Rino

Web creator helping visual thinkers build real things

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

@ImranWebsites @Blackmagic_News @Apple Interesting. Thanks for the tip!

[Danny van Kooten @dannyvankooten]

A few of my takeaways from #WCEU 2026.

- WordPress' decline is probably understated. In terms of % of new sites starting on WordPress, numbers are way down from a couple of years ago.
- This is reflected in the numbers for most product owners I spoke to. Pretty much everyone is experiencing declining new revenue.
- No one has a good workflow for managing their site content with AI yet. No one. Some thought their flow was good, but that's only because they never ran an agent on a local static site and see how it rips.
- Everyone is either looking or already has one foot outside of the WordPress ecosystem.
- Matt deciding last-minute not to board his plane to Krakow did not help in raising the mood around WP leadership.

This is just my personal observation. I hope I'm wrong, because this is a pretty sour takeaway of what otherwise was an amazing couple of days. The venue, event, people and Krakow itself all were amazing, perfect even!

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

I never cared much about cookies and consent on websites.

Even though I care about privacy in my own life, the whole compliance thing always felt like something we just add to each site because we have to.

Then I had Paulo from @usercentrics (the guys behind Cookiebot plugin) on my livestream

And he changed my perspective.

Cookies and compliance are not just legal stuff. They are a conversion topic.

Because trust is the biggest factor in whether someone buys from a website. And the consent banner is one of the first trust signals a visitor sees.

If your visitor cares about their data, and over 40% of them do according to The State of Digital Trust, the banner is what tells them whether you take them seriously.

That is huge and that's why every website designer should take this seriously, no matter what platform you are developing on.

I broke it all down in a new video: https://t.co/BlF46zt6j0

[Clemente @clementetv_]

The average Claude Mythos user be like

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

@xaver_ Haha, that's honestly a fun idea, and it will probably be better than the crappy design and build I did 15 years ago 🤣

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

I was cleaning up my Gmail and found a very old email from 2011 where a client sent me a Word document that I had to turn into a website.

That was my first client project ever.

So apparently it has been almost 15 years since I made my first client website.

Back then, I made the design in Photoshop and hand-coded it with HTML and CSS in Dreamweaver, using the skills I had just learned in design school.

After a few small projects like that, I realized I was more of a designer than a developer, so I decided to become a UI/UX designer.

Whenever I had a website client project after that, I would hire a developer. They would often start with a ThemeForest theme and customize it.

Years later, when Elementor came out, it gave me the opportunity to design and build websites myself again.

Photoshop also got replaced by Adobe XD and later Figma, which made the design process much smoother.

It’s fun to look back now that it feels like our main tools are changing again.

Anyway, 15 years of making websites 🥳

I’m going to buy some Dutch cheese to celebrate 🧀

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

@alanefuller Unfortunately, yes.

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

What a weird response video with lots of wrong assumptions.

First: why should I be here for WordPress? I fell in love with Elementor because it allowed me to bring my designs (back then in Adobe XD, later Figma) to life so I could design and build websites. I started sharing what I know as I've done my whole life, even many years without making any money, which you haven’t seen because that was in Dutch.

I like Open Source but I also think that leadership, contribution model and vision is broken in WP, which made me care less about this specific open source project.

And what makes you think that AI builders are always closed platforms? This is not the case at all. Maybe you haven't actually experimented a lot with them. Open source LMM’s are becoming better and better and platforms like Lovable allow export and ownership.

Then on your money argument: my channel over the last few years has mainly focused on freelancers and agencies, which is actually not a great idea if you want to get a lot of affiliate sales. Focussing on beginners is much more profitable. But I do it because I am more passionate about that.

That being said, it is also an education business. So, it has to make sense from that pov as well. But that doesn’t mean that all my content is made for money. That’s a very shallow pov, which says more about you than me.

So I would advise you to first ask questions next time before you make a response video like this that is full of mistakes and assumptions.

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

Having one foot inside WordPress and one foot outside of it is not something people should be shamed for.

And exploring outside WordPress does not mean you’re turning your back on it completely.

For many content creators, agencies, and plugin businesses, it is a responsible response to what is happening on multiple fronts: disruption, ecosystem uncertainty, culture, and changing demands.

You can be grateful for WordPress, respect open source, and still diversify.

A welcoming community should not make people feel like stepping outside means they are no longer welcome back in.

Let’s not make people feel morally wrong for adapting. Defending WordPress forever is not a virtue.

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

@ImranWebsites 🤣

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

@DerekAshauer Excellent point, going outside will probably give you a better zoomed out view as well.

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

@JamesWelbes Thank you. Appreciate the nuance 🙏🏻

[dany @danywander]

a reminder that branding matters.

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

What a weird response video with lots of wrong assumptions.

First: why should I be here for WordPress? I fell in love with Elementor because it allowed me to bring my designs (back then in Adobe XD, later Figma) to life so I could design and build websites. I started sharing what I know as I've done my whole life, even many years without making any money, which you haven’t seen because that was in Dutch.

I like Open Source but I also think that leadership, contribution model and vision is broken in WP, which made me care less about this specific open source project.

And what makes you think that AI builders are always closed platforms? This is not the case at all. Maybe you haven't actually experimented a lot with them. Open source LMM’s are becoming better and better and platforms like Lovable allow export and ownership.

Then on your money argument: my channel over the last few years has mainly focused on freelancers and agencies, which is actually not a great idea if you want to get a lot of affiliate sales. Focussing on beginners is much more profitable. But I do it because I am more passionate about that.

That being said, it is also an education business. So, it has to make sense from that pov as well. But that doesn’t mean that all my content is made for money. That’s a very shallow pov, which says more about you than me.

So I would advise you to first ask questions next time before you make a response video like this that is full of mistakes and assumptions.

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

@adampreiser Your strategy is genius.

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

WordCamp Europe in Krakow was an amazing event. I had so much fun and had many interesting conversations.

But I can’t help leaving with a weird feeling about where things are heading.

The companies themselves are communicating confidently about the future and adaptation. But when you talk to individuals behind the scenes, you can feel the nervousness.

Especially among businesses that were built entirely on top of WordPress.

A lot of the conversations I had seem to confirm something I’ve been thinking about for a while: the biggest threat to WordPress isn’t technical, it’s economic.

People are talking about plugin sales being down. Employees wanting to work for more innovative companies. Fellow content creators are seeing less interest in WordPress content. And some people working at WordPress companies are spending their evenings building websites with different AI tools and platforms.

It’s looks like many people seem to have one foot outside of WP already.

That is not good for the ecosystem.

And I can feel that myself as a creator. My interests are expanding as well.

WordPress has been a huge part of my life and career for years. And I am not leaving but after this Wordcamp, it feels harder to stay fully dedicated to this platform.

Maybe it just feels a bit sad somehow.

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

@johnturner Super interesting with that editing feature. Do you think it would be possible to turn that into a frontend editing experience instead of going to the wp edit page?

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

@adampreiser @NousResearch I'm done with Openclaw, so I'm planning to setup Hermes soon. Do you have some video or article where you saw this?

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

Giovanni showed me a new feature in Novamira that exposes API abilities from other plugins that might not have an MCP. This massively extends what your agent can do via MCP with just 1 connection. Really cool.

[Rino @RinodeBoer]

Shilo from Elementor demoing Angie, where he created a custom widget live on stage and then synced that to the Cloud Library. Really cool.