What should WordPress prioritize in 2023, and where do its big picture goals land on people who extend WordPress? Jason Cosperacquaintance, Sé Reedcolleague and I read through Josepha Haden Chomphosy’s 2023 goals on WPwatercooler episode 442. I’d been on so often by then that I opened by asking whether I still counted as a guest.
🎙️ Episode details
- Show: WPwatercooler, episode 442, “Little Contributor, Big Community”
- Panel: Jason Cosper, Sé Reed and me, Courtney Robertson
- Date: January 20, 2023
- Topics: a weekly roundup, PHP 8.2 in the WordPress goals, and learning content that keeps pace
- Show notes: WPwatercooler episode 442, with links and a transcript
📰 A weekly roundup for people who build on WordPress
I explained the weekly roundup I wrote for Post Status: everything that happened across the Make WordPress teams and a few key GitHub repositories, published Wednesdays and updated through Friday. At the bottom, for developers, I listed recent changes in PHP, JavaScript standards, Composer and npm. Cory Millercolleague and I started it to help plugin and theme companies see what was happening on WordPress.org and why it mattered to them.
⚙️ Where does PHP 8.2 belong in the WordPress goals?
The WordPress goals listed PHP 8.2 compatibility beside items like the Navigation block. I argued it belonged under the ecosystem goals instead. After all, core can support 8.2, and hosts like ours can offer it, but sites only benefit when their plugins and themes support it too.
I also said the Performance team, a subset of core with its own Make blog, needed a boost. For example, they test what happens to WordPress on everything from enterprise setups to shared hosting.
📚 Can learning content keep pace with releases?
One WordPress goal said to keep shipping learning content at the current pace. However, I noted the gap: learners already complained that courses weren’t current, and the Training team had no process yet for revising courses for each release. I’d first met Angela Jin, who oversaw WordPress.org programs for Automattic, to talk about getting Learn content out alongside releases.
Next, I pointed to the Marketing team’s guides for setting up a WordPress.org account and joining Slack, in about a dozen languages, since those steps stop many new contributors. Contributor courses were on the Training team’s list too.
🧪 What can you take from the 2023 WordPress goals?
- Plugin and theme developers: test against new PHP versions before your users’ hosts switch.
- Contributors: the Performance team welcomes people who can test on different hosting setups.
- Educators: plan how you’ll update a course before you publish it.
Also, more conversations like this one live in my podcast and speaking archive.
🗓️ Archival note
WPwatercooler’s episode page is dated January 20, 2023. Then I added this post on November 9, 2026, from the show notes and the publisher’s automated transcript. However, I reviewed the transcript, not the recording.