljs-string">"~/repos/wordpress-develop/"</span>,
		<span class="hljs-string">"run"</span>,
		<span class="hljs-string">"env:cli"</span>,
		<span class="hljs-string">"--"</span>,
		<span class="hljs-string">"mcp-adapter"</span>,
		<span class="hljs-string">"serve"</span>,
		<span class="hljs-string">"--server=mcp-adapter-default-server"</span>,
		<span class="hljs-string">"--user=admin"</span>
	]
}</code></span></pre>


<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You may want to remove <code>--scope user</code> if you just want to register the MCP server for the one project. I tend to re-use the same WP environment for multiple projects (core and plugins), so I think it may make it easier for me to install at the user level instead.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You will also need to change the <code>--prefix</code> arg&#8217;s <code>~/repos/wordpress-develop/</code> value to correspond to where the repo is actually cloned on your system. I include this arg here so that when I start <code>claude</code> inside of a plugin project (e.g. inside <code>src/wp-content/plugins/performance</code>), it is able to successfully run the <code>npm</code> command in the <code>package.json</code> in the ancestor directory. You can remove this <code>--prefix</code> arg if this is not relevant to you.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Change the user from <code>admin</code> according to your needs.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">3. Expose all abilities to MCP</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Registered abilities are not exposed to MCP by default. This is a safety measure so that AI agents have to be explicitly allowed to perform potentially sensitive actions. So without any plugins active other than the MCP Adapter, prompting Claude with “discover abilities” results in:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">No abilities found. The MCP server connection may be unstable. Try reconnecting again with <code>/mcp</code>.</p>
</blockquote>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">However, since this is a local development environment, there is no concern about this (for me at least). To opt in all abilities to be exposed to MCP by default, you can use the following plugin code:</p>


<pre class="wp-block-code"><span><code class="hljs language-php">add_filter(
	<span class="hljs-string">'wp_register_ability_args'</span>,
	<span class="hljs-keyword">static</span> <span class="hljs-function"><span class="hljs-keyword">function</span> <span class="hljs-params">( array $args, string $ability_id )</span>: <span class="hljs-title">array</span> </span>{
		<span class="hljs-keyword">if</span> (
			<span class="hljs-comment">// Prevent exposing abilities in MCP except on a local dev environment.</span>
			wp_get_environment_type() === <span class="hljs-string">'local'</span>
			&amp;&amp;
			<span class="hljs-comment">// Omit abilities which the MCP Adapter already makes available itself.</span>
			! str_starts_with( $ability_id, <span class="hljs-string">'mcp-adapter/'</span> )
		) {
			$args&#91;<span class="hljs-string">'meta'</span>]&#91;<span class="hljs-string">'mcp'</span>]&#91;<span class="hljs-string">'public'</span>] = <span class="hljs-keyword">true</span>;
		}
		<span class="hljs-keyword">return</span> $args;
	},
	<span class="hljs-number">10</span>,
	<span class="hljs-number">2</span>
);</code></span></pre>


<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is also available in a <a href="https://gist.github.com/westonruter/3a37d35ef66cdd58315a7c1347d92560">gist</a> to facilitate installation via <a href="https://git-updater.com/">Git Updater</a>.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Note: This filter does not currently apply if your ability is registered by extending <code>Abstract_Ability</code> in the AI plugin.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">At this point, I can now open Claude (or re-connect to the MCP server) and see that it is able to see all (er, most) abilities that are registered on my wordpress-develop env with the same prompt “discover abilities”:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>3 WordPress abilities</strong> available:</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>core/get-environment-info</strong> — Returns runtime context (PHP, database, WordPress version) with the ability name.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>core/get-site-info</strong> — Returns site information (all fields or filtered subset)</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>core/get-user-info</strong> — Returns current user profile details</p>
</blockquote>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">When I prompt “what&#8217;s the environment info?” it executes the <code>core/get-environment-info</code> ability via MCP and prints out:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Environment</strong>: local</li>



<li><strong>PHP Version</strong>: 8.3.26</li>



<li><strong>Database Server</strong>: 8.4.8 (MySQL)</li>



<li><strong>WordPress Version</strong>: 7.1-alpha-62161-src</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Now the environment just needs more abilities! I&#8217;ve filed a Performance Lab <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/2441">issue</a> for us at the Core Performance table to work on adding abilities during <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/contributor-day/">Contributor Day</a> at <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/">WordCamp Asia</a> tomorrow.</p>



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



<p class="has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph">Where I&#8217;ve shared this:</p>



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<p>The post <a href="https://weston.ruter.net/2026/04/08/adding-an-mcp-server-to-the-wordpress-core-development-environment/">Adding an MCP Server to the WordPress Core Development Environment</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:"Wed, 08 Apr 2026 18:41:17 +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:28;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:51:"Open Channels FM: IndieWeb: Protocol or Philosophy?";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2551556";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:56:"https://openchannels.fm/indieweb-protocol-or-philosophy/";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:179:"Matthias Pfefferle and Ryan Barrett discuss the Indie Web's dual nature as both a philosophy and a protocol, emphasizing website ownership and the role of open standards like RSS.";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, 08 Apr 2026 12:27:58 +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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:29;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:40:"Open Channels FM: The Evergreen Platform";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2552208";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:47:"https://openchannels.fm/the-evergreen-platform/";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:259:"In this episode, Adam Weeks discusses a partnership between Servebolt and Crowd Favorite, focusing on innovative enterprise solutions. The partnership aims to address complex technological challenges, enabling businesses to prioritize growth over maintenance.";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, 08 Apr 2026 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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:30;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:56:"WordPress.org blog: How to Watch WordCamp Asia 2026 Live";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=20368";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:59:"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/04/watch-wc-asia-2026-live/";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:5496:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph">WordCamp Asia 2026 will be available to watch live across three days of streaming, making it easy for the global WordPress community to follow along from anywhere. This year’s live streamed programming begins with a special Contributor Day broadcast, followed by two full conference days of presentations from across the WordPress community.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This post gathers each official stream in one place so you can quickly find the right broadcast for each day. Bookmark this page and return throughout the event to watch live.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Day One: The Making of a WordPress Release</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Go behind the scenes of a WordPress release in this special Contributor Day live stream from WordCamp Asia 2026. Past release squad members come together to share stories, reflect on their experience, and talk about what it takes to bring a WordPress release to life. The Panel will go live at <strong>4:30 am UTC</strong>.</p>



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</div></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Day Two: Conference Livestreams</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Watch the second day of WordCamp Asia 2026 live for a full day of presentations and sessions. beginning at <strong>4:00 am UTC</strong>, including a Fireside chat with Mary Hubbard, which will begin at <strong>5:00 am UTC</strong> over on the Growth Stream.<br /></p>



<div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Foundation</h3>
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<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Growth</h3>
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<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Enterprise</h3>
</div>
</div>



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</div></figure>
</div>
</div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Day Three: Conference Livestreams</strong></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Watch the third day and final day of WordCamp Asia 2026 live, beginning at <strong>4:00 am UTC</strong> for another full day of presentations from across the community. Don’t forget to watch Ma.tt Mullenweg give the final keynote, which will begin on the Growth stream at <strong>10:00 am UTC</strong>.</p>



<div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Foundation</h3>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Growth</h3>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Enterprise</h3>
</div>
</div>



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</div>



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<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You can also explore the <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/schedule/"><strong>full schedule</strong></a> to see what is coming up across the event and plan your viewing. However you join, we hope you will follow along and be part of WordCamp Asia 2026.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-20372" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/04/20250220-DSC07465-scaled-2.webp?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>";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, 07 Apr 2026 13:57:21 +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:14:"Brett McSherry";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:31;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:81:"Open Channels FM: Professionalizing Pricing Models for Open Source CMS Businesses";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2552157";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:88:"https://openchannels.fm/professionalizing-pricing-models-for-open-source-cms-businesses/";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:172:"In this episode, Anne Bovelett chats with Dr. Christian Kurze discuss strategies for startups in open source CMS, emphasizing structured sales and sustainable monetization.";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, 07 Apr 2026 09:05:00 +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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:32;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:"Gary: The Human in the Loop";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:25:"https://pento.net/?p=5716";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:51:"https://pento.net/2026/04/07/the-human-in-the-loop/";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:6682:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;ve been paying attention to LLM-based coding tools in the past few months, you&#8217;ll have seen a seismic shift in how they&#8217;re being used. Even 12 months ago, they were little more than glorified auto-complete tools: useful for quickly repeating patterns, but terrible at producing well structured, thoughtful, maintainable code. More recently, however, there seems to have been a new equilibrium reached, where an experienced engineer can guide these tools to consistently produce high quality code. Small course adjustments seem to have an outsized effect, resulting in the &#8220;Human in the Loop&#8221; paradigm that&#8217;s become so popular.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Why It Works</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">&#8220;Code is Poetry&#8221; has been my approach to writing code for as long as I can remember. Software is a form of expression, and the way you create that expression is through code. So, to make beautiful software, you need to write beautiful code. But, what happens when you don&#8217;t need to write code to create the software?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Suddenly, the code becomes entirely about outcomes. It needs to be correct, functional, and maintainable, but it doesn&#8217;t need to be seen as a form of expression itself. Instead, the creative decisions move further up the stack, to the architectural level. You can write beautiful software by writing thoughtful specifications, instead.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That&#8217;s not to say that technical abilities are suddenly obsolete. You still need to know what&#8217;s possible and realistic to be able to tell the LLM what to build, and to redirect it when it goes in a different direction. You need to be able to read and comprehend the code, you just don&#8217;t need to memorise every function signature.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Temptation</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, if an LLM can write code for me, what else can it do? Marketing copy? Emails? Opinion blog posts? I could ask Claude to write 10 paragraphs on the &#8220;The Human in the Loop&#8221;, but would you have even read this far if you thought this post was LLM generated? Of course not! I can promise you that every word of this post (and every other post on my blog) was written by me.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Respect for the Reader</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If I want you to read this post, and seriously consider the arguments I&#8217;m making, the least I can do is write it myself. It goes beyond that, however. LLMs can write functional code, but they can&#8217;t write beautiful software. When the text <em>is</em> the creative act, there&#8217;s no way for the LLM to write the text without compromising your creativity. If you&#8217;re the Human in the Loop for a blog post, you&#8217;re not injecting your voice, your perspective, or your personality into the post: you&#8217;re rubber stamping whatever feels good enough, and that&#8217;s a very low bar to clear.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">&#8220;Good enough&#8221; isn&#8217;t actually good enough. </p>
</blockquote>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A measure of the complexity of a written piece of text is called &#8220;perplexity&#8221;. It measures the randomness of how the text flows, and it&#8217;s probably the thing you&#8217;re noticing when you know you&#8217;re reading LLM-generated text, but you can&#8217;t quite articulate why. It&#8217;s an uncanny valley thing: it looks like writing, it reads like writing, it might even flow like writing, but the vibes are off.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The good news is, you&#8217;re not going insane, recent research shows that <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/395972099_How_Well_Do_LLMs_Imitate_Human_Writing_Style">there is a measurable difference between human written text, and LLM generated text</a>. LLM generated text is inherently less random, which makes sense when you remember that LLMs are, at their core, giant statistical models that are really good at figuring out &#8220;what&#8217;s the most likely bit of text to come next&#8221;.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large has-custom-css wp-custom-css-20396e00"><img alt="" class="wp-image-5720" height="1024" src="https://pento.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-07-at-3.01.26-pm-333x1024.png" width="333" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The LLM as the Assistant</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That&#8217;s not to say that LLMs are completely useless when it comes to writing, but we need to use them the right way. While they shouldn&#8217;t be generating text, they can absolutely be used to help you write. Over the last month or so, I&#8217;ve been working on <a href="https://pento.net/2026/03/28/claudaborative-editing-0-2-now-with-500-more-collaboration/">Claudaborative Editing</a>, an experiment to see exactly how much they can help with the writing process. I&#8217;ve been building it directly into the WordPress editor, allowing me to plan, write, review, and publish this post from the one place. An LLM assisted, but <em>every word of it was written by me alone</em>. My goal isn&#8217;t to replace the author, or to make it easier to fill the web with LLM-generated dreck, it&#8217;s to help me (and hopefully you, too!) improve your writing, while still keeping it fundamentally yours.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Where Does Creativity Live?</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">When you&#8217;re evaluating these tools, &#8220;can an LLM do this?&#8221; isn&#8217;t the question you need to ask. Instead, think about where the creative part of the process lives. For software, that&#8217;s in the design decisions and the architecture, the final product is the expression of that creativity. The specifics of the implementation don&#8217;t really matter. For a blog post, or any writing for that matter, the creativity lives in the act of writing. To delegate that to an LLM is to delegate your own creativity.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here&#8217;s what I believe: the best uses of LLM tools are when they augment humans, rather than try to replace them. They enhance the inherent creativity of their human operator, they don&#8217;t suppress it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This belief guides how I use LLMs, and how I build tools that help others use LLMs, too. I&#8217;ll be pushing out a new release of Claudaborative Editing in the next few days, I hope you&#8217;ll give it a go!</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, 07 Apr 2026 06:38:33 +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:"Gary";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:19:"Matt: TheOpenSource";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=151870";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:36:"https://ma.tt/2026/04/theopensource/";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:603:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It&#8217;s very cool to see <a href="https://t3.gg/">Theo / t3.gg</a>&#8216;s open source arc.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Just in general, with people creating more software than ever, it&#8217;s so exciting to see an explosion of open source and a growing understanding of why working together on open source makes so much sense for the future we want to build.</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, 07 Apr 2026 00:01:28 +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: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:76:"Open Channels FM: Finding Balance: The Importance of Downtime at Conferences";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2551269";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:82:"https://openchannels.fm/finding-balance-the-importance-of-downtime-at-conferences/";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:171:"Conferences are hectic, but experts say taking breaks is key for success. Pausing helps recharge, absorb info, and connect meaningfully with others. Balance is everything!";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, 06 Apr 2026 08:27:00 +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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:21:"Matt: Easter Thoughts";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=151842";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:38:"https://ma.tt/2026/04/easter-thoughts/";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:3604:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You call yourself a Christian engineer, but you haven’t given your life to Open Source? Huh.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">What license would Jesus choose? I don’t know if it’s GPL or MIT, but sure as heck it isn’t proprietary.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Letting proprietary code dictate your life is like following a Bible you’re not allowed to read. Beware those who would seek to mediate your relationship to the divine.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Happy Easter, y’all. <img alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f64f.png" style="height: 1em;" /><img alt="🐰" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f430.png" style="height: 1em;" /><img alt="🌈" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f308.png" style="height: 1em;" /> </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Update: BTW, the above would probably be a lot better if I spoke it, because people would hear <em>a very humorous tone, but that&#8217;s not clear from the text! So some have said I come off pretty jerky,</em> and some said blasphemous. Fair! I&#8217;m also not saying it&#8217;s literally funny, it just would be a little clearer I was trying. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Also, I mean examples as possible metaphors or parallels and not literally, but never say that up front. Also as thought experiment, not literally as judgey. &#8220;No&#8221; or &#8220;it is totally fine&#8221; are valid answers to the first question, lots of more possibilities — the &#8220;Huh&#8221; is meant more out of curiosity than judgment, a conversation starter, not an ender.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Finally the ender <strong>&#8220;Happy Easter, y&#8217;all)&#8221;</strong> <em>in my Houston culture and context</em> / the South  would be pretty clear as actually happy, friendly and playful. But said in a different tone or without that context, the opposite!  I have friends in NYC for whom that would read deep sarcasm, a big FU and rude bye. I didn&#8217;t think of that!</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Anyway, I&#8217;ve learned a lot from the feedback, will probably still learn more, and want to deeply appreciate the people who care enough to give it to me and spend time explaining and answering my questions. Thanks, y&#8217;all! (Not sarcastic <img alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f642.png" style="height: 1em;" /> <img alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f642.png" style="height: 1em;" /> <img alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/1f642.png" style="height: 1em;" /> &lt;&#8212; Real smiles and gratitude, not smug.) </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;m not thanking all the Twitter / X trolls, though, and I&#8217;m not going to engage any more because the real or perceived trolling makes it almost impossible to change, nor do I harbor any illusions of changing some minds. I&#8217;ve devoted hundreds of hours to it in the past, but it didn&#8217;t help, and that took a lot of time away from my favorite people and loved ones.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">(Also, I think something has changed; in open source and WordPress, we&#8217;d fight like crazy, but ended up coming together or having a meal afterward before diving back in. Social media I think has made that rarer and harder.)</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">(and the new Spring colors are on the site.)</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:"Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:40:50 +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:21:"Matt: Turn Every Page";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=151827";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:38:"https://ma.tt/2026/04/turn-every-page/";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:504:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;re looking for a good watch this weekend, I couldn&#8217;t recommend more the documentary <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=turn+every+page">Turn Every Page – The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb</a>. The craft of research, writing, and editing is presented in the most beautiful way possible. Around 400,000 words were removed from <a href="https://amzn.to/4sdRYn6">The Power Broker</a>, which was ultimately published as 1,162 pages.</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:"Sun, 05 Apr 2026 01:14:58 +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: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:22:"Matt: Pedro Franceschi";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=151811";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:39:"https://ma.tt/2026/04/pedro-franceschi/";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:428:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This <a href="https://www.ashleevance.com/">Ashlee Vance</a> interview of Pedro Franceschi from Brex contains so many interesting stories it might cause you to reconsider what it means to be a CEO.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed alignwide is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div></figure>";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, 03 Apr 2026 19:07:36 +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: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:75:"Open Channels FM: Self-hosted WordPress Optimized Runtime on Docker (SWORD)";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2551797";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:80:"https://openchannels.fm/self-hosted-wordpress-optimized-runtime-on-docker-sword/";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:182:"In the CloudFest Hackathon, Jan Willem shared his team's project, SWORD, a self-hosted control panel for WordPress, highlighting collaboration, technical challenges, and team spirit.";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, 03 Apr 2026 10:18:00 +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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:44:"Open Channels FM: WEB Responsibility Scanner";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2551824";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:51:"https://openchannels.fm/web-responsibility-scanner/";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:209:"Ekaterina Streltsova introduced the BEP Responsibility Scanner at CloudFest Hackathon, addressing web sustainability, accessibility issues, and legal compliance, emphasizing the need for open-source solutions.";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, 03 Apr 2026 09:07:00 +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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:35:"Open Channels FM: WP Plugin Insight";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2551774";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:42:"https://openchannels.fm/wp-plugin-insight/";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:178:"Javier Casares and Mark Heijnen discuss WP Plugin Insight, a project enhancing WordPress plugin discovery through AI-driven analysis of compatibility, security, and translations.";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, 03 Apr 2026 07:45:00 +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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:21:"Matt: EmDash Feedback";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=151783";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:38:"https://ma.tt/2026/04/emdash-feedback/";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:6962:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, two other Matts at <a href="https://www.cloudflare.com/">Cloudflare</a> announced <a href="https://blog.cloudflare.com/emdash-wordpress/">EmDash — the spiritual successor to WordPress that solves plugin security</a>.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">(Is it <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism">nominative determinism</a> or a simulation glitch that everyone trying to terraform the web has some variation of &#8220;Matthew&#8221; in their name? I was in a call set up by Matthew Prince, talking to Matt Taylor and Matt Kane, with my right hand there, <a href="https://matiasventura.com/">Matías</a>.)</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">First, I&#8217;m going to tell you why this isn&#8217;t spiritually tied to WordPress at all, then why they haven&#8217;t solved plugin security, and finally offer some suggestions.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Spirit of WordPress</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">WordPress exists to democratize publishing. That means we put it <a href="https://ma.tt/2026/03/wordpress-everywhere/">everywhere</a>. You can run WordPress on a Raspberry Pi, on your phone, on your desktop, on a random web host in Indonesia charging 99 cents a month, and you can run it scaled up on AWS or across multiple datacenters. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The same code. When you download <a href="https://wordpress.org/playground/">WordPress Playground</a> you&#8217;re running the same code that&#8217;s being attacked a thousand times a second at <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/">WhiteHouse.gov</a>. That&#8217;s what we mean when we say <em>democratization</em>.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It&#8217;s all built on open source and web standards. You can run it anywhere; there&#8217;s no lock-in.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That&#8217;s why we do what we do. It&#8217;s really hard. You can come after our users, but please don&#8217;t claim to be our spiritual successor without understanding our spirit.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Spirit of EmDash</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I think EmDash was created to sell more Cloudflare services. And that&#8217;s okay! It can kinda run on Netlify or Vercel, but good stuff works best on Cloudflare. This is where I&#8217;m going to stop and say, I really like Cloudflare! I think they&#8217;re one of the top engineering organizations on the planet; they run incredible infrastructure, and their public stock is one of the few I own. And I love that this is open source! That&#8217;s more important than anything. I will never belittle a fellow open source CMS; I only hate the proprietary ones.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you want to adopt a CMS that will work seamlessly with Cloudflare and make it hard for you to ever switch vendors, EmDash is an incredible choice.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Claimed Plugin Security</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In another example of them not understanding the spirit of WordPress, the fact that plugins can change every aspect of your WordPress experience is a feature, not a bug! And their sandboxing breaks down as soon as you look at what most WordPress plugins do. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I know we get a bad rep because there are 62k plugins with wildly variable engineering quality, and more every day, and when one installed on 0.01% of our user base has a vulnerability, a bunch of websites write breathless articles that get clicks saying &#8220;122,000 WordPress Sites Vulnerable!&#8221;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That, by the way, I think we&#8217;ll be able to fix in the next 18 months with AI. The plugin security <strong>only</strong> works on Cloudflare.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Critical Feedback</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">As I said, we had a call with Cloudflare on March 23rd, where they asked for feedback on this thing they built but didn&#8217;t tell us the name, said it would probably launch in their developer week towards the end of April, and some top colleagues and I offered to help. I wish I could say the things I&#8217;m saying in this blog post on that call, and if they had just shared the announcement post I could have, but in the spirit of open source here&#8217;s what I would have said:</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>If they had said the name I would have asked if they had any other options because I have an <a href="https://emdash.codes/">amazing colleague named Emdash</a> who is doing some of the most exciting stuff with WordPress and AI. (BTW I think our Em will have more impact on the web than this in five years.)</li>



<li>I actually think the product is very solid, there&#8217;s some excellent engineering, migration tools, it&#8217;s very fast, and the Astro integration is nice.</li>



<li>I&#8217;d be surprised if this doesn&#8217;t get tens of thousands of sites on it.</li>



<li>The UI is in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley">uncanny valley</a> of being sorta-WordPress sorta-not. I know it wasn&#8217;t a weekend vibecode project, but it has some of that smell. Stuff breaks at the edges.</li>



<li>I think using TinyMCE is a regression, and they should adopt <a href="https://github.com/wordpress/gutenberg">Gutenberg</a>, which we licensed and created to be used by other CMSes. (Correction: They use <a href="https://www.portabletext.org/">Portable Text</a> not TinyMCE, but same UI criticism applies.)</li>



<li><a href="https://github.com/emdash-cms/emdash/tree/main/skills">The Skills are amazing</a>, a brilliant strategy, and we need to do the same as soon as possible. I&#8217;ve been working on something similar and got some good ideas from their implementation.</li>



<li>I&#8217;m not going to say which parts, but they copied a lot of things we&#8217;re planning to kill. Build from first principles. Make it better. Skate to where the puck is going.</li>
</ol>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There&#8217;s a new CMS every other day. And that&#8217;s great! I love building CMSes and I totally get why other people do, too.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">In Conclusion</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Some day, there may be a spiritual successor to WordPress that is even more open. When that happens, I hope we learn from it and grow together. [removed &#8220;out of your mouth&#8221; sentence, too spicy for Western palates.] I&#8217;ve mostly focused on this post on just the software, but WordPress is also so much about the community — the meetups, the WordCamps, the art, the college programs, the tattoos, the books&#8230; The closest thing I&#8217;ve seen to a spiritual successor isn&#8217;t another CMS, it&#8217;s been <a href="https://openclaw.ai/">OpenClaw</a>.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Thanks to colleague <a href="https://bt.hn/">Batuhan İçöz</a> for helping review this.</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:"Fri, 03 Apr 2026 01:32:27 +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:64:"WordPress.org blog: From AI to Open Source at WordCamp Asia 2026";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=20341";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:56:"https://wordpress.org/news/2026/04/wcasia-2026-sessions/";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:10931:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>April 9-11, 2026 | Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai, India</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">WordCamp Asia 2026 brings the WordPress community to Mumbai, India, from April 9 to 11, with a schedule shaped around artificial intelligence, enterprise WordPress, developer workflows, product strategy, and open source collaboration. For attendees planning their time, the program offers a useful view of the ideas, tools, and practical challenges shaping WordPress today.</p>



<div class="wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-82d461e8 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button" href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/event-pass/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Get Your Event Pass</a></div>



<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button" href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/schedule/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">WC Asia Schedule</a></div>



<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button" href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">About WordCamp Asia</a></div>
</div>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-19211" height="683" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/10/20250220-DSC_1853-scaled-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Keynotes to Set the Stage</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The keynote sessions at WordCamp Asia 2026 help frame some of the biggest conversations at this year’s event.</p>



<div class="wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex">
<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-20366" height="1076" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/04/Screenshot-2026-04-02-at-11.31.10-am.png?resize=1078%2C1076&#038;ssl=1" width="1078" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/matt-mullenweg/">Ma.tt Mullenweg</a>, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, is expected to speak about the future of the open web and the ever-evolving role that WordPress plays.</figcaption></figure>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow">
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-20346" height="986" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-31-at-11.47.01-am.png?resize=984%2C986&#038;ssl=1" width="984" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/mary-hubbard/">Mary Hubbard</a>, Executive Director of WordPress, will also join a fireside chat moderated by <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/shilpa-shah/">Shilpa Shah</a>, focusing on leadership, education initiatives, artificial intelligence, and community growth.</figcaption></figure>
</div>
</div>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Together, they offer an early view of the themes and discussions unfolding across WordPress in 2026.<br /></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">AI, Automation, and the Future of WordPress</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Artificial intelligence is one of the clearest threads running through the program. Sessions from <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/fellyph-cintra/">Fellyph Cintra</a>, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/fumiki-takahashi/">Fumiki Takahashi</a>, and <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/nirav-mehta/">Nirav Mehta</a> examine how AI is already influencing WordPress through Core discussions, testing workflows, plugin development, and day-to-day implementation. That same theme continues in sessions on marketing and content strategy, including <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/adeline-dahal/">Adeline Dahal’s</a> work on structuring WordPress content to make it more machine-readable. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This cross-section of presentations shows how automation is moving from concept to practice. From autonomous testing with WordPress Playground to AI-supported development workflows, these sessions highlight applicable tools and skills that teams can start using right away, not just concepts. For attendees interested in where WordPress is heading, this is one of the strongest themes across the event.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Enterprise WordPress and Scalability</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Enterprise sessions take that discussion further by focusing on scale, architecture, and operational complexity. <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/rahul-bansal/">Rahul Bansal</a>, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/james-giroux/">James Giroux</a>, Anirban Mukherji, and Abid Murshed are among the speakers exploring how WordPress supports larger organizations, more complex commerce systems, and demanding digital environments. Their sessions look at growth, implementation, and the kinds of decisions that matter when WordPress is supporting business-critical work.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Other talks in this track focus on the realities of enterprise operations, including migration risk, observability, and long-term performance. Together, they show how WordPress continues to adapt to larger systems and more complex digital ecosystems without losing the flexibility that makes it widely used in the first place.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Developer Experience and Modern Practices</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The developer track stays grounded in both Core tools and everyday engineering practice. <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/ryan-welcher/">Ryan Welcher</a> will cover the Interactivity API, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/jonathan-desrosiers/">Jonathan Desrosiers</a> will look at automation in open source, and <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/takayuki-miyoshi/">Takayuki Miyoshi</a> will introduce a schema-sharing approach to form management. These sessions point to a broader shift toward building WordPress systems that are more dynamic, maintainable, and easier to scale over time.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">These more technical presentations also include sessions on the WordPress HTML API, Content Security Policy, open source data pipelines, and evolving plugin standards. Rather than focusing on a single type of builder, this part of the schedule addresses developers working across infrastructure, security, front-end experiences, and long-term platform health.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Community, Education, and Open Source</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The schedule also makes space for the people and ideas that support WordPress beyond engineering alone. A panel featuring <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/anand-upadhyay/">Anand Upadhyay</a> and <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/maciej-pilarski/">Maciej Pilarski</a>, moderated by <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/destiny-kanno/">Destiny Kanno</a>, looks at education initiatives and student pathways into open source. <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/kazuko-kaneuchi/">Kazuko Kaneuchi</a> will reflect on the story of Wapuu and the culture of contribution around WordPress. At the same time, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/kotaro-kitamura/">Kotaro Kitamura</a> and <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/chiharu-nagatomi/">Chiharu Nagatomi</a> will share how WordPress and its community shaped their professional journeys.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That wider perspective continues in sessions on product thinking, marketing, career growth, and business strategy. <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Speakers, including <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/nabin-jaiswal/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Nabin Jaiswal</a>, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/himani-kankaria/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Himani Kankaria</a>, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/julian-song/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Julian Song</a>, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/karishma-sundaram/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Karishma Sundaram</a>, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/sandeep-kelvadi/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Sandeep Kelvadi</a>, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/aviral-mittal/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Aviral Mittal</a>, <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/anh-tran/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Anh Tran</a>, and <a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/speaker/anna-hurko/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Anna Hurko,</a> explore how WordPress works an</span>d connects with decision-making, discoverability, professional development, and organizational growth. Taken together, these sessions reflect one of WordPress’s long-standing strengths: its ability to connect software, learning, and community in the same space.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Hands-on Workshops</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Hands-on workshops round out the schedule, offering practical sessions for attendees who want to move from ideas to implementation. They include:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>From On-Demand to Cloud: Automate WordPress Installations Like a Pro</li>



<li>AI + MCP to build, manage, and automate WordPress end-to-end</li>



<li>Building AI Agents with self-editing memory</li>



<li>Building Better WordPress Experiences with AI-Driven Development Workflows</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Explore the <strong><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/schedule/">full schedule</a></strong> to plan your sessions, and get your <strong><a href="https://asia.wordcamp.org/2026/event-pass/">event pass</a></strong> to join WordCamp Asia 2026 in Mumbai.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-19213" height="754" src="https://i0.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2025/10/wordcamp-asia-2025-family-photo.webp?resize=1024%2C754&#038;ssl=1" width="1024" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Mumbai is calling. See you at WordCamp Asia 2026! </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em><strong>Note: </strong>Much of the credit belongs to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webtechpooja/">@webtechpooja</a> (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webtechpooja/">Pooja Derashri</a>) for help in writing this piece.</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"></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, 02 Apr 2026 16:10:35 +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:"Brett McSherry";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:51:"Open Channels FM: FAIR Package Management for TYPO3";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2551748";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:58:"https://openchannels.fm/fair-package-management-for-typo3/";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:186:"Key figures from the FAIR TYPO3 hackathon discuss the platform-agnostic FAIR protocol, its integration with TYPO3, and advancements in digital goods distribution across multiple systems.";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, 02 Apr 2026 10:49:04 +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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:16:"Matt: Taxonomist";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=151765";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/2026/04/taxonomist/";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:6072:"<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;m really excited to introduce a project I worked on with various AI agents the other night, which I think represents a new way we might build things in the future.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">First, the problem: My WordPress site has 5,600+ posts going back decades, and I had some categories that were old and I didn&#8217;t really use anymore, and I wasn&#8217;t happy with the structure. Every time I made a new post, it irked me a little, and I had this long-standing itch to go back and clean up all my categories, but I knew it was going to be a slog.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Let me present<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <a href="https://github.com/m/taxonomist" target="_blank">Taxonomist</a>, a new open-source tool you can run with one copy-and-paste</span> command line that solves this problem. Here&#8217;s the idea:</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>You run this code in your terminal, and it spins up a Claude Code instance that asks you for your URL.</li>



<li>Then it takes that and figures out what type of site you have, which APIs are available, and starts downloading all your posts locally for analysis.</li>



<li>Sub-agents analyze every post against your current categories and thinks about suggesting new ones.</li>



<li>It previews all the changes.</li>



<li>Tries a variety of ways to authenticate against your site and make all the changes.</li>



<li>Logs everything locally, so anything is reversible later.</li>
</ol>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">THIS IS VERY ALPHA. PROBABLY BUGGY. BE CAREFUL WITH IT. PATCHES WELCOME. MAYBE MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR SITE BEFORE YOU CHANGE IT.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It kind of just worked. I ran it live against ma.tt and it cleaned up a ton of stuff pretty much exactly how I wanted. But there&#8217;s a lot of weird stuff happening here, so I don&#8217;t know quite what this is yet.</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>It&#8217;s very non-deterministic! There is some pre-written code, and probably could be more, but a lot of the code is generated on the fly by your agent. This creates interesting bugs where people testing with less powerful models had some odd behavior.</li>



<li>I kind of want a directory of these useful AI agents on WordPress.org, but also, there&#8217;s something a little strange about trusting a remote shell script to run on your machine.</li>



<li>I tested this with Claude, but there&#8217;s no reason Codex couldn&#8217;t use the repo in the exact same way, and I&#8217;d love to improve the quick start script to start by detecting all the agents you have, asking which you&#8217;d like to use, and also which directory you&#8217;d like to work in. I think we could kill the <code>cd taxonomist-main &amp;&amp; claude "start"</code> part of it.</li>



<li>Because much of the code and commands are generated on the fly from prompts, it&#8217;s very resilient! I&#8217;ve seen people try it, and it ran into errors with libraries or whatever, but it just figured out how to work around them.</li>



<li>I&#8217;d love it if, at the end of every session, there was a moment for self-reflection where the agent would take the repository and suggest upstream issues and PRs based on anything that went wrong. Then this could recursively self-improve very quickly.</li>



<li>There are some obvious improvements to this, for example, doing this for tags. Sometimes it creates too many categories when you might only want 3-5 for your theme.</li>



<li>One fun thing is a bunch of the work of this just uses public WordPress APIs, so you can run it against any site! I like using <a href="https://distributed.blog/">distributed.blog</a> as a demo. It&#8217;ll still do all the fun downloading and analysis and everything, you just won&#8217;t be able to make changes.</li>



<li>I now have a local cache of all my WordPress posts I can do other interesting things with, and that&#8217;s cool.</li>



<li>The logging and reverting probably still has some bugs in it.</li>



<li>You can riff with it along the way, so for example, it suggested I get rid of my <a href="https://ma.tt/category/audrey/">Audrey category</a> because it didn&#8217;t have enough posts, and I asked it to look at all the companies on <a href="https://audrey.co/">Audrey.co website</a> and categorize any posts that talk about them as Audrey, which created like 50 more.</li>



<li>I want to check the GitHub repo for any updates before it starts, and maybe periodically, because it&#8217;s iterating and improving really fast.</li>



<li>It&#8217;s not the default but the entire thing is way more pleasant if you run it with skip-permissions. So testing I usually run the one-liner, exit, resume with skip.</li>



<li>You can see some of my prompt history in the Github but I apologize it&#8217;s not comprehensive, I also used Gemini and Codex with this and got lots of value from them.</li>
</ol>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, not sure what this is, but please check it out, play with it, submit improvements or ideas, and think about what&#8217;s next. Might host a Zoom or something to brainstorm.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The final thing I say is that this was a very different process of writing software for me. Instead of staying at the computer the entire time, I found myself going away for a bit, napping and dreaming about the code, coming back with new ideas and riffing on them. Maybe I&#8217;ll return to my <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep">Uberman polyphasic sleep days</a>? Nap-driven development?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">BTW I have lots of thoughts and feedback for <a href="https://github.com/emdash-cms/emdash">Emdash</a> but I thought this was more interesting, will try to get that out later tonight. One preview: TinyMCE is a regression; they should use <a href="https://github.com/wordpress/gutenberg">Gutenberg</a>! We designed it for other CMSes and would be fun to have some common ground to jam on.</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, 02 Apr 2026 00:14:51 +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: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:95:"WPTavern: #211 – Elliott Richmond on WordPress Content Creation, Education, and Pizza Plugins";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=203465";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:107:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/211-elliott-richmond-on-wordpress-content-creation-education-and-pizza-plugins";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:60931:"<details>Transcript<div>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:00:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">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, WordPress content creation, education, and the unexpected diversion into a pizza plugin.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">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 class="wp-block-paragraph">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 class="wp-block-paragraph">So on the podcast today we have Elliott Richmond. Elliott&#8217;s been deep in the WordPress community for over 20 years, developing since the early days, back when WordPress was yet to be forked from b2. He&#8217;s freelanced, built with multiple CMS systems, and has contributed creatively to the community, including releasing a WordPress advent calendar way back in 2013.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">He is an active WordPress developer, content creator on YouTube, and unexpectedly a part-time pizza vendor running a thriving pizza business powered entirely by WordPress tools.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Many listeners will know Elliott for his technical videos, but today we discuss how WordPress has served as the glue for unexpected ventures, like scaling a local pizza business during lockdown, using WooCommerce, Jetpack, and custom plugins. Elliott&#8217;s experience showcases just how flexible WordPress can be, whether for websites, unique ordering systems, or even streamlining business processes for other niches.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Recently, Elliott has been asked by Automattic to create content around wordpress.com, giving him early access to features, and allowing him to share his workflow and insights with a broader audience. He talks about his approach to content creation, balancing scripting versus improvisation, and details his low tech kit from iPhone cameras to DIY lighting.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Throughout the episode, Elliott shares how community connections and feedback loops, especially via YouTube comments, shape his work, and he discusses the new opportunities for content creators within the WordPress ecosystem.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you&#8217;re interested in WordPress beyond websites, curious about how to turn technical, know-how into educational video content, or just want to hear about WordPress powered pizza, and who doesn&#8217;t, this episode is for you.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">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 class="wp-block-paragraph">And so without further delay, I bring you Elliott Richmond.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I am joined on the podcast by Elliott Richmond. Hello Elliott.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:03:35] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Hello. How you doing? Thanks for having me.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:03:37] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You&#8217;re so welcome. Elliott and I have had a little bit of a chat prior to hitting the record button.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Elliott&#8217;s one of those people who has been in my world for many years, because I&#8217;ve been vicariously watching what, this is going to sound a rather sinister. I&#8217;ve been watching what Elliott&#8217;s been doing for several years. And we&#8217;ll get into some of that in a moment. It&#8217;s a pleasure to have you on the podcast anyway. I feel like I know more about you than you will do about me, that&#8217;s for sure anyway. But welcome to the podcast.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:04:08] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Thank you. Yeah, thank you for having me. I think if you put yourself out there, you are bound to attract stalking of some form.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:04:14] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That&#8217;s right. Okay. I hope it doesn&#8217;t come across as that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:04:18] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> No, not at all. Not at all.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:04:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> But will you just give us a little bit of your background? Obviously this is a WordPress specific podcast, so you can dip into your early childhood if you like, but maybe if we constrain it to WordPressy things.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">How long have you been using WordPress? What do you do at the moment? And then we can get into some of the fun things you&#8217;re going to be doing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:04:36] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah, sure. So I&#8217;ve been using, or developing with, wordPress for over 20 years. So pretty much as old as WordPress is, but I was developing before that, building stuff. I&#8217;m self-taught developer, but I was building stuff in the early nineties for bands and stuff that I was in, creating music and just putting stuff out on the web.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But then I realised, when I was working at an agency, it was a design agency, that there was definitely a market for the web effectively, but the company I was working for didn&#8217;t really want to get into it. So eventually when I went freelance, I was able to sort of self-teach myself all of the things I was interested in, which was web development. So I used all of the kind of CMSs like Joomla, Drupal, and eventually found b2 which was forked, ended up being WordPress.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, yeah, started seeing lots of communities popping up, meetups and I just reached out to people. And I&#8217;ve actually featured on WP Tavern before because of releasing an advent calendar I think it was, back in 2013, I think it was Christmas time. And it was basically just reaching out to other developers and asking them for code snippets. It was back in the day when WordPress was kind of, it was a blog but developers were using it in really creative ways like portfolios, and product databases where you had to use the category and tagging system to actually make things work, and then manipulate the templates.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So there was lots of code snippets sort of flying about. So yeah, I just reached out to community and got about 30 developers submitting code, and then just released them as advent calendars.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, today I am still a developer and develop for WordPress, very passionate about WordPress. I&#8217;m a content creator, create stuff on YouTube, and I&#8217;m also a part-time Pizzaiolo. And if you don&#8217;t know what that is, that&#8217;s basically somebody who makes pizzas.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:06:22] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I can&#8217;t ignore that, and we&#8217;re going to get into that in a moment. But I&#8217;ve been having people on a variety of different podcasts for over a decade now, and you are the first, actually, that&#8217;s not true. I was about to say that you are the only person that I&#8217;ve ever interviewed who&#8217;s actually used b2 prior to it becoming WordPress. You are not, because I interviewed Matt Mullenweg once, and of course he, along with Mike Little, definitely used b2 because they forked it to become WordPress.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But that really does give me an illustration of, you are right at the beginning. So you were one of the kind of founding members of the community, if you like, and goodness only knows, I&#8217;m sure you had no anticipation of what it was going to become.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:07:02] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> No, not at all. Yeah, Kubrick.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:07:05] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Old school. If you know what Elliott&#8217;s talking about, you can join the, what&#8217;s the word for somebody who&#8217;s been around in the community for a really long time? Well, anyway, one of those.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So tell us a little bit about the pizza thing. I don&#8217;t want to dwell on it for too long, if you don&#8217;t mind, but this is such an interesting little story. And curiously, it does have a WordPress spin at the end. So yeah, make sure to get that in as well because that&#8217;s fascinating.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:07:28] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah, so during COVID, during lockdown, my wife and I just started a pizza delivery thing. Because all the kind of delivery shops were closing down and we have a community in our village and it was like, they&#8217;ve tried my pizzas before. So we thought, well, we&#8217;ll just roll it out and set it up. And people were saying, yeah, send me a pizza. So we thought, okay, well we can sell them to the rest of the community as well. And it was just going to be a temporary thing. Five years later, we employ five staff and it&#8217;s still going strong and we sell it as a licence to other people.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But the WordPress thing is, I mean in a million years I wouldn&#8217;t know that I&#8217;d be doing this five years later, but it&#8217;s all because of WordPress that has allowed me to do this. You know, it uses all WordPress products, it&#8217;s WooCommerce, WordPress itself, and some Jetpack stuff with the WooCommerce app. It glues everything together and it helps us to run a sort of micro business like that. And what has turned into a weekend, temporary thing has turned into a full-time business. So, yeah, it&#8217;s a, I don&#8217;t know if I can tell you any more about it really.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:08:28] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Well, you can, you mentioned that you&#8217;ve got a plugin that&#8217;s coming out fairly soon, aligned with people who wish to replicate your pizza business, but in their own locale.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:08:40] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah, so to just give you the bigger picture, my wife is kind of like a bit of a marketing guru, and she sees opportunities where I can&#8217;t see them. She sees all the blind spots. So this whole model can be replicated by anybody. She didn&#8217;t force me, I was willing to do it, but she made me film all of my steps to make pizzas. So if you don&#8217;t know how to make pizza, there&#8217;s a full course to make it. There&#8217;s a whole module of the marketing that we use. There&#8217;s all secret little tips in there about doing stuff on social media, which I don&#8217;t do. My wife does all that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But I&#8217;ve developed a plugin that works with WordPress and WooCommerce and it stitches everything together. So it&#8217;s got an ordering system, it&#8217;s got a slot system, it&#8217;s got a time-based system, so you can only put certain slots within certain times, and then it&#8217;s got a radius distance. So if you were outside of that radius based on your postcode, you can&#8217;t order pizzas, but you can collect them. And we do get people collecting from miles away that were passing last year, and they&#8217;ve driven a hundred miles to come down for the weekend because they&#8217;re passing to pick up a pizza. Honestly, you wouldn&#8217;t believe it. But I think the furthest somebody&#8217;s come is something like 120 miles. It&#8217;s crazy.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Yeah, so people have been in touch with me like from, last chap was in Norway asking about his, could he use it for his brother&#8217;s bakery? And I said, yeah, absolutely. So anything that&#8217;s got like a restricted delivery zone, and maybe you want to just do it at certain times, you can do it. But you don&#8217;t even need to use the slot system, but you can set the radius distance. So if you want to do local deliveries, you can set a four mile radius, five mile, ten mile, whatever you want to set. Anything is doable really. Yeah, you can use the plugin.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So that&#8217;s kind of like the freemium Pizza Pilot. And then there&#8217;s a Pro version that we actually will bundle with our licensees. And we&#8217;ve got, it&#8217;s not like a franchise, it&#8217;s, you know, they buy the whole model once, and then they get the plugin bundled in. And, yeah, I&#8217;m just kind of like fine tuning it so that I can manage it. So if pizza does take over my life, I&#8217;m still, got my foot in WordPress and developing this product. So I&#8217;m happy about that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:10:37] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That&#8217;s so interesting that you have WordPress as the sort of fulcrum of this entirely different side of your life, really. And it feels like it&#8217;s more than like a hobby project at the moment. It feels like it&#8217;s the underpinnings of a lot of what you do, albeit maybe the WordPress community don&#8217;t know about it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But also curious that, and again, I might be reading between the lines, maybe you launch the pizza business and then kind of retrofit your procedures into your own dog fooding plugin, which now you are deciding to sell.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But the fact that the technology stack that you knew inside out was able to facilitate that, you know, and a website can handle things like geolocation, that a website can handle things like payment, and the ability to add ingredients and things like that. All of that enabled you to launch that business, which is just so interesting.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Because most people who use WordPress, I doubt ever have that experience in life. You know, maybe they&#8217;re building things for clients, or they try a little hobby project. But you&#8217;ve got, I don&#8217;t know, it just sort of perfectly slotted in and, well, serendipity seems like the right word. Everything just sort of seems to slot in perfectly, and how wonderful.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:11:46] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah, I think it all kind of happened at the same time, because I just mentioned to Rachel about, you know, during lockdown these businesses are shutting down and people are going to pivot. Because I was talking to the WordPress community and they were talking about how their businesses were pivoting, like their restaurants. And I said, I could set this up as a website. So it all came together kind of all at once really.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">One thing I&#8217;d have to say is that I like doing complex things with WordPress, and I&#8217;m really interested in the way that people do stuff with WordPress. So we have somebody that comes to our Meetup that is a gardener, and they come religiously to our Meetup. You&#8217;d think, well, why is a gardener coming to the Meetup? Well, it&#8217;s because they run their whole invoicing system and business, the gardening business, through WordPress.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So it&#8217;s like, oh, that&#8217;s interesting. So there&#8217;s so many different things you can do with WordPress. So the one thing I&#8217;m grateful for is all of my experience that WordPress has given me and the opportunities in terms of my career, being able to sell, you know, development packages to clients, and picking up complex jobs in that sense. Because without, it wouldn&#8217;t be the glue for the pizza thing, and it wouldn&#8217;t have happened that easily.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:12:49] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Right. Genuinely, absolutely fascinating. I think we could probably do the entire podcast about that, but there is another story to tell. As I said, I&#8217;ve been looking at Elliott online for quite a while and then, I don&#8217;t know when it was, but it was certainly quite recently, we are recording this in March, 2026, quite recently that I learned that you are going to be working with Automattic. I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s for Automattic, but certainly for the wordpress.com side of things. I could spoil what you are doing and misrepresent what it is. Probably best to just hand it over to you, and tell us what this gig is, this project that you&#8217;ve got running through 2026.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:13:27] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah, so I have to shout out to Michelle Frechette because she basically reached out to me and suggested an introduction with Stacey Carlson, who is Automattic&#8217;s Affiliate and Influencer Director. And she&#8217;s obviously picked up some of my videos and she just said to me that, do you fancy us sponsoring a video or two about wordpress.com and how I felt about Automattic products? I said, yeah, why not? I use them all the time, every day. So it&#8217;s definitely up my street.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So I put some stuff together and she basically just told me that the Automattic leadership team, which directly is Matt down, were broadly supporting content creators. So yeah, I was on board with it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And my mind just went on overdrive. Basically, Stacey said to me, would you like to do this thing? And I was like, yeah. She said, okay, well, we&#8217;ll have a chat in a couple of days or whatever. And I was like, I put concepts together and I sent about three or four different ideas. And it was like, yeah, okay, let&#8217;s do this. And it&#8217;s basically how I use WordPress, what I did, the whole pizza thing, what I do from day to day.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And I put these videos together and then it created another opportunity and another introduction to a lady called Brit Solata, who&#8217;s head of Influence Marketing. Big inspiration for me is another guy called Jamie Marsland, who&#8217;s actually the head of the wordpress.com YouTube channel, because he basically raised his profile by using WordPress and turning hard concepts like using the Block Editor into really easy to understand videos.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And he had the genius idea of creating the speed challenge, which was kind of viral. Again, he lives down the road from me, believe it or not, less than five, six miles away. So there&#8217;s a funny story behind that. We&#8217;ve known each other for like 15 years, connected through social media and whatever channels there are that we used to use. And we actually met for the first time, face to face, at WordCamp Europe in Greece. And it always tickles me because the first thing he said is like, we&#8217;ve known each other for years, but this is the first time we&#8217;ve met, and we have to come over the other side of Europe. So it&#8217;s not great for our carbon footprint, which always makes me chuckle.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Yeah, he was a great inspiration. And since then we went out for a coffee or two and he inspired me really to start doing my YouTube stuff. And I think that&#8217;s really what got me recognised through Michelle, Stacy, and Brit. And then Britt suggested that we do something for the rest of this year. So I&#8217;m going to be doing videos about wordpress.com, what&#8217;s coming up.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">WordPress has always been a moving target. It uses multiple different types of technology, right? So there&#8217;s always different things happening and changing. And with the advent of AI, there&#8217;s a lot of stuff coming into the whole project. So, yeah, that&#8217;s kind of where we&#8217;re at.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:16:09] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I have a lot of questions around that actually. So the first thing I&#8217;m going to ask is, is the intention to make long form content, or are you hoping to make more short form content? And really behind that question is what you just said about the fact that WordPress is in a real period of flux. On the .org side, we&#8217;ve got WordPress 7 coming around, which is going to be transformational, but I also feel that any video that gets made to coincide with 7 is quickly going to go out of date because we&#8217;re in such a rapid period of flux.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So just conscious about that, really, whether or not the content that you are going to be creating, and forgive me for using this word, is more disposable, if you know what I mean? So the kind of content that you&#8217;ll throw together in the anticipation that in 4, 3, 2 months time, you might have to reshoot it again. So, yeah, just wondering what the constraints are on the kind of content that you&#8217;re going to be making?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:17:01] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> There aren&#8217;t really constraints in that sense, but I think the whole nature of WordPress is ideal for that kind of scenario. So we are going to do long form content and then spinoff of that is going to be the short form as well, because you can just do that with the modern tech that you can use today anyway.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But yes, I think if you&#8217;re working in the Core team and you&#8217;re doing documentation, and it&#8217;s always been a thing, getting documentation out has always been a problematic thing. And if you&#8217;re working on something and you&#8217;re deep into it, it&#8217;s difficult to get that stuff out.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I think over the years it&#8217;s got better because you&#8217;ve got prominent people in Core, in the team, working at Automattic that are pumping stuff out. Justin Tadlock and the other chaps and Birgit is putting stuff out with Gutenberg Times and things like that. So it has got a lot better, but definitely there is an opportunity for content creators to fill a gap in terms of new things that are coming, what&#8217;s going to be changing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And also the way that people consume that content because YouTube and all the social, other social platforms, not that they&#8217;re great, TikToks and all that, but there&#8217;s definitely an opportunity for that content to be absorbed by different people. So there&#8217;s definitely a gap there for content creators to make people aware about those changes and new developments that are coming to WordPress.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:18:22] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I&#8217;m in the lucky position in that for this podcast there isn&#8217;t really a laundry list of things that I have to cover. It&#8217;s very much up to me what I wish to have on the podcast. So you are an example, you know, decided to do this, and here we are doing it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But I did wonder if you were, you know, you mentioned some names there over at Automattic. I don&#8217;t know if there&#8217;s going to be some things that they will require you to do because that&#8217;s in line with what .com has just released or what have you. Or if you really are, you know, the reins are off, do what you like Elliott and just make sure that you post us and tell us what&#8217;s going on.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;m imagining there will be some sort of guidance and, okay, this thing&#8217;s about to launch, it would be really welcome if you produce the piece of content explaining why we&#8217;ve done it, and how it works and so on.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:19:03] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> There&#8217;s no guardrails in that sense. It feels very fluid and flexible. Yes, there are kind of like things, we&#8217;d love you to do this, and I&#8217;m more than happy to do that because it&#8217;s definitely on my street anyway.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The products that are sort of being talked about are products that I use every day, so it has synergy, you know? It&#8217;s not like I&#8217;m having to do something that I wouldn&#8217;t be comfortable doing. It&#8217;s stuff I love doing and I love teaching other people anyway. So in terms of that whole community thing, I think when communities come together, the most I get out of it is actually learning from other people, not just teaching them.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And actually just by teaching somebody, or telling somebody about something, they give you feedback and the feedback loop there is super important, especially for a project like WordPress. Without that feedback loop, potentially, it&#8217;s not going to be a thing that anyone will use anyway. So just by doing something with the community or publishing something is useful feedback.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There may be something that is sort of created and developed that I don&#8217;t necessarily agree with, but I can still put it out there, say whether I like it or don&#8217;t like it, and then ask somebody, you know, what&#8217;s your feeling? Have you used it? What&#8217;s your feedback? Get some comments. That is feedback. And that&#8217;s how you improve things.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:20:14] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> YouTube is a phenomenal feedback loop actually. I mean, I know you&#8217;ll probably be getting feedback from within Automttic and what have you as well, but I long for the comments on a WordPress blog to be like the comments on a YouTube video. It seems that everybody&#8217;s quite willing to get the keyboard out and hammer out thousands of replies on a YouTube video. It really does capture that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And so, especially if during the content you provoke the audience to comment, and to give you feedback, because you may well be making another piece of content, which will be guided by the comments and what have you. I think it&#8217;s amazing for that. And kind of like pretty, pretty untapped. Usually when you watch content, it is just, okay, I&#8217;ve decided what I&#8217;m going to do. There it is. It&#8217;s an isolated, atomised piece of content. But the idea of going and asking for, what shall I do next? Or something akin to that is really great. And I hope that works out for you. I fully anticipate that it will, because like I said, the comments are usually fairly voluminous.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:21:09] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s interesting because some of the comments actually inspire you to create your next piece of content. So it&#8217;s always good. Sometimes it is difficult because you can see that it&#8217;s negative feedback. But actually I think that negative feedback is a positive thing because you can respond in a positive way. Or you can just take that feedback and then feed it back into the ecosystem and that&#8217;s how things get changed. So any negativity is a positivity in my book.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:21:35] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, nice. I think you have to armour yourself with things like that when you go on social media and post content, don&#8217;t you? Because it doesn&#8217;t matter how perfect it is, and how well aligned it is, there&#8217;s always somebody lurking somewhere who is willing to derail your day with a comment like that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Are you going to be doing this then on official, so you&#8217;ve made the content, you&#8217;ve created the video, and yada yada. We can get into the process of that in a moment. I&#8217;d be kind of interested to know what you do. Are you going to be posting this on official WordPress channels, or is this that you are being hired to create the content and then put it out on your own channels? Or is it, does it come with the official stamp of the wordpress.com YouTube channel or something like that?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:22:13] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> No, it&#8217;s on my channel for my audience. So I&#8217;m free to do whatever I want really. I can do my own stuff but there is a, kind of an agreement we have to meet certain months and content that will be aligned with whatever&#8217;s happening at wordpress.com or at Automattic. But yeah, there&#8217;s no restriction. It&#8217;s kind of on my channel to my audience.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:22:33] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Is it very much then going to be YouTube, like screen shares of the kind of things that you&#8217;ve been doing with a code editor or in the backend of WordPress, or a plugin that you&#8217;ve installed and have played with or what have you? But obviously on the .com side of things as opposed to the .org side of things.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:22:47] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> I don&#8217;t want to give too much away, but I&#8217;m given kind of a little bit of early access to stuff that, I found it difficult to find it but it is available, you can get to it, but I needed some pointers. But it&#8217;s going to be a mix of technical stuff. You&#8217;ve seen my stuff, I&#8217;d like to get technical content simplified and I use graphics. And, I mean, if I look at my first stuff, it was nowhere near as polished as it is today. but I like to use animation.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There&#8217;s difficult concepts to get over, especially with templating and patterns and template parts and things like that. And if you can simplify that to users, to use this stuff with more knowledge. But there&#8217;s also stuff about AI that&#8217;s, I mean it even confuses me today, like MCPs and, what&#8217;s that? And it&#8217;s like large language models and things like that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So there&#8217;s complex stuff that I&#8217;m really looking forward to getting my teeth into because I can try and simplify it. And that&#8217;s what I like doing in terms of like graphics and analogies. And hopefully it makes sense to people.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:23:46] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So it&#8217;s going to be, I guess the one word that maybe I would encapsulate it as is educational. The idea is that you come in, learn a thing, or multiple things, and then go away. It&#8217;s not just that, oh look, here&#8217;s the latest new feature that&#8217;s shipping. It&#8217;s more, look, here&#8217;s the feature, but also here&#8217;s how you get to it and how you navigate it and what it does. And if you want to implement it, you must do this, yada, yada, that kind of thing. So educational.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:24:12] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah, absolutely. There&#8217;s lots of other things happening as well that are specifically for developers and not necessarily for wordpress.com. But yeah, engineering those things and putting those together to make something work in the way that you want it to, there is a technical barrier to that. So if I can simplify that and help others to get up and running, then great.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But there&#8217;s things like Xdebug that are not enabled by default in the Studio app that I think are really useful. Now I&#8217;ve used Xdebug for debugging my code for many years and I honestly cannot do without it. And I didn&#8217;t even know it was there, you know, that&#8217;s how hidden it was, until I saw a tweet like the other day, and it was, I think it&#8217;s recently been rolled out, but I&#8217;m like, I am itching to do a video on that, so that I can just let people know how to use it and what it&#8217;s beneficial for.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:24:56] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, you strike me as the kind of character that&#8217;s not going to be short of things to do content about. It&#8217;s more, which comes first. And I think that&#8217;s such a nice gig for you as well, in that you&#8217;re obviously a very curious individual. You know, you&#8217;ve been making videos for, this is going to come out the wrong way, but, you know, for no reason, if you know what I mean? You know, there was nobody prodding you with a stick saying, Elliott, we need another video now because you&#8217;ve been paid for it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You were doing it because that&#8217;s something that you found enjoyable, and you like the experience of doing all of that. And then somebody comes along and says, you know what? I think we could well do with paying you for this. That must have been kind of, almost manna from heaven in a way.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:25:34] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Absolutely. I mean, I feel so fortunate. I&#8217;m so grateful to Michelle Frechette for reaching out to me and making that contact because, yeah, I mean, it&#8217;s right up my street. You&#8217;ve seen, I&#8217;ve got guitars around the studio and I think it&#8217;s like, I&#8217;m the sort of person that I think it&#8217;s good to learn something new every day, regardless of what it is. And yeah, you have to be intrigued by something.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And particularly with code and technology, it&#8217;s changing all the time. You can do things in different ways. Very much the same as just fingering around a fretboard and trying to find that lick, or that nice harmonic tone that you never found before. And you think, ah, I can do this. I&#8217;m going to show my bass player that I can do this, or my guitar player, or whatever. You know, it&#8217;s a bit like that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And you get excited about the littlest things that maybe are not so exciting to a lot of people, but they are to me, and that&#8217;s why I do it. And if I can just impart that on somebody, that&#8217;s a bonus to me. And I do get that feedback on YouTube. So I&#8217;m always so grateful when I get positive feedback like that. So, yeah, long may it continue. And I&#8217;m not going to stop doing it because I find it fascinating and I really enjoy it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There are many stages to doing a video. You have to figure out what you&#8217;re going to talk about, the script, which I didn&#8217;t used to do. It was just kind of like, I know this thing, so I&#8217;m just going to jump on. But I now script things, break things down into concepts, and then know when I&#8217;m going to do some motion graphics. Then I do the headshots, and then I do the editing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And when I&#8217;m done editing, I&#8217;m not done editing in like one day, I just do a couple of hours and I go back into the house and I just tell Rachael, I say, I absolutely love editing. It&#8217;s just like, it just really excites me. So it is just these little things. Not necessarily about WordPress, but yeah, figuring out how to get a concept across. And then I&#8217;ll sit and I&#8217;ll bore the tears off Rachael, try and explain this stuff to her, and she&#8217;s just patiently listening to me, you know, so I can get it out of my head.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:27:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> No, I think that&#8217;s the most credible way of getting to the perfect simulation of what it is you&#8217;re trying to educate people with. Because you trip over yourself, don&#8217;t you? And you realise, okay, that second point should have been the third. And the third should have been the second. And there was a better way of explaining that. I think it&#8217;s great that you do it that way.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And I&#8217;m also, pleased is the wrong word, but I&#8217;m curious that you script it as well. Because I know that the temptation is often easy, isn&#8217;t it? It&#8217;s just, okay, I know this stuff inside out, I&#8217;ll just go for it. That extra hour, two hours, three hours, whatever it may be, of disciplining yourself to write it down, I think you go a million more miles with that content. You know, you refine it, you work it through, you cut out the additional words that are not needed, that just sort of demonstrates to me that you are really, really serious about it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:28:06] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> I say scripted, loosely scripted. It&#8217;s scripted not to the absolute T. It&#8217;s kind of like flashcard prompts.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:28:10] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Oh, no. No, no, no. Sorry. Yeah.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:28:13] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> But there&#8217;s the structure, let&#8217;s say. And sometimes I do word for word. But if I go off piste, if I&#8217;m recording, I&#8217;m like, yeah, I&#8217;m just going brush over that. It&#8217;s not that important. It&#8217;s just an um or an ah, or an and and a the that shouldn&#8217;t be there, but whatever. I mean, if I watch back some of my stuff, I&#8217;m like, oh, did I really say that? I&#8217;m my worst critic, I guess.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:28:31] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> The trick there is never to watch or listen to your own stuff.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:28:35] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah. Yes.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:28:37] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> The problem is, if you are self editing, you have to listen to yourself, you know, for every hour that I record, I end up listening to myself for probably about four hours. It is purgatory. For example, the sentence that I&#8217;ve just said, I will listen back to and I will be ruing the day that I said it. It&#8217;s curious.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Given that it&#8217;s on the .com side of things, and if, dear listener, you&#8217;re not familiar, we have sort of like this bifurcation, if you like, of WordPress. We have the .org side, which is the way you can go, wordpress.org, and you can download it and put it on a server and put it on your local machine and do what you like with it. And then the .com side, which is where Elliott&#8217;s work is going to be mostly living I guess, is the hosted side. So you go and you pay a monthly fee and you have access to WordPress over there, so you don&#8217;t have to think about the hosting or anything like that, that&#8217;s just taken care of.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Do you get a sense that there&#8217;ll be like commercial pressure there? That&#8217;s maybe getting to territory that you don&#8217;t wish to get into, I don&#8217;t know. But will, for example, you have to create content around certain features because it&#8217;s shiny and new? So instead of it being educational, it might slip into the more promotional, and I&#8217;m doing air quotes as I say that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:29:45] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> In my experience, little experience working with the guys at the moment, there&#8217;s been none of that. It&#8217;s literally, you have the free reign, do what you want. There is a benefit of putting a script together in that sense, because you can iron things out if you need to. But in all honesty, of the 10, 15 scripts I&#8217;ve already sent through, I&#8217;ve only had minimal feedback. They said, great, it looks great. Let&#8217;s go with it. And also, if it&#8217;s a new shiny thing, show me. I want to know about it. I want to tell others about it as well, you know?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:30:11] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Right. So the overlap there is welcome to you, which is quite nice, isn&#8217;t it? It&#8217;s new, it&#8217;s interesting. I would like to mention it anyway.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:30:17] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> There is also another point. I think there&#8217;s a misconception between wordpress.com and WordPress, the standalone software. Because effectively it&#8217;s the same thing. When you use something like the Studio app, you&#8217;ve still got your local files and you can still develop your own stuff. You can get as complex as you want. You are just literally hosting it with the people that make this software. And you then know that you&#8217;re going to get the performance, you&#8217;re going to get all of the security stuff, you&#8217;re going to get all the benefits of hosting with a, on a platform that know the software. So there&#8217;s a win-win situation there in my opinion.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:30:52] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So you were mentioning earlier, Jamie Marsland, just down the road from you, who&#8217;s the head of WordPress YouTube. Obviously kind of a prolific content creator himself, and then got taken on by Automattic to carry on that journey. There&#8217;s obviously now you. I wonder if you&#8217;ve got any thoughts on how WordPress, and you might read Automattic in here or .com or whatever the right word is. I wonder how you view the seriousness with which they&#8217;re taking content creator content.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Because again, if I rewind the clock three or four years ago, it felt that there really wasn&#8217;t much coming out that had that kind of official stamp. We were kind of left to our own devices. We were going into Slack and reading comments, or we were going into GitHub queues for plugin developers and things like that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But it does seem that at some point in the last four or five years, somebody somewhere said, wait, no, video is it. We really have to invest in video. And it feels like you&#8217;ve been caught up in that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There&#8217;s no real question there. It&#8217;s more just an observation that video content by people who obviously are out in the community doing this with a serious intention. It&#8217;s more than just a hobby. It&#8217;s something they&#8217;ve got a track record of doing seriously. I wonder if you&#8217;ve spotted that trend as well.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:32:05] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I often look up stuff on YouTube. It used to be Google. How do I, I don&#8217;t know, mitre some wood together? You can go to YouTube now and you can find all of this stuff. Or how do you make the perfect naan bread or the perfect pizza, let&#8217;s say? So yeah, YouTube is definitely, in the last, I actually don&#8217;t think it, it&#8217;s always been there, but it&#8217;s probably, it&#8217;s only become sort of more prominent on my radar, I guess. So if that&#8217;s a result of what&#8217;s been happening organically, then yeah, I&#8217;ve just been sucked into it. But, yeah, I think it&#8217;s always been there.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You always get from YouTube content creators about how much more difficult it is, I guess, because there&#8217;s more people doing it, so they&#8217;ve got less money to give people. But honestly, I&#8217;m not in it for the financial reward anyway. I mean, I do get paid ads and stuff, but it&#8217;s peanuts every three months, so I&#8217;m not in it for that at all.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So yeah, it&#8217;s definitely on my radar basically. I mean, in terms of editing and software, I still look up stuff. You know, even whether it&#8217;s WordPress or whether it&#8217;s command line stuff. Particularly now, if you drop AI into the title, you&#8217;re going to get loads of stuff.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:33:10] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I mean, more and more if you go and ask a question of Google, you&#8217;re going to get the AI answer first, but then you&#8217;re just going to get like a big row of YouTube videos. You know, if you ask it a question beginning, how do I, or something along those lines, the AI often comes first.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;m actually using a different search engine now. I use one called Kagi, which was actually by coincidence developed by the guy who used to run Manage WP, who then sold it and moved on to make this search engine. There&#8217;s another success story coming from the WordPress space. But if you ask it a question, you get the AI generated sort of response over three or four lines, and then after that, just a cavalcade of YouTube videos. And it really, I think, has become the default.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">What I&#8217;m finding interesting about that is, I think that wordpress.com in this case, but you could read Automattic, are kind of putting their money where their mouth is and doing it in an interesting way.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So rather than, let&#8217;s say, employing a team of content creators to do this, this, this, this, and this, they&#8217;re asking people like you to just get on with it. Just do what you were doing. I think that&#8217;s really interesting. And it&#8217;s hard to encapsulate what I&#8217;m saying there, but there&#8217;s a real level of trust. You know that you&#8217;ve got to do things, but nobody&#8217;s micromanaging you to tell you what to do. It sounds like nobody&#8217;s giving you, okay, we want this piece of exact content, and this one and this one and this one. It&#8217;s more, Elliott, you&#8217;ve got a track record, you&#8217;ve proven yourself, now crack on, but we&#8217;ll assist from the financial point of view. I think that&#8217;s a really nice model of allowing people like you to do what you do, and the trust that you&#8217;ve built up is all that was needed to get you started on that journey.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:34:47] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah, there are kind of, who this is for, what&#8217;s good to do, what isn&#8217;t great to do. So there is, not guardrails as such, you&#8217;re given complete flexibility, but you are given a kind of like a brief, not template, it&#8217;s not template, it&#8217;s a, what&#8217;s this for? What&#8217;s the target?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:35:03] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Like an avatar kind of, something like that.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:35:05] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah. Yeah, an avatar. I don&#8217;t find that restrictive in any way. If I did, I wouldn&#8217;t be doing it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:35:10] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> No, that&#8217;s really helpful.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:35:11] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah, exactly.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:35:12] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah. But you&#8217;re given a lot of rope. It does sound like you&#8217;ve got a lot of leeway to do what you like. I mean, maybe there&#8217;s constraints around, you know, let&#8217;s not make content about the UI of Wix or Squarespace or anything like that. You know, that&#8217;s probably out remit.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:35:28] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> That goes without saying.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:35:29] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, yeah. But certainly from my point of view, doing this podcast, WP Tavern, I can&#8217;t really sum it up, but I have that same freedom. I can have who I like on, nobody&#8217;s telling me what I can do and when it should be done. It was just a case of, okay Nathan, you&#8217;ve done podcasting, we would like you to do this one. And it sounds like a similar kind of offer was made to you, but on the video side. The trust behind that is hard to communicate, but it feels so nice.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:35:57] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I&#8217;ve always said, because I&#8217;ve worked on my own for such a long time, since I was in my twenties, and I won&#8217;t tell you how old I am, but it&#8217;s been a few decades now, I literally am unemployable. I do work on a remote basis for a company, but it&#8217;s on a very minimal tech lead responsibility kind of arrangement. But I could not go into an office. I&#8217;m just conditioned not to be, someone breathing down my neck. I&#8217;ve just been conditioned to have that freedom and creativity that I love. And definitely without a doubt, I&#8217;ve been given this opportunity in the same respect. So I&#8217;m absolutely stoked about it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:36:34] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, I think that&#8217;s really lovely. You&#8217;ve got that history. And I think we see that in the community a lot. You know, you&#8217;ve got a history, and it&#8217;s your turn to shine, if you like.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Okay, now the nerdy bit, right at the end. I want to know what your process is. Obviously being a content creator myself, I&#8217;ve got a whole load of software that I use and I flit around, but I&#8217;ve kind of stabilised on a few key pieces of software, which enabled me to do that journey.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;m sure that there&#8217;s going to be people listening to this who have thought to themselves, I too would like to make videos, and I&#8217;m curious, what is your tech stack? I mean, we don&#8217;t need to go into absolutely everything, but I&#8217;m curious, what are the 3, 4, 5, whatever it may be, essential things that are either on your desk, or on your computer that make the whole thing easy and possible?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:37:18] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> My tech stack is so low key, it&#8217;s unbelievable. My lights, if I explain my lights to you, I&#8217;ve got basically a cat food pouch box, which is like six inches by four with a hole cut out of it, resting on an LED light with a bit of tissue paper over it. It&#8217;s that low key, low tech.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:37:34] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So it&#8217;s like a small shoebox with a hole cut in with tissue paper diffuse the light.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:37:39] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:37:40] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> That&#8217;s so great. That&#8217;s so cottage industry. I love that. Yeah, because you could of course buy the $150 equivalent, but you know, the cat food box is lying around. That&#8217;s brilliant. Oh, I hope this keeps going. I hope you got more of these.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:37:55] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> If I could just turn the camera round. And the other thing is just an iPhone. I just use my iPhone. My iPhone is literally sitting on my computer now. So it&#8217;s good enough to do what I need to do with it. At some point it will upgrade, but for anybody who wants to do this out there, you know, you don&#8217;t need much kit.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In terms of the software, I just use the Notes app and I just jot down my ideas. I actually use the accessibility keyboard shortcut. So I literally, what I do is tap the key and just speak into my mic about the idea that I want to get across. And then that&#8217;s my brain dump. And then I&#8217;ll take that, read it back, break it down. It&#8217;s all in my own words, I then just get AI to polish it a little bit, so it kind of gives me the bare bones of my script. And then that gets me like 60, 70% there. But it&#8217;s literally my brain dump that&#8217;s polished, and then I repolish it again. So that&#8217;s one key bit of legwork that gets me going quickly.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;ve picked up a lot of kit over the years from just producing music. I&#8217;ve got some NS-10s in front of me, studio monitors, so I can do all my sound balancing and stuff. The other key bit of software is DaVinci Resolve, which is, it&#8217;s got all of the motion graphics in it. It is a bit of a head spinner to get into it, but there&#8217;s lots of resources out there that can help you get to where you want to be.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There&#8217;s lots of stuff out there that you can, like library stuff that you can subscribe to and pull in. But I&#8217;m always reluctant to do that because I&#8217;m the sort of guy that, I want to, even if it&#8217;s code, I want to get into it. I want to understand exactly how it works and do it myself. So working with nodes and animation in that sense has been, it&#8217;s been a big learning curve, but I&#8217;ve absolutely loved it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And then just the editing is like DaVinci Resolve. And it has everything in it. I pay a licence for it because I want all the whistles and bells, but you can use the free version and I just cannot believe what you can get away with, with the free version. You get all of the motion graphics, you get all of the audio, you get the colour correction, plus all of the editing suite. It&#8217;s incredible.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I&#8217;m just looking around to see what other stuff I&#8217;ve got, but yeah, that is literally about it.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:39:52] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think you&#8217;ve encapsulated perfectly. I mean, really you need a computer with a bit of editing software, and there&#8217;s many. Some free, some much more expensive. You can certainly pay a fortune for some editing software. But also camera, a little bit of lighting, I guess a backdrop and a quiet room would help. But that&#8217;s kind of really all that it takes. The key bit, of course, the bit that you are not mentioning of course is that script bit. That&#8217;s where the magic happens.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And people like you are able to turn difficult things into easy to consume things. For people like me who consume it, it all just looks so straightforward and easy. But I&#8217;m well aware that in the background there&#8217;s probably quite a lot of soul searching and rehashing and rethinking and you were saying, explaining to your wife and re-explaining to your wife and so on.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And so whilst the software and the iPhone camera and all of that are necessary to make it happen, I think the bit which makes your stuff, and people of your calibre&#8217;s stuff, stand out is that bit inside your head. The bit which only you can do in the way that you do it, you know? I&#8217;m grateful for all the stuff that you&#8217;ve done for many years, and long may it continue. You&#8217;re carrying on throughout 2026, I think is how it&#8217;s framed at the moment.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:41:02] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yep, or up to December at least that&#8217;s the arrangement. But I&#8217;m also allowed to do whatever, you know, my own stuff as well. So if you spot a video about me making pizza or preparing dough, somehow I can thread WordPress into that, I will. I probably can actually because I&#8217;ve got a dough calculator.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:41:20] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> With your pizza plugin, I&#8217;m sure that there&#8217;ll be ways of getting those messages across. I think we&#8217;ll knock it on the head there, as we say in the UK. Best of luck. I&#8217;m sure luck is not the thing that you need, but I hope it goes well, and I hope that you enjoy it and that obviously the crowd of people who come along gain a lot of knowledge from everything that you&#8217;ve done.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Just before we go, I think we should probably say where we find you online, where that YouTube channel is, or your website, whichever you prefer. Both if you like.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:41:46] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> Yeah, you&#8217;ll find me on YouTube, which is elliottrichmondwp. I do have an Elliott Richmond, which is all of my personal stuff, so don&#8217;t get that confused with the WordPress stuff. It&#8217;s elliottrichmondwp. And you can find my blogs and my brain dumps on elliottrichmond.co.uk. And that is double L, double T by the way.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:42:07] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, as I was typing your name in, subconsciously it always ended up with one T. I don&#8217;t know what was going on there. But all the Elliots in my life have got a single T. E-L-L-I-O-T-T, and then Richmond, as you might imagine.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you go to wptavern.com and you look for the Elliott Richmond episode using the search functionality, then you&#8217;ll get that episode, I&#8217;m sure. And all of the links for anything that we have mentioned, so the YouTube channel and the website, what have you, that will all be in there, one click. Along with a transcript of everything that we&#8217;ve talked about as well. So Elliott Richmond, thank you. Good luck with 2026 and thanks for coming on the podcast.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:42:46] <strong>Elliott Richmond:</strong> You&#8217;re welcome and thank you so much for having me.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">[00:42:48] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> You&#8217;re very welcome.</p>
</div></details>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">On the podcast today we have <a href="https://elliottrichmond.co.uk">Elliott Richmond</a>.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Elliott’s been deep in the WordPress community for over twenty years, developing since the early days, back when WordPress was yet to be forked from b2. He’s freelanced, built with multiple CMS systems, and has contributed creatively to the community, including releasing a WordPress advent calendar way back in 2013. He’s an active WordPress developer, content creator on YouTube, and, unexpectedly, a part-time pizza vendor, running a thriving pizza business powered entirely by WordPress tools.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Many listeners will know Elliott for his technical videos, but today we discuss how WordPress has served as the glue for unexpected ventures, like scaling a local pizza business during lockdown using WooCommerce, Jetpack, and custom plugins. Elliott’s experience showcases just how flexible WordPress can be, whether for websites, unique ordering systems, or even streamlining business processes for other niches.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Recently, Elliott has been asked by Automattic to create educational content around WordPress.com, giving him early access to features and allowing him to share his workflow and insights with a broader audience. He talks about his approach to content creation, balancing scripting versus improvisation, and details his low-tech kit, from iPhone cameras to DIY lighting.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Throughout the episode, Elliott shares how community connections and feedback loops, especially via YouTube comments, shape his work, and he discusses the new opportunities for content creators within the WordPress ecosystem.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you’re interested in WordPress beyond websites, curious about how to turn technical know-how into educational video content, or just want to hear about WordPress-powered pizza (and who doesn’t), this episode is for you.</p>



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



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Elliott featured in WP Tavern before:  <a href="https://wptavern.com/24-wordpress-snippets-til-christmas-submissions-open-for-2019">24 WordPress Snippets ’til Christmas, Submissions Open for 2019</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/pootlepress"> Jamie Marsland on YouTube</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com"> Gutenberg Times</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://xdebug.org"> Xdebug</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://kagi.com">Kagi Search Engine</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve"> DaVinci Resolve</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@elliottrichmondwp">Elliott&#8217;s YouTube channel</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://elliottrichmond.co.uk">Elliott&#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, 01 Apr 2026 14:00:00 +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: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:55:"Open Channels FM: Reducing Stress in Website Management";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2551246";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:62:"https://openchannels.fm/reducing-stress-in-website-management/";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:182:"Website managers face overwhelming tasks daily, necessitating prioritization, proactive communication, and streamlined processes to reduce mental load and ensure client satisfaction.";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, 01 Apr 2026 13:34:00 +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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:91:"Open Channels FM: Building Better Web Security Through Layered Strategies and Collaboration";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2551715";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:98:"https://openchannels.fm/building-better-web-security-through-layered-strategies-and-collaboration/";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:197:"In this episode, host Adam Weeks discusses cybersecurity strategies with Andrew Killen, Aaron Campbell, and Mart Virkus, exploring the collaboration essential for addressing evolving cyber threats.";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, 01 Apr 2026 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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:99:"Open Channels FM: Latest Jetpack Social Updates and the Return of X Integration for WordPress Users";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2551633";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:106:"https://openchannels.fm/latest-jetpack-social-updates-and-the-return-of-x-integration-for-wordpress-users/";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:208:"In this episode, Derek Hanson chats with Devin Walker about Jetpack Social updates, including interface redesign, Twitter integration, AI features, and upcoming WordPress 7.0 enhancements for WordPress users.";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, 31 Mar 2026 11:33:34 +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:8:"Bob Dunn";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:41:"Open Channels FM: TestAlly for Developers";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:34:"https://openchannels.fm/?p=2551572";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:48:"https://openchannels.fm/testally-for-developers/";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:157:"The Hackathon team discusses their AI tool, TestAlly, focusing on improving accessibility for developers while enhancing collaboration and business benefits.";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, 30 Mar 2026 12:14:48 +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:8:"Bob Dunn";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, 27 Apr 2026 07:40:48 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Mon, 27 Apr 2026 07:30:24 GMT";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:16:"content-encoding";s:2:"br";s:7:"alt-svc";s:19:"h3=":443"; ma=86400";s:4:"x-nc";s:9:"HIT ord 2";}s:5:"build";i:1764740248;s:21:"cache_expiration_time";i:1777318849;s:23:"__cache_expiration_time";i:1777318849;}