69. The Holidays Are Over!

After the two-week technical break for WordPress.org, everything is back to normal operation following the holiday pause.

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Program transcript

Hello, I’m Alicia Ireland, and you’re listening to WPpodcast, bringing the weekly news from the WordPress Community.

In this episode, you’ll find the information from December 30th 2024 to January 5th 2025.

Following the holiday break announced by Matt on December 20, during which certain services like user registrations, new plugin, theme, or photo submissions were paused, all services were restored just before January 4 and the holiday break has officially ended.

In 2024, the plugin review team saw significant growth, focusing on improving security, speeding up the review process, and fostering community involvement. Tools like mandatory verification for new plugin submissions, two-factor authentication (2FA), and an updated internal scanning tool were implemented, strengthening security and accelerating the validation of submissions. Thanks to Plugin Check, review waiting times were significantly reduced, despite an increase in plugin submissions, achieving a 59% improvement in the number of reviews completed.

The team also focused on improving the developer community by moving the developer handbook to GitHub and promoting best development practices at WordCamp events. Additionally, the internal scanning tool, developed by Mika Ipstein, was updated with more than 400 improvements, allowing for more accurate detection of security issues and facilitating manual reviews. Despite the increase in plugins, the team managed to maintain more thorough and quicker reviews, reflecting a commitment to quality and security on the platform.

As a summary of 2024, the themes team achieved several major milestones, including the review and approval of over 1,000 block-based themes, a key focus for theme development on the platform. Significant improvements were also made to the documentation on developing these themes, facilitating the transition to block-based themes. Throughout the year, 39,671 tickets were opened, and 1,566 new themes were approved, reaching an approval rate of 81.3%. The team also pushed for the creation and review of hybrid and classic themes, with an emphasis on improving code quality and security.

The Design team, for 2025, has issued a call for creativity in theme design, urging developers to create “digital homes” that truly reflect the individuality of their creators, rather than settling for standardized, conversion-optimized designs that dominate today. The web, as it is now, has become homogeneous, losing the visual diversity that once allowed for authentic expression.

The idea is that themes should not only be functional but also exciting and distinctive, like album covers that make an immediate impression. WordPress needs more daring themes, with a unique touch, and above all, the ability to surprise and inspire users, bringing individuality back to the web.

And finally, this podcast is distributed under a Creative Commons license as a derivative version of the podcast in Spanish; you can find all the links for more information, and the podcast in other languages, at WPpodcast .org.

Thanks for listening, and until the next episode!