Finale  ## Metadata - Author: [[Crossword]] - Full Title: Finale - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/1b286c95-364e-48ff-ae33-66841afd6d75 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Manual Transcript Editing Experience** - Jonathan manually edited all the podcast transcripts instead of relying entirely on AI due to dissatisfaction with AI transcription quality. - Despite the workload, he enjoyed the process and sees value in providing accurate transcripts to listeners. Transcript: Luke Jonathan, this season nine of Crossword has been probably our biggest ever. It has been in terms of listens. And I think we've had some amazing guests on for the Perspective episodes. They've been great. Jonathan Yeah, we've packed a lot in this particular season. I don't think we've ever had six in one season, which we decided from the outset. But it was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it, actually. Luke I think most of the work was just you manually editing transcripts, to be fair, which I know that you find a lot of value in, and I hope our audience do. Jonathan Well, here's what I decided. Because at the beginning of the season, when we told our sponsors that we were going to do transcripts, I had this idea in my head that, oh, I'm going to use AI. It's going to do a great job and I'll be able to just do some light work. But I was just not satisfied with the output. And after a couple of tries, I ended up taking what Riverside gives us, which is pretty good out of the box of just like the raw transcription of the audio and then just editing it myself And yeah it was uh it was a lot but i actually did enjoy the process so ([Time 0:00:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/69ae79a9-f5f4-4565-a47f-cacb29cb1b34)) - **Themes and Full Site Editing Evolution** - The next six months in WordPress will likely focus on themes and their evolving role with the Gutenberg editor. - Early experimentation with theme collaboration inside the full site editor is promising but still early-stage. Transcript: Luke Lot going on in this space. I think, here's my prediction. I think that we're gonna start talking more about themes. I think that's gonna be a theme of the next six months. What role does a theme have? And I think we're going to start to see some of the early experiments in collaboration inside the Gutenberg editor. That's interesting. Jonathan Yeah. It's been a lot of fun watching what Mike McAllister and his partner have been building. The team there with Ollie, for instance, on the theme side and the kind of pushing the edges with some innovation there. It still feels it's weird to say this, but it feels early for themes in this context of the full site editor in contrast to those who've just built like builder solutions that have done The job. But it's like we have a bunch of different things in WordPress at the moment, right? Like people are like, oh, I do Brick, so I do Elementor. I do – there's still a lot of people who do Divi, whether they talk about it or not. There's a lot of like, I don't know these groups that are kind of off doing their thing and i don't feel like the full site editor has really hit that much of a stride all it was the first time That i had what i would describe as a positive experience like okay i'm using the full site editor i'm using these tools and i was able to ship something like my personal blogs running On it but that was still it still felt like a pretty early experience. It doesn't, it hasn't really felt like that. The full site editor is ready for prime time. Luke Well, I wonder if that will continue or will it change in the next six months? I really enjoyed a blog post by Tammy Lister, who has been one of the main people working on the default themes that ship with Core. And she suggested that maybe we ought to take a break from default themes with the next few releases or for the next few years. Just take a pause and let things settle and see what it is the community is using and the way that the community is using WordPress. So check out Tammy Lister's blog post. ([Time 0:07:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8b878cfa-f3fb-4c72-bdcb-7baa27bf77cb)) - **AI Plugin Search Innovation** - The Spanish WordPress community developed Plugins.com that uses natural language and AI to enhance plugin search. - This innovation could lead to dynamic, AI-assisted plugin recommendations and ecosystem improvements. Transcript: Luke Have you seen recently any of the work that the Surveglia team have been doing with Plugins? Jonathan No. Plugins. So plugins.com. They're out of the Spanish WordPress community. And they released this thing at WordCamp Europe like a year ago. That is a, you can go to plugins.com and search using natural language for like a plugin which is interesting p-l right and is that like the spanish takes it's like how they pronounce Uh like plugins but plugins and if you're right in spanish okay okay gotcha and if you check it out it's it's interesting in of its own right because you use natural language search and It takes the dot org directory and combines it with using AI to summarize the descriptions and incorporates a sentiment analysis from.org, etc. ([Time 0:10:27](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c121739f-e1fb-47f4-9365-f9a5c9d2d37c)) - **Potential Impact of FAIR Project** - The FAIR project could significantly impact WordPress plugin ecosystem development. - Its collaborative approach aims for alignment between core projects and the broader plugin community rather than being an either-or scenario. Transcript: Luke Well, let's not forget the FAIR project is going to have a fair amount of impact in the next six months as well. That's going to be huge. Jonathan Well, actually, the question to me will be, will it have an impact? Will it have a meaningful impact? Because we had Sam Siddler on. I enjoyed that conversation a lot. Didn't go into a lot of detail about the FAIR project itself. But there are some smart, there's some really smart, talented, motivated people working on it. And I think what I like most about it is that it's not positioned as being an either or, right? Like there is real opportunity for there to be an alignment of interest between some of the things that they're working on and the project generally and the ecosystem broadly. Luke I'd like to see what actually comes out of it in practice. And that's at least not clear to me yet. ([Time 0:12:16](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2de1d4e1-1682-4254-ad8c-6dc2806b79ee)) - **WordCamp US Attendance Decline** - WordCamp US attendance is expected to be lower this year, possibly leading to a quieter event. - Political and community dynamics contribute to reduced ticket sales, influencing participation and atmosphere. Transcript: Luke I don't think we'll see any progress with the WP Engine automatic case. Jonathan I don't remember that. Do you remember the dates offhand for that? Luke I've now lost track of it. Yeah, I lost track too. I think there's something due in March or who knows. Jonathan Okay. Well, I'm curious. We have word camp us coming up in just a couple of weeks um we'll be picking up crossword season 10 shortly after word camp us so we'll be able to to pick up from that i'm hoping for a pretty Like anti-climactic uh just good like hey people are building cool stuff and we're seeing stuff happen. Yeah. Luke What about you? What are you expecting? What am I expecting? What am I? Yeah, I think it will be anticlimactic in a lot of ways, including in a community way, unfortunately. All signs point to really low ticket sales and it's having this spiral ([Time 0:13:09](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cbf7f193-0a23-4b02-9463-d9eb7d8e9910))