FAIR Shifts Focus Away From WordPress  > [!note]+ Document Notes > --- > tags: [WordPress, FAIR, TYPO3] > author: Jon Henshaw > source: Coywolf > reference: [https://coywolf.com/news/content-marketing/fair-shifts-focus-away-from-wordpress/] > date created: 2026-03-01 12:00 > --- > # 🏷️ Title: FAIR shifts focus away from WordPress > ## 🧭 Table of Contents > - [📝 Summary](#-summary) > - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) > - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) > - [📚 References](#-references) > - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) > - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) > - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) > - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) > - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) > - [❓ Questions](#-questions) > - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) > - [💡 Implications](#-implications) > - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) > - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) > - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) > - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) > - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) > - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) > ### 🔗 References > - Include links cited in or relevant to the article. > ## 📝 Summary > - FAIR, created in 2025 to decentralize WordPress updates via a connector plugin, is pivoting away from WordPress toward TYPO3 after hosts declined to fund mirrors. > - This matters for WordPress governance, supply-chain resilience, and self-hosted update infrastructure. > - Stakeholders: FAIR team, hosting providers, WordPress site owners, AspirePress, TYPO3 community, plugin authors. > - Risks: centralization of update control, unmaintained connector plugin, confusion for admins. > - Bottom line: FAIR’s WordPress ambitions are paused, but its local-avatar feature survives as a standalone plugin. > ## 📖 Main Content > - FAIR aimed to create “Federated and Independent Repositories” for WordPress Core and plugin updates, using a connector plugin and third-party mirrors (initially AspirePress). > - Hosting companies and major ecosystem players declined to invest, citing cost, political tension, and risk; they prefer the predictability of the current centralized system. > - FAIR will “stick around” but refocus on TYPO3 while keeping the WordPress connector available but effectively under-resourced. > - Coywolf removed the FAIR connector but wanted to retain its Gravatar-bypass feature; contributor Andrew Norcross extracted this into a standalone “Local Profile Picture” plugin. > - The new plugin lets WordPress admins upload and serve avatar images from their own domain instead of Gravatar, used on Coywolf’s bylines and bios. > ### 🗒️ Notes > - FAIR was founded in June 2025 to decentralize WordPress updates and address concerns over Automattic/WordPress.org central control. > - Core mechanism: a connector plugin that could fetch signed update packages from multiple independent repositories instead of a single canonical source. > - AspirePress hosted update resources early on, but other providers never joined to create the intended network of mirrors. > - Joost de Valk reports extensive but unsuccessful outreach to hosts and “large ecosystem players”; they saw investment as high-risk relative to the perceived benefits. > - Reasons hosts declined: investment implies long-term commitment, political entanglements in WordPress governance, and non-trivial infrastructure cost. > - FAIR concludes the WordPress ecosystem lacks sufficient will to change the status quo around update distribution. > - FAIR will now focus on TYPO3, where there may be more appetite for federated update infrastructure or different governance dynamics. > - The WordPress connector remains available, but users should understand it lacks broad backing beyond AspirePress and FAIR’s limited resources. > - Coywolf decided that relying on an underfunded connector for critical updates is too risky, so they reverted to official WordPress.org updates. > - One FAIR feature still valued: serving avatar images locally rather than via Gravatar, improving privacy, control, and potentially performance. > - Andrew Norcross extracted that avatar feature into a standalone plugin (“Local Profile Picture”) now installable independently of FAIR. > - Usage: upload plugin via WP Admin, activate, open a user’s profile, upload a profile image in the “Profile Picture” section, save; avatars are then served from the site’s own domain. > - Coywolf uses this plugin for all author avatars and short bios, demonstrating a real-world deployment. > - The article implicitly contrasts infrastructure-scale reforms (FAIR’s original vision) with small, tractable wins (the avatar plugin) that can still move the ecosystem forward. > ## 📚 References > - [FAIR project](https://fair.pm/) > - [Original FAIR initiative coverage on Coywolf](https://coywolf.com/news/web-development/fair-initiative-decentralizes-wordpress-updates/) > - [FAIR WordPress connector plugin releases](https://github.com/fairpm/fair-plugin/releases) > - [AspirePress](https://aspirepress.org/) > - [Joost de Valk’s blog / profile](https://joost.net/@joost) > - [Local Profile Picture plugin by Andrew Norcross (GitHub)](https://github.com/norcross/local-profile-picture) > ## 🗣️ Paraphrase > - FAIR, launched in 2025 to decentralize WordPress updates through a connector plugin and third-party mirrors, failed to secure sustained host investment, so it is pivoting to focus on TYPO3 while leaving the WordPress connector in a low-support state. > - Coywolf removed the FAIR connector to avoid relying on underfunded infrastructure but kept its local-avatar feature via a new standalone plugin by Andrew Norcross, which lets sites serve user profile images from their own domain instead of Gravatar. > ## 📰 Newsletter > WordPress governance just lost a notable experiment. FAIR, the “Federated and Independent Repositories” initiative to decentralize core and plugin updates, is stepping back from WordPress after hosts refused to fund mirror infrastructure. The connector plugin still exists but is effectively in maintenance mode, and FAIR is refocusing on TYPO3. > There’s a silver lining: one of FAIR’s best ideas—serving avatars locally instead of via Gravatar—now lives on as a standalone “Local Profile Picture” plugin from Andrew Norcross. If you care about privacy, data residency, or simply owning your author avatars, this is an easy win to adopt in your stack. > For teams thinking about update resilience, this episode is a reminder: big governance shifts need concrete funding commitments from hosts and platforms. In the meantime, targeted plugins and small, deployable improvements can still move WordPress toward a more privacy-respecting, self-hosted future. > ## ✅ Action Items > #### DevRel > - Highlight FAIR’s story in talks about open-source governance, funding, and supply-chain security for WordPress. > - Produce a short tutorial and code examples showing how to migrate from Gravatar to the Local Profile Picture plugin. > - Add FAIR and the avatar plugin to DevRel content calendars (blogs, streams, sample repos) as case studies in decoupling features from larger initiatives. > - Collect developer feedback on update decentralization pain points to inform future experiments. > #### OSPO > - Document FAIR as a governance and funding case: why mirrors didn’t gain host support in WordPress. > - Review internal policies on adopting third-party update channels; ensure SBOM and signing strategies cover scenarios like FAIR. > - Add FAIR-like initiatives to an inventory of alternative distribution mechanisms for risk assessment. > - Consider MoUs or funding frameworks for any future federated update projects across ecosystems. > #### Community > - Organize discussions or panels on what sustainable funding and governance for update decentralization could look like. > - Encourage contributors to participate in maintaining small, focused plugins like Local Profile Picture. > - Provide sponsors with clear narratives about the impact and risk-reduction value of infra projects like FAIR. > - Run tabletop exercises for cross-project incident response involving update infrastructure. > #### WordPress > - Core: Revisit conversations about signed updates, mirrors, and provenance; clarify where community contributions are welcomed. > - Core Performance: Assess performance impact of local avatars vs. Gravatar in real-world workloads. > - Core AI: N/A for this article; log as a po ### FAIR shifts focus away from WordPress Joost de Valk announced that FAIR will no longer focus on WordPress and will instead invest its resources in TYPO3. Those who no longer want to use FAIR's connector plugin but still want the feature that serves avatars locally rather than from Gravatar can do so with a new standalone plugin. In June 2025, [FAIR](https://fair.pm/), which stands for Federated and Independent Repositories, [was created](https://coywolf.com/news/web-development/fair-initiative-decentralizes-wordpress-updates/) in response to controversies over the centralized control of WordPress updates. **A key part of FAIR’s initiative was a [connector plugin](https://github.com/fairpm/fair-plugin/releases) made to decentralize and securely serve WordPress Core and plugin updates.** [AspirePress](https://aspirepress.org/) was the first company to provide hosting resources for updates, but the long-term goal was to have other companies invest in more decentralized package mirror servers. According to [Joost de Valk](https://joost.net/@joost), that never happened. On February 26, 2026, on his personal blog, he announced that **FAIR was shifting its focus away from WordPress because hosting providers refused to invest in it**. > > In recent months, we’ve had many conversations with hosting companies and other large ecosystem players. What became increasingly clear is this: they do not want to invest in this kind of solution. > > > Not because they love the current situation. Not because they agree with everything that’s happened. But because investment means commitment. It means cost. **It means stepping into political tension.** And most of all, it means risk. The current situation, however uncomfortable, is predictable enough. Changing that requires money and coordinated effort. And that willingness simply isn’t there. > > > Joost de Valk, [FAIR, WordPress, and Knowing When to Stop](https://joost.blog/fair-wordpress-and-knowing-when-to-stop/) While FAIR is sticking around, they’re shifting their attention and mission over to a different CMS: [TYPO3](https://typo3.org/). The WordPress connector plugin will remain, but without contributors and decentralized support beyond that provided by AspirePress, WordPress admins may want to switch back to getting updates directly from WordPress. > > We haven’t given up on WordPress. We still welcome contributors and ecosystem leaders to join us so we can continue advancing the work. > > > FAIR Blog, [Second star to the right and straight on till morning…](https://fair.pm/blog/2026/02/26/second-star-to-the-right-and-straight-on-till-morning/) After reading Valk’s announcement, **I removed the FAIR connector plugin from Coywolf, but I wanted to keep one feature: the option to [bypass Gravatar](https://coywolf.com/news/web-development/you-no-longer-have-to-use-gravatar-on-wordpress-for-avatars-thanks-to-fair/) and serve profile images locally**. I reached out to the contributor who added that feature to the FAIR plugin, [Andrew Norcross](https://andrewnorcross.com/), and he graciously extracted it and created a standalone plugin that lets you [serve avatar images locally](https://github.com/norcross/fair-avatars). You can [download it](https://github.com/norcross/fair-avatars/archive/refs/heads/main.zip) from GitHub and then upload and activate it in WP Admin. Once activated, go to **All Users** and select a user to edit the profile. Scroll to the **Profile Picture** section, and upload a profile image. Click the **Update Profile** button, and the image will be used for the avatar and served from the site’s domain. The standalone plugin by Norcross allows uploading and serving avatars locally from WordPress The profile images used in the byline and short bio after each article on Coywolf are served locally because of this plugin. **Many thanks to Norcross for making this feature available as a standalone plugin.** --- **Updated Feb 28, 2026:** Changed the headline and updated the article copy to better reflect that FAIR would continue to support WordPress, and wasn’t completely abandoning the platform. #### 💬 Comments **Members can view and leave comments on all articles.** Find out more about how to [become a member](https://coywolf.com/membership/). If you're already a member, [sign in](https://coywolf.com/?memberful_endpoint=auth) to view and leave comments. **[Jon Henshaw](https://coywolf.com/jon-henshaw/)** Jon Henshaw is the founder of [Coywolf](https://coywolf.com) and an industry veteran with almost three decades of SEO, digital marketing, and web technologies experience. Follow [@[email protected]](https://henshaw.social/@jon), FAIR Shifts Focus Away From WordPress, Jon Henshaw & Jon Henshaw.Social, 01kjmms68w2ean1xwb0c3m7zs3.