Jonathan Desrosiers, principal software engineer at Bluehost, Core committer, and long-time WordPress contributor, joined Nathan Wrigley on the Jukebox Podcast to talk about making releases more communal, lowering barriers to contribute, and growing a sustainable WordPress project. Jonathan spends much of his sponsored time contributing through Five for the Future and focuses on contributor experience, automation, and removing friction so more people can participate.
Tying releases to community moments
A recent experiment timed a major WordPress release to coincide with State of the Word, creating a shared celebration for attendees and remote viewers. That model—aligning flagship releases with major events like WordCamp Asia, WordCamp Europe, WordCamp US, and State of the Word—is being trialed for 2026. The goal is to make releases feel like communal milestones that spotlight contributor work and encourage participation.
But coordinating releases with events is complicated. WordCamp dates are set around budgets, venues, local holidays, and travel logistics; Core needs to respect contributors’ availability worldwide. Religious holidays, year-end breaks, and regional differences make picking universally good windows tough. The plan for 2026 is intentionally experimental: try aligning releases with major WordCamps, learn what works, and adjust.
Global coverage and release squads
Releases need worldwide coverage, so encouraging geographically diverse squads helps keep work moving across time zones. Being physically at an event should never be a requirement—remote contributors are essential—but events can catalyze collaboration. The aim is intentionally mixed teams so issues can be handled continuously and people in-person and online can partner effectively.
Making releases engaging
Jonathan likens release launches to TV premieres: you can build anticipation, advertise features, invite early testers, and guide users in how to participate. Right now, users who update manually see an about page and there are release landing pages, but most users don’t notice changes because many updates happen automatically — which signals trust in stability. There’s still opportunity to surface upcoming features earlier in dashboards with teasers, Learn WordPress links, and testing invitations so people can prepare and give feedback before a major release lands.
Architecture, cadence, and automation
Faster, more focused feature rollouts would benefit from architectural changes that let parts of the project ship more independently. Much of the block editor is tightly coupled via packages and dependencies, so shipping single features in isolation is difficult. Jonathan supports increased automation and better compartmentalization to allow more flexible release strategies (for example, feature-branch releases), but acknowledges the project’s size and commitment to backwards compatibility make full decomposition a long-term effort.
Adoption and trust in updates
Recent data shows users are adopting new releases faster: WordPress 6.9 reached 50% of sites within 10 days, quicker than prior major releases. That suggests growing confidence in quality and more sites enabling major auto-updates. These trends reinforce that WordPress is shipping stable software and that automatic updates are earning user trust.
Community health and rebuilding
The conversation addressed strains that began during COVID: Meetups and WordCamps disrupted volunteer pipelines, mentorship, and leadership succession. Some regions bounced back strongly (notably parts of APAC), while others—certain US and UK areas—have struggled to recruit speakers and attendees. Broader social and economic shifts, changing habits, and venue costs also affect participation.
Programs like WP Campus Connect, the Credits Program, mentorship cohorts, and structured contributor onboarding aim to rebuild the contributor base. These initiatives help newcomers become mentors, team leads, and release squad members by offering clear paths, visible projects with success criteria, and opportunities to see work merged at Contributor Days or release parties.
Turning short-term involvement into sustained contribution
Jonathan stresses making short-term activities, such as release testing at events, feel meaningful and repeatable. Designing low-friction, repeatable testing experiences and ensuring feedback is captured and acted on can convert one-off testers into ongoing contributors. Events are useful labs to pilot onboarding improvements and to bring fresh perspectives from people new to open source.
Attracting younger contributors and new audiences
Younger people grew up with different digital behaviors and may not naturally gravitate to open source. To engage them, the community must prove the value of participation, meet them where they are, and provide supported, mentorship-backed ways to contribute. Campus programs and educational partnerships introduce open source early, but the community must be prepared to activate and support those contributors beyond initial exposure.
AI, the open web, and empowerment
AI tools are changing how people learn and build: they can summarize large amounts of information and lower technical barriers, letting novices attempt tasks that previously required specialists. That’s empowering, but scaling and maintaining quality remain challenges. Jonathan and Nathan also observed renewed interest in the open web—RSS, personal blogs, the Fediverse—driven by concerns about centralized platforms. AI plus open platforms opens doors, but also raises questions about standards, accessibility, and sustainable practices.
Practical takeaways
– Use major events as community moments to celebrate releases and to onboard contributors.
– Improve pre-release communication and dashboard teasers to drive early testing and awareness.
– Invest in automation and modular architecture to enable more flexible release models.
– Strengthen mentorship and education programs to create pathways from first contributions to long-term roles.
– Leverage AI as a teaching and productivity tool while keeping human-centered community practices.
Closing
Jonathan is optimistic about WordPress’s future: aligning releases with community moments, improving contributor experiences, and investing in education and mentorship can help sustain the project. He’s active at jonathandesrosiers.com and as desrosej across platforms and in the wordpress.org Slack.