[Opinion] Building The Future in WordPress

Lately, I’ve been thinking about whether or not WordPress is as great of a platform as I thought it was back in 2023 when I attended WCUS. It was a great time for me as my wife and I had friends in the area and we spent some time with them before and after the conference. This was my first time attending WCUS, and so far, it has been my only time. I had a great time going to some of the seminars, but I mostly spent a lot of time with a co-worker doing the “hall-track”. I remember listening to Mr. Mullenweg’s closing thoughts of WCUS 2023 and he was encouraging everyone to pursue AI. I was a sceptic at the time, of course.

I had no idea how much WordPress would change in a year.

The end of WCUS 2024 essentially imploded the community and upended a lot of the status quo. Automattic vs WP Engine took the community by storm and that conflict tore the community apart. Yes, it still survives, but it is not as strong as it used to be and the sense of security and stability is no longer there.

So going back to my original statement, I’ve been thinking about the future of WordPress. Then two thoughts dawned on me. The first is who uses WordPress, and the second is how is WordPress powered?

For who uses WordPress, I like to think of two different types of users, the engaged user and the passive user. Engaged users, i.e. contributors, plugin and theme developers, hosting providers, agencies, avid users, etc. These users are familiar with a lot of what is going on in the WordPress community, these are the ones that were impacted the hardest with Automattic vs WP Engine and the rise of AI. Then there are the passive users, these might be business owners who sign up for a WordPress site with a host, use it because that’s what their company website is built on, etc.All this said, I’ve remembered two great things about WordPress. First, it is open source and second, anyone can contribute, in any way they see fit.

Engaged users are vital to the community, they’re the ones that develop plugins, write code, attend WordCamps, etc. They’re also the ones that we use a lot of our metrics for. For example, we could say that WordPress is falling in popularity because the major WordCamps are experiencing a drop in attendance for the most part. But there are a lot of different factors impacting attendance:

• Where is the WordCamp being held?
• What is the political environment for that country?
• What is the ease of accessibility for locals vs those who have to travel?
• What is the average attendance for events in that area?
• How many WordCamp attendees are engaged users vs passive users?

So, going solely off WordCamp statistics isn’t enough. I for one would’ve loved to attend WCUS 2026, but financial difficulties and real-world obligations made it impossible to do so. I’m sure there are others in the same boat. There are also those who didn’t attend because they are no longer a part of WordPress, or they don’t have the same trust that they used to have.

Getting back on track as a lot of this is opinion or thoughts.

Now, I’ve never made a commit to WordPress, either in code, or encouraging others to use it outside of suggesting it to clients. So, I’ve decided to start making commits by finding the good in WordPress and focusing on how to encourage more passive users to use it and finding ways to convert passive users to engaged users.

So this is what I’m going to start using Dockside Press for:

1. To encourage passive users to become engaged users
2. To promote widespread awareness of WordPress
3. To find ways to grow the passive user base
4. To provide a sense of security and strength to engaged users (the WordPress community)

Looking forward to creating more content!