On the Jukebox Podcast from WP Tavern, host Nathan Wrigley spoke with Jonathan Desrosiers about making WordPress releases more meaningful, rebuilding community momentum, and sustaining contributor pipelines. Jonathan is a principal software engineer at Bluehost, sponsored through Five for the Future to contribute to WordPress. He’s been a Core committer for nearly eight years and a contributor for more than a decade, with a focus on contributor experience, automation, mentorship, and lowering the barriers to participation.
Synchronized release moments
A recent release that coincided with State of the Word created a theatrical, communal celebration: attendees shared a live moment when the release landed. That experience sparked the idea of intentionally aligning major releases with flagship community events (for example, WordCamp Asia, WordCamp Europe, and WordCamp US) to create shared launch moments. The goal is to turn releases into visible, exciting milestones that draw attention and invite people to participate.
Practical constraints and planning
Aligning releases with events is appealing but not simple. WordCamp dates are set around budgets, regional holidays, venue availability, and travel logistics—not software timelines. Global holidays and religious observances affect contributor availability. Release planning must account for branching, feature-complete deadlines, testing windows, and the reality that contributors span time zones. The idea isn’t to force event planners to change dates; rather, it’s to coordinate where feasible and learn from pilots.
Distributed release squads
A pragmatic approach is to staff release squads with contributors distributed geographically. That gives near-continuous coverage across a release window and compensates for people who will be onsite at events versus those working remotely. When one region’s contributor day ends, another region can pick up investigations and fixes, reducing blind spots and improving responsiveness.
Making releases more visible and useful
Jonathan and Nathan discussed ways to raise awareness before and after a release. Instead of only showing a basic “about” page post-update, WordPress could surface previews of upcoming features inside the dashboard—like trailers that encourage testing and early feedback. Architectural options such as feature-branch models or package-based delivery could make features more modular and easier to preview, but those approaches add complexity and must respect backwards compatibility at scale.
Auto-updates and adoption trends
Auto-updates have smoothed the upgrade experience for many sites, a sign of stable releases. Recent adoption data suggests faster uptake: for instance, WordPress 6.9 hit the 50% adoption threshold of all sites in 10 days—four days faster than 6.8—indicating accelerating confidence and more users opting into major auto-updates.
Community health and recovery
Open source depends on people. COVID disrupted contributor pipelines: Meetups and WordCamps saw organizer burnout and leadership handoffs stall, which interrupted mentorship cycles. Regional dynamics vary: APAC communities have shown strong local growth, while some US and EU groups are still rebuilding pre-pandemic attendance and speaker pools. Re-engaging communities means showing clear value, lowering activation costs, and making involvement feel worthwhile.
Onboarding, mentorship, and finishing work
Programs like WP Credits, Campus Connect, contributor mentorship initiatives, and Contributor Days aim to attract new contributors and provide pathways to sustained involvement. A key lesson is to prioritize tangible outcomes for newcomers: help them get patches tested and committed so they see real impact. When mentorship cycles complete, contributors often become mentors themselves, creating a virtuous loop.
Reaching younger contributors
Younger people grew up with closed platforms and different expectations. To attract them, communities need outreach into schools and universities and small, well-supported project opportunities. Clear criteria, bite-sized tasks, and hands-on mentorship help turn curiosity into ongoing contribution.
AI, empowerment, and the open web
AI is changing how people learn and build: it can distill complex information and empower individuals to try creating sites, writing content, or attempting fixes. At the same time, there’s renewed interest in owning content—RSS, personal blogs, and the Fediverse—and WordPress’s strength is in offering ownership, flexibility, and control that closed platforms often lack. Yet long-term success still depends on reliable software and an active community to support maintenance and scale.
Pilots and the path forward
Synchronized release pilots at in-person events can be used to test onboarding, improve testing workflows, and give newcomers meaningful, finishable tasks. In-person feedback accelerates iteration and helps refine processes that can later scale for remote contributors.
Outlook
Jonathan sees renewed enthusiasm for building with WordPress alongside the challenge of rebuilding local communities. Coordinated release moments, improved onboarding, education initiatives, and thoughtful use of AI could attract new contributors and sustain the project. The aim is to keep WordPress relevant and supported by a diverse, active community for years to come.
Find Jonathan at jonathandesrosiers.com, on social platforms as desrosej, and in the WordPress.org Slack.