Issue #213 | April 1, 2025 | Reading time: 20 mins
Hello!
This week on The WP Week Newsletter, we cover the progress of the WordPress Foundation’s trademark attempt in the European Union, the Release Candidate phase of WordPress 6.8, major vulnerabilities exploited in the first quarter of the year, and exciting new projects.
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 WP Job Openings
🗣️TALK OF THE TOWN
WordPress Foundation’s trademark applications clear EUIPO opposition period without issues
The trademark for Managed WordPress and Hosted WordPress are expected to be trademarked soon in the European Union as the objection phase has now been cleared. Earlier, WordPress Foundation had obtained trademark rights for Managed WordPress and Hosted WordPress in the UK & Australia. The trademark applications are also pending in the US, Canada, and New Zealand.
📰 WORDPRESS & AROUND
All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies
The RC1 is now available for testing and downloading. We can expect RC2 later today.
- WordPress 6.8 Field Guide: This guide outlines major developer features and breaking changes in 6.8 and is published in the Release Candidate phase to help inform WordPress extending developers, Core developers, and others.
- Accessibility improvements in WordPress 6.8: WordPress 6.8 introduces a comprehensive set of accessibility improvements across WordPress Core and the Gutenberg Block Editor, making the platform more inclusive and user-friendly. These updates span administration, customization, themes, editing workflows, and the block editor, ensuring a smoother experience for users relying on assistive technologies.
- New REST API filter for exposing menus publicly in WordPress 6.8: In WordPress 6.8, the REST API will allow public access to menu data. That enhancement addresses a longstanding need for headless CMS implementations and custom front-end applications.
- WordPress 6.8 ready to be translated: WordPress 6.8, scheduled for April 15, 2025, is now ready to be translated on translate.wordpress.org. Also, there are several string changes in the readme.html file.
- 2025 Global Sponsors announced: For 2025, the Global Sponsors consist of Automattic, A2 Hosting, Woo, Bluehost, and Kinsta.
- Updated WooCommerce 9.8 release schedule: The release of WooCommerce 9.8 is now scheduled for Monday, April 7th, 2025. WooCommerce 9.8 RC will be released today. The upcoming version will also introduce changes to the Send Order Details REST API Endpoint.
- Sucuri Firewall configuration may cause duplicate WooCommerce orders: WooCommerce merchants using Sucuri Firewall have reported duplicate orders since March 16, 2025, affecting payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and Square. WooCommerce is collaborating with Sucuri and GoDaddy to resolve the issue and improve checkout handling.
- Patchstack highlights some of the key WordPress vulnerabilities exploited in Q1 2025: Key threats that were exploited the most in this quarter are unauthenticated arbitrary SQL execution vulnerability, unauthenticated arbitrary file upload vulnerability, unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability, and unauthenticated PHP object injection to remote code execution vulnerability respectively in popular plugins like Automatic plugin, Startklar Elementor Addons plugin, Bricks theme and GiveWP plugin.
- WordPress vulnerability report — March 26, 2025: Last week, 240 new vulnerabilities emerged in the WordPress ecosystem, including 226 plugins and 14 themes.
- 20,000 WordPress sites affected by arbitrary file upload and deletion vulnerabilities in WP Ultimate CSV Importer WordPress plugin: The vulnerabilities were recently patched, and users are to update to the latest version immediately.
- BuddyPress 14.3.4, 12.5.3 & 11.4.4 security releases: The release fixes restricting bulk notification management to the owner and improving the security of status update messages.
- Google settles $100 million advertising dispute: Google concluded a 14-year legal battle over advertising billing practices, agreeing to a substantial settlement without admitting any wrongdoing. The resolution marks a significant moment in the company’s complex history of digital advertising regulations.
- AI crawlers are reportedly draining site resources & skewing analytics: Website operators across the web are reporting increased activity from AI web crawlers. This surge raises concerns about site performance, analytics, and server resources. These bots consume significant bandwidth to collect data for large language models, which could impact performance metrics relevant to search rankings.
- OpenAI rolls out GPT-4o image creation to everyone: OpenAI integrates free image generation into GPT-4o, creating context-aware visuals with text capabilities for all users.
- AI researchers warn: Hallucinations persist in leading AI models: New research finds AI systems still struggle with facts despite improvements; researchers doubt quick fixes for accuracy problems.
💵 INVESTMENTS, ACQUISITIONS & PARTNERSHIPS
- Barn2 joins forces with Setary: Barn2 has partnered up with Setary, a powerful bulk product editor for WooCommerce, and are now co-owners of the product alongside its existing owner, Tom.
- WPCodeBox partnering with Soflyy: The partnership will result in Soflyy handling the business and marketing responsibilities for WPCodeBox while Ovidiu Maghetiu, Founder of WPCodeBox will focusing on the development side of the plugin.
- WPFactory acquires Extend-WP: The Extend-WP acquisition adds 19 plugins to WPFactory’s portfolio, which already included 65 plugins.
- Veterans & Co. Named a WordPress VIP Agency Partner: Veterans & Co are a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) dedicated to modernizing government digital services. This partnership enhances Veterans & Co.’s ability to deliver secure, scalable, and accessible digital solutions to government agencies.
👥 COMMUNITY NEWS
Updates and News from the WordPress Community
The WPCC Board of Directors met on March 3, 2025, to approve key governance documents, including the bylaws, conflict of interest policy, and code of conduct. Discussions covered financial transparency, nonprofit status (501(c)(6) and 501(c)(3)), board recruitment, and program development, with an emphasis on inclusivity and open-source community support.
- Newfold Digital bags three awards: They have been named as a best company for women, diversity & outlook by Comparably.
- Kinsta launches automatic updates for plugins and themes: Kinsta now offers automatic plugin and theme updates with built-in rollback protection. Using visual regression testing, it detects update failures and restores the site if needed, ensuring seamless updates across all WordPress sites.
- Patchstack launches all new Easter Bug Hunt: The event will run from April 1, 2025 – April 30, 2025. Only unauthenticated, subscriber, and customer vulnerabilities count, and only components with 1,000+ active installs or sales are eligible. This challenge runs alongside the regular monthly event, with researchers competing to find the most different types of vulnerabilities for a share of the $3,500 bounty pool.
- Let’s Encrypt is ending support for expiration notification emails: Let’s Encrypt will stop sending certificate expiration notification emails on June 4, 2025. This decision is driven by increased automation among subscribers for certificate renewal, privacy concerns related to storing millions of email addresses, high costs, which could be better allocated elsewhere, and to reduce infrastructure complexity to minimize management overhead and errors.
- Win $1000 in mega hosting giveaway from xCloud: xCloud is celebrating its users by offering a $1,000 Mega Hosting Giveaway for the best customer story. Participants can share their xCloud hosting journey through a blog post or YouTube video, highlighting their experience, improvements in performance, and favorite features.
- Introducing the new Stackable Global Design System: The latest update has introduced a set of global features such as global color schemes, global spacing & borders, font pairs, and global buttons & icons, which are collectively called, the new Stackable Global Design System.
- Groundhogg 4.0 released: The update introduces a new and improved flow editor, new tool tips, new undo/redo buttons and more.
- Add custom domains and HTTPS support to your local WordPress development with Studio: The latest version of Studio now allows users to have custom domains and HTTPS (SSL) support. This allows users to define custom domain names and work with SSL/HTTPS enabled.
- Big File Uploads reaches 1,000,000 downloads: Infinite Uploads companion plugin, Big File Uploads, has reached 1,000,000 downloads on WordPress.org. They are also hosting several webinars and giveways for Uploads Week 2025.
- Introducing the Content Sparks Hosting Team: The three new hosts who will join BobWP are Robbie Adair who will explore the intersection of content and AI, Ray Morey from The Repository will dive into all things media, and Derek Hanson, a project lead from Automatic’s Special Projects team, will discuss content management.
- “Questions I Wish I Had Asked” eBook by Bud Kraus: The eBook features five people he had on the show, Aaron Campbell, James Giroux, Rae Morey, Anna Hurko, and Emma Young, who answer questions that Bud forgot to ask during their respective podcast sessions.
- React Email 4.0 is here: The latest version brings a new linter tool, spacm score feature, compatibility checker, responsive preview, and several new components.
- ActivityPub 5.5.0 for WordPress is here: The update includes supporting moves from Mastodon to WordPress, support for sending activities to ActivityPub relays, and more.
- Mumtahina Faguni receives the Yoast Care fund for her contribution to the WordPress community: Mumtahina Faguni, a member of the WordPress Community Team, is the latest recipient of the Yoast Care fund.
🚀 NEW PROJECTS
- StellarSites launching in April: StellarSites is a streamlined website-building platform for WordPress that combines hosting, security, design tools, and maintenance into one package. Those who join the waitlist get 50% off their first 3 months.
- Kaspars Dambis is working on a PHP library to enable encryption of WordPress options and meta values: It will make use of symmetrical keys stored in constants, environment variables, and PHP files. Matt Mullenweg also commented on it as, “ I literally had a dream about something like this last night!!!”.
- All new CMS Freedom: A CloudFest 2025 Hackathon project, CMSFreedom is a Chromium browser plugin which can be used to convert static HTML webpages into a functional WordPress block theme.
- Ally, the new web accessibility plugin by Elementor: Ally provides users with essential accessibility options, including contrast adjustments, text resizing, and other tools to enhance on-site usability.
- WordPress MCP Server: Vikas Singhal has created an MCP server for WordPress, which allows users to interact with their WordPress site using natural language via an MCP-compatible client like Claude for Desktop.
- All new Slop Stopper plugin: Robert DeVore has released the Slop Stopper plugin, which Checks content submitted by non-admin users for AI-generated phrases and flags posts for admin review.
- Matt Medeiros made his first AI game: Rocket Fuel Rush by Gravity Forms game is now available to everyone.
🔖 INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS
More posts and podcasts from the WordPress Community you don’t want to miss
- Christian Taylor interviews Matt Mullenweg: The discussion explored topics such as why Matt made WordPress opensource, the biggest challenges facing the open source movement today, will Automattic increase contributions after the lawsuit, and so on.
- Jo Minney on website usability testing for WordPress projects: Jo Minney, a small business founder shared insights on usability testing for WordPress and emphasizes the importance of simple, cost-effective usability testing to enhance user experience and boost conversions. From WP Tavern Jukebox.
- A continued saga about the life of blog posts: BobWP reflects on the evolving landscape of content creation, reaffirming his commitment to blogging. From Do the Woo.
- The myth of too many WordPress plugins: Topher DeRosia argues that the idea that too many plugins slow down your site is a myth. He voiced that, “If your plugins are well-written and don’t have conflicts, you could have hundreds—or even thousands—without experiencing a speed issue.” From Performance Hub.
- Jeff Starr’s shortlist for Managed VPS hosting: His personal shortlist of recommended web hosts for Managed VPS Hosting in 2025 are GreenGeeks, Hostwinds, KnownHost, ScalaHosting, and UltaHost.
- Build websites like it’s 2005 (and win in 2025): Joost de Valk reflects on insights gained from Cloudfest and SMX Munich, emphasizing a recurring theme, AI still struggles to understand the web. From Joost de Valk.
- Michelle Frechette on why your marketing emails are failing: She argues that compelling communication is a skill, especially in marketing, where words must evoke action. She emphasizes hiring professionals to craft impactful messaging rather than relying on uninspired copy. From Post Status.
- CloudFest Hackathon vs WordCamp Contributors Day: Remkus de Vries stated that CloudFest Hackathons are more productive than WordCamp Contributor Days, which prioritize onboarding and mentorship. He suggests splitting Contributor Day into two tracks: one for newcomers to learn and another for experienced contributors to work on impactful projects. From Remkus de Vries.
- CloudFest Hackathon 2025 recap: Carole Olinger published a detailed recap of the CloudFest Hackathon 2025, which featured 13 partners, 8 media partners, 10 projects, 110 attendees from 24 countries, over 2,600 human-hours of hacking, and €5,250 raised for Groundbreaker Talents. Also, all photos from the event are now available.
- CloudFest Hackathon: Old-school WordPress contributing vibes: Joost de Valk shared his experience of the recently concluded CloudFest Hackathon 2025. This is the first time he has participated in the hackathon, and he appreciated the teamwork, innovation, and energy in the room. He also talked about what WordPress can be and its future. From Progress Planner.
- On the Floor at CloudFest 2025 with Adam Weeks and Christian Taylor: The episode explored CloudFest 2025 as they shared their insights on standout marketing strategies and the overall CloudFest experience. From Do the Woo.
- Jamie Marsland on the upcoming Public Menus via REST API in WordPress 6.8: He highlighted that this improvement will allow users to make menus accessible through the REST API without needing users to log in and also stated that this a big win for headless WordPress setup.
- Why a modular approach is better for WordPress development: Eric Karkovack highlighted that a modular approach to WordPress plugin and theme development ensures scalability and maintainability by starting with essential features, structuring code logically, and gradually adding enhancements. From Speckyboy.
- Best slider plugins for Multilingual WordPress sites: Tomer Helzer explored the top WordPress slider plugins that are fully compatible with WPML, and they offer rich features, seamless multilingual compatibility, and easy translation. From WPML.
- In conversation with Mervin Hernandez: Mervin Hernandez joins Bud to share his journey from aspiring pilot to tech entrepreneur. Now leading Wingman WP, Mervin blends his love for aviation and technology while staying active in the WordPress community. From Seriously, Bud?
- Accepting change in WordPress: In this episode of the WP Minute Podcast, Matt is joined by Nathan Wrigley to discuss the evolving landscape of WordPress and the broader tech industry. From The WP Minute.
- Exploring AI in WordPress with Matt Medeiros: Interview with Matt Medeiros and Nathan Wrigley to explore the intersection of AI and WordPress. From WPbuilds.
- The deep connection between Elementor and WordPress: Miriam and Rebecca talk about the deep connection between Elementor and WordPress, the power of being part of the open-source culture, and why there’s nothing like face-to-face communication. From Elementor Life Israel.
- DrupalSouth 2025 Keynote: Justin Warren: The keynote explored how we can sustain open-source software. He presents a checklist for assessing the health of an open source project to see if it might be at risk and what to do about it. From DrupalSouth.
- Consumers say an oddly spelled domain name gives them the Ick: In the latest GoDaddy Consumer Pulse survey, an overwhelming majority (80%) of the 1,500 U.S. consumers polled in March said they avoided visiting or purchasing from a website because it had an oddly spelled domain name. From GoDaddy
- 10 Static website examples for 2025 (& How to set up yours): The post covers what a static website is and why they’re popular, how to create a static website using Simply Static. From Simply Static.
- 46 Parts of a Website: From header to footer and everything in between: The post provides a glossary of terms that users will encounter when building a website. From WordPress.com.
🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE
Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle
- WordPress.com Studio AI: The Secret to a Faster Workflow (5 Powerful Tips!): From WordPress.com
- Why WordPress redirects: From WP Elevator
- How to extend core WordPress blocks with Blocks API: From Kinsta
📆 SAVE THE DATES
Do not miss a WordPress event ever again
- DE{CODE} 2025 on April 15, 2025: The registrations are now open.
- Web Agency Summit on April 7-11, 2025: The registration is now open.
- PressConf 2025 on April 23-26: A conference for WordPress Professionals and the tickets are now available.
- WordCamp Lisboa 2025 on May 16-17, 2025: Tickets are now available.
- WordCamp Europe on 5-7 June 2025: Tickets are expected to be available soon.
- WordCamp US on August 26-29, 2025: The call for organizers is now open.
- WordCamp Canada on October 16-17 2025: The call for sponsors is now open.
- WordCamp Asia 2026: It is tentatively planned for early February 2026 and the call for organizers is now open.
🎁 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)
MORE DEALS
- 50% off for the first 6 months on all monthly standard plans at Kinsta
- 50% off on Paid Memberships Pro from February 20th-24th
- 50% off 3 months on Liquid Web’s Bare Metal server hosting
- 40% off for Constellation plugin
This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by awesome WordPress Companies 🦸♂️🙌
Last but not least, updates from WP-CONTENT.CO 👇
In a joint white paper released by Patchstack and Sucuri, alarming new findings reveal that the increasing use…
WordPress 6.8 “Cecil”, the only major release of 2025, has finally arrived. This version brings style book support…
The WordPress Foundation has successfully obtained trademarks for “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress” in the UK and Australia…
With the passage of time, many things are bound to change, from preferences to styles and so on….
Team WP-CONTENT.CO
Issue #213 | April 1, 2025 | Reading time: 20 mins
This weekly newsletter is kindly sponsored by Kinsta, Omnisend, and WP Job Openings
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