---
title: "What was it like inside State of the Word 2022? WPwatercooler 439"
date: 2022-12-16
author: "Courtney Robertson"
featured_image: "https://courtneyr.dev/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/wpwatercooler-439-state-of-the-word-2022-recap-featured.jpg"
categories:
  - name: "WordPress"
    url: "/category/wptips.md"
  - name: "Speaking"
    url: "/category/speaking.md"
---

# What was it like inside State of the Word 2022? WPwatercooler 439

What did it look like inside State of the Word 2022, and what should canonical plugins cost the people who maintain WordPress.org? I’d attended in person in New York the day before, so WPwatercooler brought me onto the panel for episode 439.

## 🎙️ Episode details

- **Show:** WPwatercooler, episode 439, “State of the Word 2022 Recap”
- **Panel:** [Jason Tucker](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jasontucker/)colleague, [Sé Reed](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sereedmedia/)colleague and me, Courtney Robertson
- **Date:** December 16, 2022
- **Topics:** the State of the Word 2022 room, canonical plugins, WP Community Collective funding, and Playground
- **Show notes:** [WPwatercooler episode 439, with a transcript](https://www.wpwatercooler.com/wpwatercooler/ep439-state-of-the-word-2022-recap/)

## 🏙️ What was the State of the Word 2022 room like?

For listeners, I described the venue: the 11th floor of Automattic’s building in New York, with glass meeting rooms and the presentation set up along one leg of an L shaped floor. Check in came with a small WordPress journal, and I held up a sticker of two blue check marks from Tumblr, a joke on paid verification.

The online Q&A ran short, however. Even so, I heard that unanswered questions would get a follow up post.

## 🧩 Canonical plugins at State of the Word 2022, and who carries the load

Canonical plugins, features maintained as official plugins instead of in core, were a big topic. I suggested the Marketing team could help write the communications, because changes like these affect every plugin in the directory, and probably themes too.

I also asked whether canonical plugins would add burden to the small group that reviews plugins and runs the update process. After all, those people were already stretched, and I wanted them cared for.

As an example of a community plugin that isn’t business driven, I pointed to Pods, led by Scott Kingsley Clark. It’s free and open to contributors, and in my understanding the paid Pods Pro extensions fund the project itself.

## 💸 What the WP Community Collective funds

Meanwhile, people had asked the WPCC to fund work on their own plugins. However, our answer was no: the collective funds work on the WordPress project itself. Still, whether a community plugin counts as project work was a bigger question that canonical plugins made urgent.

## 🛝 Playground and the media library

I’d shared the WordPress Playground news in my weekly roundup for Post Status the night it broke. Also, I was glad to hear the media library was on the roadmap for more of the Gutenberg experience. I’ve watched WPwatercooler long enough to know the panel’s feelings about the media library.

## 🧪 What can you take from State of the Word 2022?

- **Plugin authors:** watch for canonical plugin decisions that change what core ships.
- **Contributors:** ask how a new process affects the volunteers who review plugins.

Also, more conversations like this one live in [my podcast and speaking archive](https://courtneyr.dev/category/speaking/).

## 🗓️ Archival note

WPwatercooler’s episode page is dated December 16, 2022, the day after State of the Word. Then I added this post on November 9, 2026, from the show notes and the publisher’s automated transcript, which has gaps. I left out personal asides that weren’t about the event. However, I reviewed the transcript, not the recording.





[](https://courtneyr.dev/2022/12/16/wpwatercooler-439-state-of-the-word-2022-recap/)Courtney RobertsonWhat was it like inside State of the Word 2022? WPwatercooler 439