#205- All WordCamp Sponsors To Be Approved By Matt, LoopConf 2025

Issue #205 | February 4, 2025 | Reading time: 16 mins

Hello!

Today we cover the sponsor review process change for WordCamp sponsors, the three recent events that have shaken the WordPress ecosystem, new projects, and acquisitions.

Don’t forget to subscribe and listen to the podcast version of this newsletter, where you can hear more details and discussions about these topics and more.

See you next week!

Team WP-CONTENT.CO

🙌 This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by Kinsta, Omnisend, and InMotion Hosting

Kinsta Managed Hosting

Kinsta – Highest-rated managed WordPress hosting provider on G2 Check it out →

Omnisend

Boost your sales with email & SMS—without breaking the bank Check it out →

InMotion Hosting

Fast, Affordable, and Secure Web Hosting for Any Site Check it out →

🗣️TALK OF THE TOWN

WordPress shakeup signaled by three recent events

The key developments include the donation made by GoDaddy to The WP Community Collective, Post Status becoming a non-profit, and the discussions surrounding federated WordPress directories.

📰 WORDPRESS & AROUND

All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies

WordCamp Sponsors Need to be Approved by Matt Mullenweg and Mary Hubbard

The updated process now enforces strict adherence to WordPress’s trademark and GPL guidelines. As a result, it requires sponsors to refrain from using phrases like “WordPress Hosting” and the unauthorized use of the WordPress logo. Additionally, “all sponsorships need to be approved by Matt Mullenweg and Mary Hubbard from project leadership.”

How WordPress hot nacho scandal shapes WP Engine dispute: In a recent interview, Matt Mullenweg referenced three scandals and controversies from his past that have been long forgotten to show how it’s possible that the WP Engine scandal will also be forgotten. The three scandals he referred to are The 2005 Hot Nacho Scandal, The 2007 Easter Theme Massacre, and The Chris Pearson Thesis Conflict.
Gibson Dunn takes over Automattic’s legal defense as WP Engine lawsuit escalates: Neal Katyal and his firm Hogan Lovells have filed notices of withdrawal with the United States District Court, confirming they are no longer representing Automattic and Mullenweg.
Reorganizing the Woo community Slack for better collaboration: Starting Feb 10, a few channels in WooCommerce developer Slack will be renamed, a few will be retired and a new channel “#marketplace” will also be added.
Demo your Woo extension with WordPress Playground: Woo extension developers can use Playground to share a demo of their work.
Call for testing the modernized WooCommerce emails: The WooCommerce team has issued a call for testing for the beta features related to emails, which are set to launch with WooCommerce 9.7.
Privilege escalation vulnerability patched in Better Find and Replace plugin: The vulnerability occurred due to the leakage of the nonce to low-privileged users and the lack of proper permission checks in the function that is responsible for replacing the texts in the database. All users are to update to the latest version immediately.
Hackers target WordPress sites to spread malware on Windows and Mac: According to security researchers, thousands of websites are being hacked using old versions of WordPress and plugins. The goal is to deceive users into downloading and installing malware. The hackers‘ plan involves spreading malware that can steal sensitive information from users of both Mac and Windows computers, including passwords.
Google reverses stance on Performance Max campaign controls: PMax campaigns can now be controlled through API placement exclusions, contradicting months of Google’s documentation that claimed otherwise.
Google to migrate all reCAPTCHA services to cloud platform: All reCAPTCHA users must migrate to Google Cloud by the end of year. The service remains free for up to 10,000 assessments per month.
AI Overviews data shows massive changes in search results: Enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge published results on current AI Search trends, showing that Google AI Overviews (AIO) has expanded its presence by up to 100% in increasingly complex search queries.
DeepSeek terms make users liable for company’s travel expenses: DeepSeek’s terms of use make users liable for investigation and travel expenses if their violations lead to legal claims or enforcement actions.
Minnetonka-based e-commerce firm Digital River to shut down: Digital River Inc., a Minnetonka e-commerce firm that sold for over $800 million a decade ago, is shutting down.

💵 INVESTMENTS, ACQUISITIONS & PARTNERSHIPS

World Host Group acquires A2 Hosting: A2 Hosting founded in 2003 has been acquired by World Host Group. Previously World Host Group has acquired several hosting companies such as HostingRaja, LuxHosting, WebHostPython, ColombiaHosting, LuxHosting, Doteasy, and Wingu Networks.
Automattic and others back Openvibe, an app that’s unifying the open social web: Openvibe announced that it has received outside investment of $800,000 in a round led by Czech Founders VC, which includes backing from WordPress.com and Tumblr parent company, Automattic, as well as Tensor Ventures.

👥 COMMUNITY NEWS

Updates and News from the WordPress Community

LoopConf 2025

The conference for WordPress developers will take place on 25 September 2025, in the United Kingdom. Further details will announced in the coming months and interested folks can sign up so as not to miss any alerts.

Mary Hubbard announced as a speaker at Techarena 2025: Techarena 2025, Scandinavia’s biggest tech & business event set to take place from 20-21 February 2025 has announced Mary Hubbard as one of the speakers for the panel discussion titled “The Future of the Web” along with Thibault Imbert, CPO, Picsart.
WP Community Collective naming similarity concern: On December 19, 2024, Felipe Santos, reached out to WPCC as part of the WordPress Community Support, expressing concern that their name could be confused with WordPress Community Support (WPCS). They asked WPCC to consider changing its name to prevent potential misunderstandings. In an email response, Sé Reed (President and CEO of WPCC) stated that “WP” is not trademarked, and their organization does not use “WordPress” in its name or branding and hence has not violated any terms. As a result, they do not plan to change their name, as it accurately reflects their mission.
The next Atlanta WordPress Meetup is about other things besides WordPress: Aaron Reiman, an organizer for WordCamp Atlanta and the Atlanta WordPress Meetup stated via X that he was contacted by someone to express their support for the next Atlanta WordPress Meetup as it will cover topics beyond WordPress.
Tony Zeoli on WordPress paying for your Meetup page: Tony Zeoli reminds others that WordPress covers the cost of their Meetup page. He expressed the opinion that if a Meetup group shifts focus to include other CMS platforms and services with the focus no longer being on WordPress, he suggests calling the meetup something else and handing over the page. He also stated that if anyone feels threatened by Matt, they should step down from organizing the Meetup.
Plugin Check Plugin update introduces a new function: Vinny Green on X notified the community that the plugin has now introduced a new function called “get_restricted_contributors”.
Ollie Pro 1.3 released: The latest release introduces performance enhancements, a new shortcut to launch the pattern library quicker, and so on.
PMPro v3.4 has reached the Release Candidate (RC) phase: The team is inviting developers and technical users to test this version on their development sites. This release introduces enhanced localization support, improved membership management, subscription and payment gateway improvements, and much more.
Pravin Parmar receives the Yoast Care fund for his contribution to the WordPress community: Pravin Parmar a member of the WordPress Community Team is the latest recipient of the Yoast Care fund.

🚀 NEW PROJECTS

David Michael is working on a modern e-commerce plugin for WordPress: The new plugin is built from scratch with a focus on performance, security, and scalability, and will adopt modern technologies like React and REST. He also talks about the drawbacks of Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce.
All new CMS Minute: Matt Medeiros has launched CMS Minute, a limited series podcast to gain deeper insights into other apps building the web. The podcast is sponsored by John O’Nolan, founder of Ghost.
SureMails is rolling out this week: Adam Preiser announced via X that SureMails, a free plugin for sending emails will be launched later this week. The plugin will feature distinct features such as auto-retry, reputation shield, and backup connections.
New text editor project by Rich Tabor: The text editor is built with Cursor, Next.js, shadcn, Tailwind, and Tiptap. The project is still in its development phase and he is considering adding WordPress integration so as to create drafts directly on your WordPress site.

🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS

More posts and podcasts from the WordPress Community you don’t want to miss

Cory Miller on A2 & Post Status acquisitions: Matt Medeiros converses with Cory Miller who recently transferred ownership of Post Status along with his part in the acquisition of A2 Hosting by by World Host Group. They explore how these two changes impact the WordPress community. From WP Minute+ Podcast.
Diversify with Shopify: In this episode of the WP Minute+, Matt chats with Katie Keith, co-founder of Barn2 Plugins, about her decision to diversify her WordPress-focused business by introducing Shopify apps.
Sam Parr & Shaan Puri interview Matt Mullenweg: They converse about Matt turning down $200M at 24 years old, WooCommerce vs Shopify, and so on. Also, Matt Mullenweg expects the WP Engine dispute to be resolved within months and then forgotten.
In conversation with Abhishek Garg: Bud Kraus is joined by Abhishek Garg where they touch upon his career’s starting point, his current role at InstaWP, and much more.From, Seriously Bud?
Anna Hurko on managing a growing plugin business: Nathan Wrigley is joined by Anna Hurko, the CEO of Crocoblock where Anna shares her journey, and discusses the growth of Crocoblock along with the company’s marketing strategies and their involvement in the WordPress community through WordCamps and meetups. From WP Tavern Jukebox.
The journey of underrepresented in tech: Growth, challenges, and impact: In this episode Michelle, Allie, and Samah reflect on the evolution of their work advocating for underrepresented voices in the tech industry. From the early struggles of building a sustainable project to the transition of leadership and personal growth, they share emotional moments, hard-won lessons, and the importance of creating space for diverse voices. From Underrepresented in Tech.
The difference between WordPress plugins, must-use plugins, and drop-in plugins: Jeff Starr explains the difference between regular,must-use and drop-in plugins in WordPress. From Digging Into WordPress.
The crisis of themes in WordPress: Hendrik Luehrsen notes how Full Site Editing has brought about various challenges to theme space. To address this issue, he puts forth several steps that can be taken such as, reframing the purpose of themes, improve discoverability, focus on accessibility and ease of setup.
A look-back to WordCamp Kolkata 2025: Subrata Sarkar, one of the organizers of WordCamp Kolkata 2025, shared the experience of the organizing event, highlighting the excitement of bringing the community together after a long gap, the challenges faced due to budget constraints and visa issues, and the valuable insights gained from sessions and workshops. From Kolkata WordPress Community.
What can a WordPresser learn from Drupal CMS?: Chris Reynolds, Developer Advocate at Pantheon explores the recently released Drupal CMS and offers a quick comparison with WordPress in certain areas.
WordPress Wapuu: History & 145+ stunning WordCamp avatars: Sunita Rai takes the readers into the history of Wapuu, its origin, and evolution along with exploring several amazing Wapuus. From SiteSaga.
Why WordPress businesses should invest more in their brand this year: Lawrence Ladomery explains the importance of brand marketing, exploring several business rebrands in the WordPress ecosystem and how the recent WordPress drama poses a risk to WordPress brands. From WP BizDev.
How to estimate the cost of a WordPress project: Eric Karkovack says freelancers must carefully assess client needs to provide accurate estimates so as to prevent misquoting. To provide a proper estimate it is crucial to understand the client’s needs which go further than the initial request, then identify the required website features, plan for uncertainties, and so on. From The WP Minute.
How AI is transforming media and publishing: WordPress VIP showcased how its partners like 10up, Big Bite, Imarc, Multidots, rtCamp, Trew Knowledge, and XWP are utilizing AI in their workflows.

🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE

Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle

How to customize your Bluesky handle with a custom domain from WordPress.com: From WordPress.com
Optimizing WordPress for core web vitals: From Delicious Brains
Outdated Plugins: A complete guide to securing and updating your WordPress website: From InMotion Hosting
Sound advice: optimize your website for voice search: From Kinsta

📆 SAVE THE DATES

Do not miss a WordPress event ever again

WordCamp Asia on February 20-22, 2025: Tickets are out now.
The Dutch PHP Conference 2025 on March 18-21, 2025: The tickets are now available.
PressConf 2025 on April 23-26: A conference for WordPress Professionals and the tickets are now available.
WordCamp Europe on 5-7 June 2025: WordCamp Europe 2025 is looking for speakers and sponsors

🎁 WORDPRESS DEALS OF THE WEEK

Again, these are the best deals of the week, handpicked by yours!

EXCLUSIVE DEALS

4 Months free offer on hosting plans of WP Engine (Coupon Code- FREEDOMTOCREATE)
10% off on monthly & annual plans at SureTriggers (Coupon Code- WPCONTENT10)
15% off yearly plans at Videvo (Coupon Code – WPV15)