On this episode of WPwatercooler, titled “EP471 – Reflecting on the State of the Word 2023,” the hosts Jason Tucker, Sé Reed, and Jason Cosper engage in a reflective and critical discussion on various aspects of WordPress and the WordPress community. They discuss the State of the Word 2023, with Sé Reed sharing her thoughts on different recaps and perspectives on the event, including those by Courtney Robertson, Miriam Schwartz, and Joost de Valk. The panel delves into topics like the importance of custom fields in WordPress, the absence of Mastodon in Matt Mullenweg’s social media mentions, and Jason’s issues with integrating Mastodon with WordPress.

The conversation then shifts to a critique of the WordPress community’s handling of various issues, highlighting the tension between the community’s ideals and the actions of its leaders. They discuss the push towards using Matrix over Slack for WordPress core community discussions, the implications of Matrix’s licensing changes, and the perceived disconnect between the community’s values and decisions made by project leadership.

The hosts also touch upon WordPress’s data liberation efforts, noting the importance of being able to easily move data between platforms. They explore the potential impact of new initiatives like WordPress Playground and data liberation on the WordPress ecosystem, including how these initiatives might affect existing plugins and the broader community.

Finally, the episode covers the recent focus on internationalization in WordPress, the creation of Spanish speaking Slack channels, and the need for better integration and communication between global and local WordPress teams. The discussion concludes with an invitation for listeners to join the after-show discussion on WPwatercooler’s platform.

Related Episodes from WPwatercooler:

State of the Word 2022: WordPress’s Evolving Ecosystem

EP439 – State of the Word 2022 Recap

EP178 – The state of the state of the word

Oh, Word? WPwatercooler vs. The State of the Word 2021

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
02:10 Reflecting on State of the Word Recaps
04:37 Custom Fields and WordPress Evolution
05:30 Mastodon and Social Media in WordPress
08:22 WordPress Community Critique
11:06 Matrix vs Slack for WordPress Discussions
14:28 WordPress Data Liberation and Plugin Ecosystem
17:00 Exploring WordPress Playground
19:52 WordPress Internationalization and Spanish Slack Channels
22:42 Closing Remarks and After-Show Invitation

Links:

https://www.godaddy.com/resources/news/wordpress-state-of-the-word-2023

https://wordpress.com/blog/2023/12/12/sotw-2023-video-recap/

http://www.merlinmann.com/roderick/ep-14-big-city-apology.html

https://wordpress.org/and

https://thehustle.co/sherlocking-explained