As a tradition of every WordCamp US, Matt’s State of the Word is one thing no one in this industry skips. Packed with all the juicy details regarding new WordPress updates, features and overall industry we’re all in, to say it was interesting to watch it would be an understatement. Brase yourselves folks, we’re headed to one excited 2018!
And, without further due, here is our recap of Matt Mullenweg’s yesterday keynote talk.
State of the Word 2018 recap
Just one month after the announcement that WordPress powers 28% of websites, we found out it’s now up to 29% with the CMS market share of 59.9% which is awesome!
We can say that the main thing about State of the Word was about Gutenberg Editor and the way it will change everything. Yes, there was a talk about changes in WordPress 4.8 and 4.9, Matt also mentioned project tide:
and HackerOne:
as well as the do_action project which will grow, too:
In his talk, Matt addressed the fact how the simple events widget that is in every WP dashboard, increased meetup attendance by 31.6%. That resulted in 4379 meetups worldwide this year 99301 attendees. And, while we’re talking about numbers, just this year, there were 128 WordCamps in 48 countries, 2310 speakers, 1008 organizers and 1091 sponsors. How great is that?!
Regarding people’s reaction to the incoming details, here are just a few of them:
People who are still concerned about #Gutenberg, should remember about the transitions required to get other major changes to core: Themes, Plugins, Multisite, MP6, Custom Post Types, Customizer, etc. None of them easy, but ultimately, it helped the platform move forward #WCUS
— Fabio Fiss (@fissf) December 3, 2017
WordPress is building for early and first time users. Ease of user experience is why we love the software solutions we use though there is a lot of complexity that delivers this experience. – @photomatt at #WCUS
— Kevin O’Keefe (@kevinokeefe) December 2, 2017
So often I wondered “How could they…?” but in the end all new WordPress features turned into an amazing advantage for users. Perhaps we should just relax and trust in the wisdom of the amazing people making WordPress. #WCUS
— Bego Mario Garde (@pixolin) December 3, 2017
What’s ahead in 2018: Gutenberg-based site customization. New default theme. #WCUS #SOTW
— WordCamp US (@WordCampUS) December 2, 2017
Even in the Q&A, people were most interested to know more about this revolutionary change that is coming our way. And we know we made you interested in the Q&A session, so here it is, no need to look it up on Social Media.
State of the Word Q&A
Question: is Gutenberg discouraging other page-builder plugins from growing?
Matt: they show there’s a need, we want to bring it to everyone for free in the core. Standardizing == opportunity. #WCUS #SOTW
Q: Could a Fields API be important, or will Gutenberg negate the need for it?
Matt: a Fields API will still be needed eventually. #WCUS #SOTW
Q: What’s your vision for how customization efforts will work with Customizer?
Matt: Gutenberg and Customizer will work together, lots of opportunities to bundle customization options together. #WCUS #SOTW
Q: Is it really true front-end editing?
Matt: maybe not the right term. But some past versions didn’t represent what user would really see. Users want better WYSIWYG, we want to close that gap as much as possible. #WCUS #SOTW
Q: Are we heading toward split admin? How can we quickly get through transition?
Matt: still trying different things, but the hope and expectation is that plugins and themes will quickly adapt as they have in past. Develop for Gutenberg. #WCUS #SOTW
Q: Gutenberg looks fantastic, but how to navigate strong developer opinions in the community?
Matt: this is the art & science of software development. All feedback has something useful, critical is alright. We also have to make decisions. #WCUS #SOTW
Q: Who will ultimately benefit the most from Gutenberg?
Matt: we are building it for people brand new to publishing and WordPress. Needs to be powerful and intuitive. But developers (and their clients) will benefit a ton too. #WCUS #SOTW
Q: Plan to keep non-Gutenberg/customization parts of WordPress from getting stale?
Matt: partner with developer community, tackle cleanup and other low-hanging fruit, stay user-centric. #WCUS #SOTW
Q: How do we make decisions as a community about what WP stands for, and ensure right people are in right conversations?
Matt: finding alignment & discovering autonomy for non-dev roles. Less committee-driven work. #WCUS #SOTW
Q: Auth in REST API is lacking, thoughts on OAuth vs. Basic Auth or other options?
Matt: there will be a lot of REST API improvements this year, but have to make APIs good enough and used widely before auth is a need or priority. #WCUS #SOTW
Q: In context of Gutenberg, how to limit user customization when it’s not needed?
Matt: there will be a way, stay tuned. #WCUS #SOTW
Q: How to find balance of customization versus standard solutions?
Matt: err on the side of allowing customization, but give themes and plugins ability to set limits. 2018 theme could help drive this. #WCUS #SOTW
Q: How do we think about forcing change on users vs. opting-in to new features?
Matt: right now Gutenberg is optional, Classic Editor plugin will be explicit opt-out. But it is a big change and we need to make more of those in the future. #WCUS #SOTW
Last Q: could a JavaScript framework-agnostic approach happen, worry about FB pulling the plug?
Matt: React convo brought lead dev of different JS frameworks together, amazing. Licensing concerns gone for now, but keeping eye on it. #WCUS #SOTW
What Matt and Automatic won’t be doing in 2018 is this:
“We’re not going to work on authentication of the REST API in 2018. There doesn’t appear to be a great need.” @photomatt #WCUS #SOTW
— David Bisset (@dimensionmedia) December 3, 2017
How long until Gutenberg is ready? Matt estimates he’ll need a few more inches on ye olde Gutenbeard.
In the end, if you’re still concerned about changes Gutenberg is bringing, here’s a tought:
People who are still concerned about #Gutenberg, should remember about the transitions required to get other major changes to core: Themes, Plugins, Multisite, MP6, Custom Post Types, Customizer, etc. None of them easy, but ultimately, it helped the platform move forward #WCUS
— Fabio Fiss (@fissf) December 3, 2017
And, that was that! Hope you like our recap, show your love by liking it or sharing on Social and let us know what are some of your thoughts on this year’s WCUS? How did you like it?
