Gary Jones

Husband, father of twins, Support Projects Engineering Lead at @WordPressVIP, ESTJ, gym goer, runner.

[Antonio Sejas @antoniosejas]

Wapuu Studio is democratizing the creation of Wapuus. @wojtekn and I built this space for you to dream up your own Wapuus. Come, take a look, have fun, and spread Wapuu love.

[Math Lady Hazel 🇦🇷 @mathladyhazel]

The cutest math joke. 😍

[Within WordPress @Within_WP]

This week in Within WordPress:

🧠 What would happen if you could play with how speculative WP is?
🎛️ Theme switching in a fun plugin, it's right here!
🧩 The rise of composable WordPress architectures
🧪 Plus: @mattmedeiros vibe coding experiment

Details in the thread 👇

[Gary Jones @GaryJ]

This is what caring for your craft looks like, going so far above and beyond: https://t.co/kH6hPr8Dw5

[Gary Jones @GaryJ]

One of the more balanced and realistic opinion pieces.

[Taco Verdo @TacoVerdo]

"Constructive critique is essential for accountability and growth. However, personal attacks or a wholesale rejection of Matt’s role do more harm than good." - @hluehrsen

https://t.co/uYUIn60STp

[Dishpit @Dishpit]

in case you didn't know, this is how you're actually supposed to do software versioning

[Gary Jones @GaryJ]

@_fosss The barbell and I are friends so long as it’s low bar, sumo, or bench. High bar and conventional can do one 😄

I look forward to 2030, or before!

[Gary Jones @GaryJ]

@_fosss And how much are you lifting now? 😀

[Gary Jones @GaryJ]

@maryfossbender 130 kg (286 lbs) 5RM for deadlift. Will be higher 1RM next month! #ukgenesis

[Gary Jones @GaryJ]

@KergeKacsa @WordPress @wp_acf https://t.co/d6KnPnaolz != WordPress (which is the account you replied to).

[Mario Peshev @no_fear_inc]

After 18 years in the WordPress ecosystem, here's what my roadmap would have been starting Monday to do some damage control and pivot the platform in the new age.

1. Conflict resolution. Halt and settle all pending conflicts immediately. Public PR issues aren't noticeable in the early weeks, but pile up with quiet transitions 18-36 months in.

2. Licensing/terms clarifications. A pretty clear breakdown of what is allowed and what isn't, unambiguous, with names and examples baked in. Building 99.99% reassurance that compliance is in place for leading players and the community drivers are safe.

3. Core roadmap cleanup. Plan a leaner build that's compatible and suitable for different distributions/flavors going forward: blog, traditional CMS, publishing site, e-commerce, microservice platform, SaaS, multisite, etc. Not all ongoing priorities are helpful to each vertical.

4. Rething 5 for the future. Consider a tiered approach with 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, with different opportunities unlocked with each. And define clearly what's counted and what not (including plugin contributions, meetup organization, free tutorials, sponsorships).

5. Build a stronger funnel through WP dot org for generating new business for agencies, new contracts for consultants, coaches, site builders; plugin requests for plugin authors, theme requests for designs. Incentivize authors and agencies to link to and build their profiles heavily on the platform to maximize aggregated SEO and compete with SaaS apps and their preferred partners.

6. Craft an incentive-based recommendation platform. With the carrot/stick model, incentivize contributed time and other perks in listing top vendors, hosting companies, trainers, consultants, educators, speakers, and everything else. Make it worthwhile for the little guy, the solopreneur, the freelancer and the side hustler to also compete alongside the billion dollar companies. Consider a Clutch of sorts with tags, specialties, and hourly rate/project brackets.

7. Expand events beyond WordCamps. Work with core team from 4-6 above to partner up with other FOSS events, SEO events, publishing camps, marketing conferences, SaaS and cloud events, among others. Too many people don't go specifically to WP events - they attend business/growth/marketing/digital or niche ones.

8. Designate standalone teams for verticals - SaaS, franchise, e-commerce, LMS, communities, and work backwards from competitive analysis with SaaS and app builders like Bubble, Shopify, Skool, Kajabi, Webflow, Framer. Work out guide series, tutorials, packages of plugins/themes for each vertical, quick starter guides, and competitive strategies to build appealing, fast, and functional systems quickly. Time to market is critical - that includes UI, site speed, and core features.

9. Incentivize hosts to run their own flavors for each system to build the full funnel - one-click installs with the top 20 or so hosts in the ecosystem. Prioritizing top contributors. There are already managed hosts and managed e-commerce hosts, and some community or LMS managed solutions, but there's more to the equation. Many unnoticed SaaS hosts exist that can't compete with SaaS boilerplates and other indie tools.

10. Use the team from 8 to work closely with specific cohorts with substantial audiences and communities - indie hackers, solopreneurs, YouTube tutorial builders, speakers, trainers on Udemy and LinkedIn Learning. Work out curriculums to bootstrap, launch, and grow systems - starter sites, funnels, high converting landing pages and checkout flows, efficient communities.

11. Designate spaces for the leading plugins in the space incentivizing innovation, UI revamp, and leaner starter experiences. I'm talking about the leaders in form plugins, social forums and communities, LMS systems (there are working groups there), and other cohorts to level up the playing field.

12. Work alongside page builders and theme authors on collections of themes, kits, elements, and other components for building Patterns and ready themes more effectively. Gutenberg has been in core for 6 years now but still needs a lot of work. FSE themes are promising, but design is lacking. Incentivize that and bring the design community in - including embracing Tailwind templates and kits like Magic UI to quickly bootstrap beautiful experiences and front-end/back-end pages with proven look-and-feel (platform-independent so creators can freely manage for self-built and WordPress).

13. Incentivize actual donations for WordPress-driven marketing. If dot org will be a funnel for leads and business, collecting millions for Super Bowl ads and the Vegas globe will bring business to everyone in the ecosystem. It's a justified expense and everyone wins.

14. Build an enterprise repository of plugins and themes that are fully SOC 2 compliant (and all sorts of security audits). Plugin authors can choose to run only enterprise-grade secure versions or two flavors - community and enterprise. Think of Fedora - Cent OS - Red Hat type of delineation of access/latest/safest.

15. Build a REAL showcase of WordPress sites. The one on dot org has 102 sites. Out of 43% of the web! List down tens of thousands and group by categories so it's a no-brainer what WordPress is capable of for each segment when prospects look around.

16. Develop a new program for WordPress-driven vendors open to collaborations and external contributors. This would nurture new leaders based on WordPress - bootstrapped and funded companies conquering document management, hosted SaaS/mobile app wrapper/building, social networks, content scheduling, and hundreds of other verticals. This will enable contributors to also chip in, strengthen, support and carry the WordPress name in niche categories. Mutually beneficial for WordPress and each product (i.e. makes sense for businesses to feature WordPress as their core stack).

17. Embrace AI deeply. Google's effort in building AI wrappers for WordPress is significant and should be sped up. There's a reason why VCs are pumping hundreds of billions in AI nowadays. Partner up with Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT, Grok to plug in and out easily, enable chatbots, generate images, proofread content, and more importantly - easily build prompt-based tools - assessment forms, reports, calculators, and hundreds more.

18. Help B2Bs adopt a modernized suite including supported and tested integrations backed by the corresponding unicorns. Think Clearbit recommended (or 6sense, Zoominfo, etc), RB2B/Kwanzoo/Instantly, form connectors to Salesforce/HubSpot/Marketo, other bundles, packages, best practices, templates, boilerplates for the community. Best practice starter pack - leveling up all B2Bs will increase adoption and trust in WordPress providing a strong baseline for B2B.

19. Repeat for B2C by simplifying WooCommerce with less bloat and critical core features like Subscriptions and variations and more. Recommended and supported core integrations with Amazon, Walmart, Etsy, Alibaba. Incentivize cross-platform with owned networks first vs. going straight to marketplaces because of friction and lack of value added self-hosted (or slow sites, expensive maintenance, security risks).

20. Bring design to 2024-2025. Look at what Webflow or Framer are doing as an industry best practice. Take a look at the top 100 startups (Figma, GitHub, Zendesk etc) and industry leaders in each space. Really prioritize working with theme shops and design firms for appealing templates that don't look 2010. This is mandatory to get businesses started quickly and stay on the platform when switching jobs or getting promoted. The reason WP became popular is bloggers and journalists got promoted to editors and marketing directors and pushed for WordPress as their go-to platform. This isn't happening in the 2020s outside of publishing.

I sure am missing a lot, but there's a 100% chance none of this is going to happen on Monday or anytime soon, so my hope is that the rest of the community can individually (or in small groups) tackle standalone problems one at a time to level up the playing field.

In the meantime, praying for calmer times ahead and fewer casualties down the road.

[Gary Jones @GaryJ]

@TacoVerdo @yoast Congrats on the new adventure - at least you'll know the new bosses!

[Pascal Birchler @swissspidy]

Web AI and the new Chrome built-in AI are a game changer and a huge opportunity for WordPress to democratize AI-assisted publishing. Don't believe me, just watch 💥

[David Pérez @davidperezmk]

And the day has come! There are 0 new plugins waiting for review in the WordPress Plugin Directory. Congratulations to the team! Let’s keep the queue low! #WordPress #PRT

[Gary Jones @GaryJ]

https://t.co/M5LQ8Nft4a - I stayed.

I have so many challenges left to work on for myself, the people I work with, the customers we have, and the community I’m part of, and I can do it more effectively where I am.

Plus, I like it here!

[Carrie Dils 🇺🇦 @cdils]

I have such respect for @GaryJ as both a code mentor and a human. I don’t get to see his face often, but when I do, I smile on the outside and the inside. 😄 #WCEU

[Gary Jones @GaryJ]

@remkusdevries @WCEurope Even the online ones count you know.

[Erik Rasmussen 👨‍💻🇺🇸🇪🇸 @erikras]

When people make demands in Open Source issues...

[Gary Jones @GaryJ]

@sarcasmically Now I’m curious what items that would be.

[Juliette (@[email protected]) @jrf_nl]

First 10 functional PRs merged in the new PHP_CodeSniffer repo 🎉

Time for lunch. More to follow.

#phpcs

For context: https://t.co/YZlDIDVrsb

[Juliette (@[email protected]) @jrf_nl]

PHP_CodeSniffer users: please read this important announcement: https://t.co/sOdvR9MrHO

squizlabs/PHP_CodeSniffer is dead, long live PHPCSStandards/PHP_CodeSniffer!

#phpcs #php