Bonus: WordCamp Asia  🔗 **Source:** [Bonus: WordCamp Asia](https://share.snipd.com/episode/ccc2e86b-f17f-48b0-83b0-27adadd69525) ## Highlights - **Contributor Day Plugins Table Experience** - Luke attended Contributor Day and sat with the plugins table among many teams in a crowded Mumbai ballroom. - He describes networking-heavy contributors, AI-focused tables, doing plugin reviews, and a lunchroom filled with Indian food aromas. Transcript: Luke Today was Contributor Day. And man, you walk into this huge complex and the ballroom where all of these tables are all set out, each one with a placard for each individual team. You know, I was sitting with the plugins table. There was themes right by us and everything there from translations to education to WPCLI. Every, of course, core. You know, I had a conversation with Isabel and she was saying how she's on the Gutenberg team, you know, the core editor team. And there wasn't very many contributors there. Everybody's over with the core AI tables. That was the cool place to hang out at this contributor day. And I spoke to a lot of people. The theme really was that there is a wealth of knowledge in the contributor room. But if we're honest, most people were kind of just there to network more than to contribute. There were still people using AI to solve bugs and all of that sort of thing that you might expect from a modern contributor day. I sat down and did some plug-in review. The lunchroom, it's huge and the smell of Indian food, oh my gosh, it was just amazing and I'm assured that the fair was fantastic. In the background of all of this activity, this Contributor Day activity, ([Time 0:01:35](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cdf7dc1c-cbe1-4c5f-b327-58ca8b26c340)) - **AI Pulled The Crowd At Contributor Day** - AI dominated contributor interest with many people gathering at core AI tables rather than traditional teams like Gutenberg. - Some contributors used AI to help solve bugs, signalling AI is already integrated into contribution workflows. Transcript: Luke You know, I had a conversation with Isabel and she was saying how she's on the Gutenberg team, you know, the core editor team. And there wasn't very many contributors there. Everybody's over with the core AI tables. That was the cool place to hang out at this contributor day. And I spoke to a lot of people. The theme really was that there is a wealth of knowledge in the contributor room. But if we're honest, most people were kind of just there to network more than to contribute. There were still people using AI to solve bugs and all of that sort of thing that you might expect from a modern contributor day. ([Time 0:01:59](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d7f423ee-eefe-42ad-8e55-b1bda91fb67c)) - **Delay Revealed Gaps In Release Visibility** - WordPress 7.0 delay was a central topic with mixed feelings about responsibility and communication. - Luke recounts conversations with Peter Wilson and others about release timing, visibility, and decision roles. Transcript: Luke The streets are full of noises and behind all of this is WordPress 7.0. It's been delayed and people are sort of whispering about it in the background. I sat down with Peter Wilson later on and he told me he's the one that's copping all the blame for the decision. He's going to cop it for a little while. I think Peter Wilson is the one who delayed WordPress 7 and that's okay. I was there having a conversation with him and another leader of the project. I'm sure Peter wouldn't mind if I mentioned his name. I don't know about this other person. And this other person was sort of making a really good point, that yes, WordPress 7 was delayed. And yeah, we try really hard in WordPress to stick to our three releases a year. Deadlines are not arbitrary. That is the sort of WordPress release rule. But in this case, things worked how they were supposed to work, right? There was good communication. There could have been maybe a little more visibility. And maybe some people in release lead roles could have been a little more active in making decisions and making them publicly in various different channels. And I'm not sure. In fact, I'm certain that Peter Wilson was not the only one responsible for this, but for whatever reasons, we get to blame him. ([Time 0:03:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6153c49b-7433-4a3b-8ba6-122349cac5e4)) - **Kinsta Dinner Talk And Education Spotlight** - Luke attended dinners and was a guest speaker at a Kinsta dinner where he talked about product design principles in the WordPress admin. - He noticed the education team gaining attention for Campus Connect and internship programs. Transcript: Luke If you were here, you might have been invited to one of the many dinners that happened on this Thursday night. I know there was an automatic one. I went to a Kinster dinner where I got to be the guest speaker. It was a great talk. We talked about design principles, product design principles specifically in the WordPress admin. And one more thing I did want to mention is that one thing I noticed from the contributor day today is that WordPress, the education team is on showcase a little bit, that people really Are showing a lot of love for the WordPress education team. And I spoke to some of the team members and I said, oh, what's the difference between education? And to me, it's all the same as documentation. What's going on? And I learned that education is all about providing opportunities for universities to engage with the WordPress project. ([Time 0:05:07](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0a8d9bbe-44d4-40f7-a75a-3bb7fe198ae9)) - **Education Builds The Contributor Pipeline** - WordPress Education focuses on university engagement through Campus Connect and internships to build contributor pipelines. - Luke frames education as a flywheel for raising the next generation of contributors. Transcript: Luke And I spoke to some of the team members and I said, oh, what's the difference between education? And to me, it's all the same as documentation. What's going on? And I learned that education is all about providing opportunities for universities to engage with the WordPress project. So Campus Connect is a sort of WordCamp for universities style thing. And there's internship programs where students can sort of do an internship with WordPress Foundation and find out what contributing looks like, which I think is a fantastic idea. So When I hear WordPress education now, I think raising the next generation or creating a bit of a flywheel of contributors. ([Time 0:05:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/07eeb46c-3b26-4d31-a413-4b285bead988)) - **Wapu Gallery And Luke's Plugin Directory Talk** - Day one included a Wapu art gallery, Mary interview, and Luke's talk about plugin directory changes. - He enjoyed the gallery variety, mentioned missing specific Wapus, and hinted at controversial opinions in his talk. Transcript: Luke There was an art gallery of Wapus from around the world. No Wapu Sydney, that was the one I contributed to, and no Wapu Sunshine Coast, the surfing Wapu was missing, but there was a range of other really cool ones. Really cool idea, Wapu Art Gallery. I want to see that at more WordCamps. Mary gave a talk, a sit-down interview style talk. My biggest takeaway from that one, Campus Connect and the internship program that's going on. So that was cool. I also went to another panel discussion about the same topic. Not sure why it's coming up heaps, but it does seem to be. I gave a talk today as well, which was good fun, talked about changes I think we need to see in the plugin directory once that's out on WordPress TV. ([Time 0:06:43](https://share.snipd.com/snip/677f8e92-733f-48c3-96b0-ae1465d6f132)) - **AI Creates Agency Value Tension And Vibe Code Risks** - Agencies face tension from AI: better client briefs but their advice is often fact-checked by AI, reducing perceived value. - Luke argues many vibe-coded AI-generated plugins lack maintenance, quality, and long-term care. Transcript: Luke All around WordPress, lot of agencies are struggling at the moment. I'm talking to agencies who are telling me they're having trouble with sales because of AI or that they're, they say on the one hand, it's good. Their clients are giving them very detailed briefs. And on the other hand, they feel like everything that they say, all the advice they give, all of their quotes, it's all fact-checked by Claude and a chat GPT. And that's not a very fun dynamic. AI is everywhere. Had a great conversation with someone. After I said, I don't love using Vibe-coded plugins on my websites. And I was sort of advocating in my talk for a sort of scale, a disclosure scale of how much AI is involved in each plugin. Someone told me, you know, I've never coded before and now I can create these products. And we had a really interesting discussion about whether or not vibe coding is worthwhile and whether it should be discouraged. It is a tough topic. I'd be keen to know what you think because I personally don't want to use vibe coded products because they don't tend to be very good. ([Time 0:07:42](https://share.snipd.com/snip/53d1b588-bb7d-420c-aa55-aa76a6b1e1d3)) - **Avoid Vibe Coded Plugins Without Proven Maintenance** - Avoid relying on vibe-coded plugins because they often lack maintenance and craftsmanship. - Luke recommends caution: these products usually miss long-term care and tend not to be very good. Transcript: Luke Had a great conversation with someone. After I said, I don't love using Vibe-coded plugins on my websites. And I was sort of advocating in my talk for a sort of scale, a disclosure scale of how much AI is involved in each plugin. Someone told me, you know, I've never coded before and now I can create these products. And we had a really interesting discussion about whether or not vibe coding is worthwhile and whether it should be discouraged. It is a tough topic. I'd be keen to know what you think because I personally don't want to use vibe coded products because they don't tend to be very good. They don't have the love and attention and care and they don't end up being maintained and all of that sort of thing. That was the point I made. ([Time 0:08:19](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e1799d8f-f1d9-4667-97fb-3ad4d0431750)) - **AI Plus Playgrounds Amplifies Testing Workflows** - Combining AI with local testing and playgrounds unlocks powerful new QA workflows, as shown in Felipe Sintra's talk. - Luke notes NPX/NSM packages can extend Claude with skills for testing and creating shareable blueprints. Transcript: Luke And, you know, I'm a kind of skeptic a little bit when it comes to AI, despite how much I use it every day. But Felipe Sintra's talk on using AI with testing did maybe change some of my opinions a little bit. Did you know there are multiple NPX or NBM packages that you can pull into your Claude projects to give it new skills? And there's various different AI things that people are now doing to get Claude to be able to test locally in playgrounds or give it the ability to create a blueprint that you can then Share, all this sort of thing for testing. It's really cool. What is possible when you combine playgrounds with AI. And if that's something that's interesting to you, check out Felipe's talk. ([Time 0:09:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/98294272-9a70-4506-817e-c31e71955005)) - **Contact Form 7 Moving To Maintenance Opens A Gap** - Takayuki Miyoshi announced Contact Form 7 will move to maintenance and security-only, creating a long-term gap for a simple free forms plugin. - Luke highlights this opens opportunity for a non-pushy, no-upsell forms solution in the WordPress ecosystem. Transcript: Luke Taka is the, and always has been the main guy behind Contact Form 7. He was talking in his presentation about decoupled architecture, but the important part of the talk was that he announced Contact Form 7 is moving into maintenance and security updates Only. It's not going to get any big new features while he refocuses on a different project, which is due to land, he said, maybe in 2028, hopefully. When he said 2028, some of the audience members thought he was joking and actually laughed out loud, but he was serious. That's how long it's going to take. ([Time 0:10:57](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fd1db4bf-1f6e-4ad3-bab2-e309d1dc549b)) - **First Live Speed Build Sparked Tournament Idea** - Luke attended a live speed build where two competitors used Gutenberg or page builders to reproduce a design quickly. - He found it entertaining and proposed scaling it into a tournament across page builder communities. Transcript: Luke Oh, I went to the speed build. That was amazing. I've never gone to a live speed build before where there's a design that's given to two competitors and they have to use Gutenberg or I think any page builder is okay to build out the design As quickly as possible. I think this is so much fun. I know it's done in a few places. I want to see a tournament. Let's have the page builders sponsor competitors. You know, there can be like four Elementor people, four Divi people, four whatever. You know, Automatic can get some Gutenberg people up there. ([Time 0:12:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/419e9098-10c2-46cc-b047-9cbdf74afaa3)) - **Sick Speakers Yet Engaged Keynote Delivery** - The closing keynote featured Matt joining remotely due to illness; Mary delivered his keynote in person though she was also sick. - Luke praised Matt's effort to participate via livestream and text responses despite being unwell. Transcript: Luke All right. Closing keynote, obviously, was what a lot of people were at the event. We're looking forward to seeing Matt. He wasn't able to make it. He was very sick, but he did a really good job, I thought, of being able to listen to the live stream and reply via text by somebody. So it was actually, it worked out really kind of nicely given all of the constraints. I thought it would have been really easy to just say, sorry, I can't be there, bye. But he really made an effort, and that was fantastic. Poor Mary, she had to deliver Matt's keynote, but she was also sick. Then it came to the Q&A. I have to admit, I tuned out for a good chunk of this. ([Time 0:12:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3181ab79-041a-461e-9676-6649150f3619)) - **Skepticism About AI-First CMS Longevity** - New AI-first CMS launches like M-Dash prompt skepticism: Luke tried it but doubts long-term viability for many AI-based launches. - He predicts many recent AI launches may fade despite initial excitement and playground experimentation. Transcript: Luke But I did listen enough to realize that a lot of the questions related to M-Dash, the new cms produced by cloudflare which was pitched as a sort of wordpress successor i was excited about Mdash when i first saw it and i used it i used it in the playground and i messed around with it but i just have a gut feeling it's kind of gonna end up going nowhere like a lot of ai based launches Recently there is going to be a fourth flagship event from now on. ([Time 0:13:38](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8c090dcc-e1a7-4c8d-b0ca-5a1f2b1ac2f5))