# This Week in WordPress #337  ## Episode metadata - Episode title: This Week in WordPress #337 - Show: WP Builds - Owner / Host: Nathan Wrigley - Guests: [Steve Burge](https://share.snipd.com/person/44453207-0f33-481d-843f-6555d63c7ff9), [Jesse Friedman](https://share.snipd.com/person/6f6e253b-08c3-4fde-9301-007198085c52) - Episode publish date: 2025-06-24 - Episode AI description: Steve Burge, the founder of PublishPress and a WordPress expert, joins Jesse Friedman, head of WP Cloud at Automattic, to dive into the exciting world of WordPress. They discuss AI's influence on job security in creative fields and the implications for authenticity. The duo celebrates the milestone of over one million users for popular plugins while introducing a new WordPress-centric cloud solution. They also highlight community initiatives like free websites for underrepresented groups and upcoming events in the WordPress ecosystem. - Duration: 01:32:08 - Episode URL: [Open in Snipd](https://share.snipd.com/episode/eada40bd-1af4-47f4-867a-53163d9cbe83) - Show URL: [Open in Snipd](https://share.snipd.com/show/11e8bcf5-550e-4d5b-a024-6b2775756bc4) - Export date: 2026-02-17T23:36:37 ## Snips ### [Try Speed Networking Sessions](https://share.snipd.com/snip/029108fd-aa1e-41a9-ba82-e3d0be4aa621) 🎧 16:40 - 17:25 (00:45) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/968093ba-b0b5-4f24-8f4d-4f37f6929d91" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Participate in speed networking sessions to build business relationships efficiently. - Use structured short meetings to meet multiple people without extensive time commitments. #### 💬 Quote > We're going to do speed networking online every month [...]. It's five minute conversations with up to 15 different people. > — Michelle Frechette Michelle Frechette on Speed Network Online event #### 📚 Transcript **Michelle Frechette:** write down people's information because at the end we will be giving you the list of attendees and their contact information and then that will be wiped clean for the next episode, the next session. So **Nathan Wrigley:** I'll just share the URL into the audio, but then I'll put this into the show notes that come out tomorrow. So it's speednetworkonline.com, so dead easy to remember. When is the first one? **Michelle Frechette:** It's this Thursday at 1 p.m. New York time. There is a $20 fee just because we want to make sure that people have a little skin in the game so they actually show up and don't uh blow it off because they didn't have to pay for it so yeah **Nathan Wrigley:** that seems sensible yeah that's a good idea okay so yeah good luck with that that sounds amazing so speednetworkonline.com there's the first thing and you must add --- ### [AI Disrupts Advertising Industry](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d77860de-a877-49e9-994d-db3b059e4a96) 🎧 24:56 - 31:14 (06:17) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/2983e8c7-3e22-4bf2-be62-e88f50d8f4bc" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - AI-generated advertising videos are drastically reducing production costs while maintaining high quality. - This shift threatens traditional advertising jobs by replacing expensive agency work with AI solutions. #### 💬 Quote > This video would have cost tens of millions of dollars to make [...]. The entirety of it was drawn inside of AI generating solution. > — Nathan Wrigley Nathan Wrigley on AI impact in advertising #### 📚 Transcript **Nathan Wrigley:** raising this one because you kind of felt well i'm reading between the lines a little bit you didn't really know what the ai team was about and now you do kind of thing uh **Steve Burge:** tammy might be able to fill us in more on this but i think they, they thought it would be a good idea, and then afterwards started to hold meetings and put a plan together. So I think this was the first time I'd seen a kind of a public roadmap for what they were planning to do with the AI team. **Nathan Wrigley:** Yeah, so this one came on the 13th of June. It's on make.wordpress and it's called AI Chat Summary. So obviously summarizing what they talked about the day before. Usually these summaries are pretty short, but this one, I suppose, given the broad reach of AI, this one does go on. I don't mean it goes on and on. Like what I mean is there's a lot of detail there, including, you know, subjects that they're planning to cover. I'll just read out the sort of bullet points, if you like. So foundational strategy and technical architecture, shared LLM abstraction layer, tool and resource registry and MCP integration, AI feature registration, cross-system integration, sustainable development and tech strategy, implementation focus, use cases. I could go on and then open next steps to do as well. So if you're in the WordPress space and you're keen to follow on with the AI, I'm doing it again, then this probably is the place to go. Tammy Lister plus a whole load of other people. So Flixios, I think that's Pascal, no, Swiss Piddy, he's Pascal Birchler. This is Felix Arntz. I don't know who these other people are. I click the link, but I think this is a fabulous moniker, by the way, John Billion. What a great name that is. I don't know who that is, but there we go. So you can check that out. But that then, I think, sent Steve off in a bit of an AI tailspin because quite a few of the next pieces are related to AI, not necessarily WordPress, but it's a fascinating subject. So we go here next, which is The Verge, showing us a video, which doesn't sound all that remarkable until, well, Steve, you explain what the heck's coming on. Well, **Steve Burge:** I didn't even intend to put a lot of AI stuff in the show notes. It wasn't as if I sat and said, I'm'm gonna make them all ai focused just afterwards i looked back and yeah my reading over the last week or so the stuff that had been on my mind or just happened to be ai related um they they had the big um can festival down in the south of france recent last week i think yeah it was and uh this dropped during it and basically all these big advertising agencies are there spending millions of dollars on parties on the waterfront and suddenly during the nba finals in the us one company posts this two thousand dollar video they generated with ai in three or four days. And I followed a few of the people that were there, kind of advertising-related people, and at least a couple of them said it felt like a kind of fall of Rome is what one of them commented, that it really felt like kind of an end of an era for people who are in advertising, who were **Nathan Wrigley:** selling expensive advertising packages. I am, I watch this in equal measures horror and awe, because basically if you're watching, I'll link to this in the show notes. I'll put this article into the show notes, but it's a company called Calci or certainly looks like that. I think they're a betting company who say that you can basically bet on anything. This video would have cost tens of millions of dollars to make because you've got people on airplanes, you've people, you know, doing jet skiing, the angles all look incredible. And then you realize that the entirety of it was drawn inside of AI, you know, generative AI solution. I don't know which one exactly, but I'm guessing it was something to do Google and cost a couple of thousand dollars. And I guess what I thought from that is if you're in, if you're in video making, advertising, video making, your job just disappeared in front of your eyes. mean, that could be hyperbole. Maybe I'm overdoing it a little bit, but it does feel as if that video is so unbelievably credible that it feels like, how could you possibly go to any brand now and say, yeah, this ad campaign is going to cost you a few million dollars. We need to put a few actors, we've got this exciting idea involving aeroplanes and da-da Will it be just, well, we'll do it via AI, thanks. We don't need the aeroplane anymore. We don't need the expensive this, that, and the other thing. So it definitely, if I was in that industry, I would be kind of worried. I don't know if that's where you went with it, Steve. Yeah, **Steve Burge:** absolutely. That kind of, the agency side of things at least seems to have the potential to get eaten up very quickly by AI. And I think there's room for humans in this still, particularly on the influencer space. who want to, they can make advertising dollars through the videos they post, through their social channels. But the old-fashioned agency model of filming a one-minute or 30-second video for a big brand, a lot of that work seems to be going away pretty quick. And I guess this year in particular, we're going to find out which of those, which business models are going to get eaten by AI and which ones are going to be safe. Because we were talking before that AI fails in quite a lot of areas. So some of us who are nervous might actually turn out to be safe because of AI. But I think advertising, particularly online video advertising, TV ads and so on, is one **Nathan Wrigley:** where... I would definitely encourage people to go and look at this one. So I'll just read out the name of the piece. So it's On The Verge. It's called Here's the $2,000 fully AI generated ad that aired during the NBA finals. I can, can you imagine they probably spent like --- ### [Ad Industry Sees AI as "Fall of Rome"](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4cba6610-fc52-4ff6-9859-894377e39d95) 🎧 26:21 - 27:20 (00:59) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/5e7d3813-e8c0-4555-8be9-58ee761bbcf4" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Steve Burge witnessed advertising pros call the AI video festival coverage a "fall of Rome." - It illustrated a dramatic and sudden disruption felt in the creative advertising sector. #### 💬 Quote > A couple of advertising people said it felt like a kind of fall of Rome [...]. An end of an era for people in advertising. > — Steve Burge Steve Burge on AI's disruptive effect in advertising #### 📚 Transcript **Nathan Wrigley:** So Flixios, I think that's Pascal, no, Swiss Piddy, he's Pascal Birchler. This is Felix Arntz. I don't know who these other people are. I click the link, but I think this is a fabulous moniker, by the way, John Billion. What a great name that is. I don't know who that is, but there we go. So you can check that out. But that then, I think, sent Steve off in a bit of an AI tailspin because quite a few of the next pieces are related to AI, not necessarily WordPress, but it's a fascinating subject. So we go here next, which is The Verge, showing us a video, which doesn't sound all that remarkable until, well, Steve, you explain what the heck's coming on. Well, **Steve Burge:** I didn't even intend to put a lot of AI stuff in the show notes. It wasn't as if I sat down said, I'm'm gonna make them all ai focused just afterwards i looked back and yeah my reading over the last week or so the stuff that had been on my mind or just happened to be ai related um --- ### [Promote Human-Created Content](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2bb64fd3-72d4-4226-a9d7-34c7a4c4fa68) 🎧 33:12 - 34:14 (01:02) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/20267461-9340-403b-bd9f-284eee128c59" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Champion authentic human-created content as a way to stand apart from AI-generated material. - Consider badges or signals that prove content is genuinely human-made to build trust. #### 💬 Quote > If there was some kind of badge that signified that the content was authentically human, that might actually help to alleviate some stuff. > — Jesse Friedman Jesse Friedman on maintaining authenticity in content #### 📚 Transcript **Jesse Friedman:** but we're not using it to replace jobs quite yet. I think that AI is acting a lot more like as if we had like a personal assistant or a chief of staff that could take ideas and run with them. It's making us more efficient, making us work faster, but I don't know that it's necessarily replacing and i think dami actually mentioned this in the comments i'm not sure that it's replacing um creative jobs at least yet maybe uh you know something like this i would imagine even that ad would still have required a great deal of thought and imagination behind it even though they're not necessarily hiring a creative agency, maybe they're doing it more internally, but then those individuals at those companies become just as valuable being able to translate that into AI. So, you know, maybe we're going to see that in a few years, but I'm not sure we're there yet. I have to be super concerned. **Michelle Frechette:** I'm teaching a cyber security class this afternoon at the, as my mother calls it, the old folks home where she lives, because even --- ### [AI Web Scraping Imbalance](https://share.snipd.com/snip/05a6dc05-3a94-4e6a-9b32-fcdb1ec02ae5) 🎧 45:27 - 49:50 (04:23) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/4ca7d0e2-63f1-4d5c-a4cb-ebde48a5a5f3" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - AI bots scrape websites vastly more times than the actual visitor traffic they generate. - This breaks the old balance of crawler activity rewarding site owners with user visits. #### 💬 Quote > AI companies might be crawling your site a hundred times for one visitor [...]. In a few months, it might be a thousand times for one visitor. > — Steve Burge Steve Burge on Cloudflare data about AI scraping ratios #### 📚 Transcript **Steve Burge:** were sending in order to justify that scraping was minimal. Basically, there was an old kind of unwritten agreement from Google that Google would scrape your site, take your data, and in return, reward you with a certain number of visits. That kind of unitting rule has broken down now. Yeah, **Nathan Wrigley:** I'm just going to summarise what we can see on the screen for those people who can't see on the screen. So essentially, what we had, you know, I mean, I think really it was getting close to one-to Google would scrape and it would serve up visitors on a more or less, we scrape, we serve a visitor, this kind of one-to relationship. However, six months ago, I'll just talk about Google to start with. That was six to one. So six scrapes to one that we will provide you with a visitor. Now it's 18 to one. But then if you look in the AI sphere, OpenAI six months ago was 250 to one. Anthropics, 6,000 to one. But now, again, this data, trust that Axios is telling the truth, guess. OpenAI is 1,500 to 1, and Anthropic is 60,000 to 1. The message, basically, of this article is, creators, you are no longer being rewarded for your endeavors by the institutions that you imagined were. **Jesse Friedman:** Well, actually, I would actually take a step back. If you go back to that number for a second there, the way I interpret this, I could be wrong, is what it's saying is that Google's crawling your pages more frequently than it is sending visitors to it. However, it does not necessarily say that the traffic to those pages is down. So what it's doing is it's saying that it's crawling more. Oh, interesting. The Okay. But you don't know if you're getting actually significantly higher traffic, you're just getting slammed with crawling bots. So something just to think about there because it is something that we are seeing. These AIs are, I think, very actively looking for valuable data in real time. The problem that we start to see here is that I'm not an AI expert in this field, but what I see from my own personal use is that the individual conversations you have with open AI, for example, it is two separate things happening here. There's the AI being trained outside of the conversation that you're having, but every single independent conversation that you have, the information that it gathers does not maintain in a longer term memory. So every single time that you ask for something, it's going out and crawling over again. Whereas Google will maintain a cache of the things that has crawled for X period of time. So it is much more likely that AI is going to throw a lot more scraping traffic because it's not quite very good at maintaining that memory long term. But in my conversations with SEOs, we actually had one on the podcast recently, did say that they felt that the AIs were sending more traffic to the actual sites than Google is these days because the way in which Google is answering AI questions in the SERPs, it doesn't even require you to click through. Whereas the chat, I think there's still a little bit of mentality that maybe we don't trust the AI enough, so we always want to go see the source, and so maybe it is actually resulting in more traffic to the site. So I would just be, you know, the way in which I interpret those numbers is that it could still mean that there's significantly higher traffic. Actually, you're also admitting, your server is going to, you know, the cost of that to your host is going to be significantly higher. **Nathan Wrigley:** Yeah, this is kind of why we can't have nice things, isn't it? Because we open them up to all people and then somebody comes along. And in the case of Anthropic, according to this, they'll quite happily go at it 60,000 times to give you a little bit of traffic in return. However, Cloudflare to the rescue. So the person involved in this article, the CEO, whose name is Matthew Prince, there he is, if you can see the video, he says, bottom line, he's optimistic Cloudflare can stop this. He says, I go to war every single day with the Chinese government, the Russian government, the Iranians, the North Koreans, probably Americans, the Israelis, all of them --- ### [Google Audio Summaries Incoming](https://share.snipd.com/snip/54a324ec-21c0-4ebe-b949-5e16adbf765d) 🎧 54:02 - 54:50 (00:48) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/b96a3262-663e-42db-87e1-a2eb36d2778d" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Google is shifting search results to provide audio summaries at the top. - This changes how users consume information and impacts traditional search result interactions. #### 💬 Quote > Google is going to start surfacing a confection of what the search result would have been as an audio summary. > — Nathan Wrigley Nathan Wrigley on new Google search result audio feature #### 📚 Transcript **Nathan Wrigley:** sort of leaning into this, we're straying away from WordPress a little bit. This is this is kind of more of the same in effect, I think. This sort of idea that Google is not really your friend so much anymore. You don't have that sort of partnership mode where we'll produce content, Google will surface it, visitors will come. So Google now have launched this. It's in labs, by the way. You have to go into labs in your Google account and switch it on. But they're going to start surfacing a kind of a confection of what the search result would have been as an audio. So a short little, I don't know, maybe less than a minute, something like that. So a summary of what the search result has been. Obviously, this will work really well if you've got a closed question and you just want an answer to that. A bit like you might chat to your, I don't know, your or Siri --- ### [Update WordPress for Security](https://share.snipd.com/snip/61c7b3ba-13e1-4111-bf35-00967b5e3150) 🎧 57:31 - 01:02:20 (04:49) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/6358ce67-e093-4523-bbd0-ef351469cef1" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Upgrade WordPress from versions 4.1 to 4.6 immediately to avoid security risks. - Staying on the latest WordPress release ensures improved security protections. #### 💬 Quote > If you're on 4.1 through 4.6 as of July you are painting a target on your back because no doubt hackers have got a bunch of security things figured out. > — Nathan Wrigley Nathan Wrigley on WordPress security support ending for old versions #### 📚 Transcript **Nathan Wrigley:** version of WordPress, 6.8 should be coming out in July. And I'll link to that in the show notes as well. There was **Steve Burge:** some talk of a 6.9 **Nathan Wrigley:** this year, I think. There was, I think, much later in the year. Was it? **Michelle Frechette:** That is what has been turned out. Yes. **Nathan Wrigley:** Yeah. Does anybody have any clarity on that one? I'm still in the, I don't know arena with that one. Yeah. TBD, I think. Yeah, TBD. Okay. This one is above my pay grade because I'm not clever enough, but I'll just put it out there. So this was Jan Jakes, I think would be how you pronounce this, 13th of June. Introduction to a new SQ light driver for WordPress. I know that some of you are the definition of propeller heads who watch this podcast, and this is probably of great interest to you. So it goes into all the bits and pieces, but I'm not clever enough. Steve, I know you are. Jesse, I know you are. Michelle, you may very well be as well, but I certainly i'm not but i thought it was worth raising steve jesse anything to that before we move on that's a big fat no in which case we will move right on i got um tagged by jonathan de rosiers this week who wanted me to mention that WordPress security updates. I think there's this kind of thought in the WordPress community that security updates kind of just go backwards infinitely in time. And that WordPress supports every version going back to kind of like one. That is really not the case. You basically need to be on the latest version of WordPress to get all of the security guarantees. But certainly support is dropping for version 4.1 to version 4.6. So that's a definitive black hole in your client's websites from July 2025. I was actually surprised. I did read somewhere, I it was from Jonathan, maybe certainly somewhere, that really, if you're not on the latest, latest release, then there is some, or rather, I'll say that the other way around, there is some definite benefit in terms of security for being on the latest release. So at the minute,8 in july 6.8 um but certainly if you're on 4.1 through 4.6 as of july you you are painting a target on your back because no doubt the hackers have got a bunch of security um things all figured out just for those moments anything any of **Steve Burge:** you guys hazard a guess as to when 4.1 came out? Ooh. Should **Nathan Wrigley:** we go around the houses and see what everybody thinks? I'll start. 20. No. Yeah, 20. I want to say it begins with a one. 20... 15. Michelle? Michelle? **Michelle Frechette:** 2011. Ooh, **Nathan Wrigley:** okay. Jesse? **Jesse Friedman:** Oh, man. I remember working on what was a three-point something in 2012. So **Nathan Wrigley:** I'm going to say 2014. Okay. 11, 14, and me 15. What is it? December 2014. Jesse wins the prize. What does Jesse win? Oh, **Steve Burge:** let's hear it. Pre-version of **Nathan Wrigley:** 6.8. Yeah, yay! 6.8. Actually, can I hijack that? Because I've got something weirdly that I want to demonstrate, and it's a prize. If you come to WPLDN this coming Thursday, we're giving away an iPad. So show up. Sorry, Jesse, I'm not giving you an iPad. Oh, yeah, I know. But I had a prize sitting on my desk. That was a solid segue, though. Perfect. **Jesse Friedman:** Yeah, exactly Thank you. I **Michelle Frechette:** was going to say, Jesse got a BA this morning. His virtual assistant gave him the login. It'd **Jesse Friedman:** be pretty sweet if my AI **Nathan Wrigley:** avatar showed up and won an iPad. Yeah, that would be the best use of an avatar. Go out on the internet, find every contest and win it. And let me know what you want. So this is WPLDN. We do it every last Thursday of the month. And obviously this coming up is the last Thursday of the month. We've been doing this thing there called the golden ticket, which is pretty cool. Basically, you scan a QR code and every month that you show up in person, you get an entry into the competition. Last year, gave away a macbook air and this uh this coming thursday we're giving away this the uh the ipad but you have to be in the room so even if you uh even --- ### [Figma Tokens Power WordPress Themes](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d2d1e7e2-a2eb-4944-b7f2-83a2e4a54a8b) 🎧 01:11:00 - 01:13:10 (02:10) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/df743ff1-f4b5-4e3f-bb5e-8e67c3cc8fc3" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Figma tokens act like variables to integrate design and development workflows. - The plugin automates creating WordPress theme configuration from Figma designs efficiently. #### 💬 Quote > Those tokens basically act like variables [...]. This is just converting that into JSON for styles. > — Jesse Friedman Jesse Friedman on Figma to WordPress JSON conversion #### 📚 Transcript **Nathan Wrigley:** the industry these days. And the guys at Fueled have created a plugin. And I don't really know what a Figma token is. I don't know that I need to know what one is. But essentially, if you're using Figma, I think in the past, being able to take something from Figma and turn it into something which might be, let's say, a WordPress theme or something like that might have been a little bit of a pain in the neck. Well, this plugin appears take care of that we'll automate that process and create your sort of theme.json that kind of thing more or less by clicking a button again I can't really speak to it because I'm not a designer or a developer but I guess if you are one or both of those things this might be really interesting. Fabian was on the podcast not that long ago, and he is the director of editorial engineering over at FUELD. And I think he's a core committer as well. So he obviously doesn't know what he's, he knows what he's talking about. So those of you that are into Figma, this might be something that you're interested in. is very **Jesse Friedman:** cool. Figma, so those tokens basically act like variables so as you're designing through figma you can say that a font color is this or a font size is that and you say it is a variable this i believe is just converting that into json so that you can pump it right into your styles which is really great because as cool as Figma is, it also just came out with a, I think it's a closed source conversion tool to build a website. So now this is a way to kind of keep funneling Figma back into WordPress, and I think create a defensible position there to help continue to make Figma into WordPress even better. So it's very cool that the people with Fuel **Nathan Wrigley:** did that. Yeah, really nice. Tammy's joining us, who is both a developer and a designer, so the perfect person to talk about it. She, in response to me saying that Figma was kind of the de facto tool of perhaps not Penpot, which again, I've heard of, but never opened, I don't think. --- ### [Global Content Sync for Sites](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ed88290a-250a-411e-b621-dc487870a875) 🎧 01:14:41 - 01:19:50 (05:09) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/6619c7db-b394-4647-87f8-7f54a92e4377" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Grade Suite's global content sync allows content updates to propagate across independent websites. - This is useful for organizations needing consistent messaging across multiple domains without multisite limitations. #### 💬 Quote > Global content lets you save content from one website and make it appear on other websites, syncing changes across all. > — Nathan Wrigley Nathan Wrigley on Grade Suite global content feature #### 📚 Transcript **Nathan Wrigley:** i don't i don't know why this wouldn't be multi-site but this is something that they've come out with called global content. And the idea is that you can save content from one website and make it appear in other websites. So you change it in one website and then it presumably syncs across all of those websites. I'm kind of wondering why you wouldn't just lean into something like multi-site for this, but maybe you just want it to be on an array of different... So, one site on Pressable, one site on WP Cloud somewhere or other, one site on GoDaddy, whatever it may be, and it would all sync across. Yeah. **Jesse Friedman:** So, when you think about something like a business that has affiliates, like a radio station company, right? They might have dozens or hundreds of radio stations. And the thing about multi-site is that while it's incredibly powerful for large networks of sites, it does run into an issue where if any one site is getting an increase of traffic, a substantial amount of traffic, the rest of the sites are taxed as well. And so a lot of times people choose to break apart sites. And so there is a thing happening, and we're actually working on it at WP Cloud as well, where we're trying to create the benefits of multi-site, but still allow for siloed independent websites to benefit from their independent traffic and resources. So something like this would be incredibly powerful for, like, think about a higher education situation where they need to have a terms of service across every single website that they, they, they manage. And it's not in, even if it is in multi-site, like, sourced content from a single site is not necessarily inherent to multi-site. So things like this can be incredibly powerful. Yeah, **Nathan Wrigley:** there's a few companies in the WordPress space. So I'm thinking about companies like WP Manage Ninja. Actually, Steve might be a perfect example as well, where they've got multiple kind of brands with completely different URLs. So on the fluent side of things, you know, they've got fluent forms, they've got fluent CRM, they've got fluent this, fluent that. There's lots and lots of different parts of that business. But there's probably bits and pieces of all of those separate dot-com websites that it would just absolutely make sense to just change once and just sync across all of the different websites. And again, Steve, that might work for you. Well, you mentioned four in your bio at the beginning. Your four plugins. Does any of this kind of present? Does it come across to you as a good idea, or is it just kind of like, well, I'll just go to the individual websites and update them normally? Yeah, **Steve Burge:** it absolutely makes sense as a possible solution. We've dug into this as a possible business model in the past and found it to be technically challenging. The last time we seriously dug into actually considering building a plugin that would do something like this there was a plugin called uh wp site sync that was really very good but they they shut it down right around the same time that we were considering it which which kind of turned us off as a... They were saying they couldn't make it work. They said the technical challenges were too big and maybe the market... Or they found the market wasn't quite big enough for this. And then, actually, you mentioned Fueled a few moments ago. Fueled is the new 10-Up. And they have a plug-in, I think, called Distributor, I want to say, that does something like this. So it's definitely something that's been floating around the WordPress world. It sounds like Jesse is in the weeds of this right now, has been exploring this. It's a great idea, but there's a lot of technical hurdles to make it work. Yeah, **Nathan Wrigley:** I'm guessing that this is probably, and again, caveat emptor, I could have misunderstood it. I'm guessing this is going to work very well if you are using the great suite of products across your entire network websites. That's a big **Steve Burge:** help. I think if you have it very closely sandboxed in terms of the content that you're working with this page builder and maybe this set of plugins, then you could probably put a pretty good package together. We, I think, ran into complications imagining how would you deal with Elemental, how would you deal with Beaver Builder, how would you deal with all those different possibilities. But as Grade is working within a much more tightly confined sandbox, they may well be able to make it work and make it work quite well. I **Nathan Wrigley:** think it's a really neat idea. Honestly, I can't quite imagine why it's never crossed my radar before i i genuinely i haven't seen the solutions that you mentioned there steve the distributed or whatever it was that you distributed yeah um but but i'm surprised that nobody's tackled this successfully in the past perhaps they have perhaps there's a really credible solution out there that which which we just haven't seen before but great they're taking the point of view that you know you've got this kind of --- ### [OrderlyApe Benchmarks WordPress Hosts](https://share.snipd.com/snip/66f31642-18ea-4af7-9681-f27ece5ddbb2) 🎧 01:23:56 - 01:29:20 (05:24) <iframe src="https://share.snipd.com/embed/obsidian-player/snip/0ec67c92-09c3-43b3-a431-1f725b661053" width="100%" height="100" style="border: none; border-radius: 12px;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-popups allow-clipboard-write" ></iframe> - Kevin Ohashi built OrderlyApe as an open source benchmarking tool for WordPress hosting after commercial tools became inaccessible. - The project encourages hosting companies to improve performance through transparent, independent testing. #### 💬 Quote > Kevin's built this to benchmark hosting companies and motivate improvements with open source tooling. > — Jesse Friedman Jesse Friedman on OrderlyApe hosting benchmarking project #### 📚 Transcript **Jesse Friedman:** don't want to spend too much time on that, but I did want to talk real quick, something I think is really valuable to the entire WordPress ecosystem is Kevin Ohashi's work on OrderlyApe. You go to orderlyape.com. He's taken... **Nathan Wrigley:** What is it? OrderlyApe.com. I bet you all spelt that wrong. Nope. WPHostingBenchmarks.com. Is that where you wanted me to end up? Yeah, **Jesse Friedman:** yeah, yeah. So OrderlyApe is a side project that Kevin is working on. And so basically, he's taken the K6 benchmarking tool set that got acquired by somebody, I forget exactly who, but it made it inaccessible to folks who were doing benchmarking testing, especially in the WordPress ecosystem, because it became incredibly expensive. So it wasn't the core technology, but it was the way in which the data is represented and visualized. So Kevin's gone above and beyond as someone who has constantly worked in the industry to be somewhat of integrity to really benchmark hosting companies and their speed and performance. And so he does that through a review signal, but he ran into an issue where the tools that he was using were no longer accessible to do that work. And so he took the time to build this as an open source project and he got some support from, I believe, Pressable and other companies um to help um to make that a reality and uh and and so i think it's worthwhile showing and i think if anybody out there is doing any kind of benchmarking and they want some you know really um uh you know elite enterprise level tooling there um go to orderly ape and and check it out was the review signal was that so i've been doing the show for i don't know like seven **Nathan Wrigley:** years or something like that was was that the thing did they produce like an annual report and they would put all of the hosting companies up against each other with the exact same metrics tested on more or less all the hosting companies that you could imagine it was that what review signal was and then they've sort of stifled it somehow made it so that you can no longer to those so **Jesse Friedman:** yeah so so basically what happened was is that kevin was running this company uh wp hosting benchmarks and he would do uh or review signal was the company and the wp hosting benchmarks was the annual report that he would put out now because kevin is doing this work um he he would charge basically for the report. But when I mention that Kevin is someone of high integrity, I mean it because the way in which he would run this program is that he would have a hosting company pay to be listed in that report, which is incredibly important if you want to make sure that you're standing up against your competitors and showing how well you're doing. But once you paid, you essentially didn't have any input and the report would go live. That's really incredible. That's cool. Exactly. So he wouldn't allow you basically to interpret the results, try and change them or anything like that. And so he would put out these reports every year. And so then he ran into an issue in that the tooling that he was using went closed source or basically got acquired and was no longer something that he could use inside of the ballpark of what he was charging to make this happen. And so he dedicated so many of his own hours to making this happen, but he did take some money to help hire some additional developers and other people to bring this to light. And now he's basically made it available. So anyone who's doing any kind of benchmarking, you should do that. If you're thinking, if you run a hosting company, you should definitely be signing up for ReviewSignal so that you can challenge yourself to do as well as everybody else who shows up there. And if you're trying to choose a host, I would definitely say go to ReviewSignal and use those benchmarks as a way to determine whether or not the host that you're analyzing is going to stand **Nathan Wrigley:** up to what you have to throw at it. I really like the model of that. The idea that you pay to play, like for a hosting company, hundred dollars is you know it's it's not even pocket change it's less than pocket change but then from that moment on all bets are off you're not paying for a good review you're just paying for an review and I think that's cool I think it's a really interesting model I'd seen it but I didn't realize that that's how it was all put together. Just to surface, they are looking for sponsorship at the moment. So if you click, if you go to, so orderlyape.com, if you go there, you'll end up being redirected to wphostingbenchmarks.com forward slash orderlyape. And over there, you'll see a request for sponsorships link just near the top of the page. And you can download or you can see a PDF about exactly what you can pay for and how you can assist that project. I **Jesse Friedman:** think it's really important for folks to recognize the fact that if you're, you know, we're trying to help hosting companies what are higher standards in terms of performance and being able to support huge loads of traffic. And it also challenges hosts. And I've seen this firsthand that when they get --- Created with [Snipd](https://www.snipd.com) | Highlight & Take Notes from Podcasts > [!note]+ Document Notes > tags: > - #WordPress > - #AI > - #OpenSource > - #Community > - #Sponsorship > - #Security > Author: WP Builds Podcast (Host: Nathan Wrigley; Guests: Michelle Frechette, Steve Burge, Jesse Friedman) > Source: [This Week in WordPress #337](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhCJ1Vr_UwQ) > Reference: [YouTube Timestamped Transcript] > date created: 2025-07-01 13:26 > > # 🎙️ Title: This Week in WordPress #337 — AI, Authenticity, and Community Sponsorship > <!-- deep-read:sections start --> ## 🧭 Table of Contents: - [🎤 Introductions and Weather Banter](#introductions-and-weather-banter-201) - [🌐 What is WP Cloud? (Jesse Friedman)](#what-is-wp-cloud-jesse-friedman-601) - [🤝 Community Projects: Speed Networking & Sponsorship Directories](#community-projects-speed-networking--sponsorship-directories-1440) - [📱 WordPress TikTok and Social Media](#wordpress-tiktok-and-social-media-2201) - [🧠 AI in WordPress & Industry Disruption](#ai-in-wordpress--industry-disruption-2446) - [🔒 Security Concerns: AI Scams](#security-concerns-ai-scams-3310) - [📜 Authenticity and the Future of Content](#authenticity-and-the-future-of-content-3518) - [🔗 References](#references) --- ## 📝 Summary: This episode features discussions on: - The evolving landscape of AI in WordPress, including new teams, tools, and industry impacts. - Community initiatives: Michelle Frechette's speed networking and sponsorship directories for contributors. - The potential disruption of traditional media/advertising by AI-generated content. - Security threats, particularly AI-driven scams targeting vulnerable populations. - Philosophical questions about authenticity in a world of machine-generated content. The panel blends wit, transparency, and a candid look at both opportunities and challenges facing WordPress and tech communities at large. --- ## 📖 Main Content: ### 🎤 Introductions and Weather Banter ([2:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhCJ1Vr_UwQ&t=121s)) - Typical lighthearted British banter about weather. - Panelists: Nathan Wrigley (host), Michelle Frechette, Steve Burge, Jesse Friedman. - Each guest introduced with detailed bios and a mix of humor. ### 🌐 What is WP Cloud? (Jesse Friedman) ([6:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhCJ1Vr_UwQ&t=361s)) - Jesse explains WP Cloud as a WordPress-first cloud platform by Automattic, positioned as an alternative to AWS/GCP, but purpose-built for WordPress hosting. - Emphasis on: - Bare metal infrastructure, automation, scalability, CDN, and management tools. - White-labeling for hosting providers. - Jesse’s personal journey: From web design side gigs to professor, founder of Brute Protect, and 11 years at Automattic. ### 🤝 Community Projects: Speed Networking & Sponsorship Directories ([14:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhCJ1Vr_UwQ&t=880s)) - **Speed Networking**: Michelle’s recurring online event to foster quick connections in the WP space. Designed for global reach with a nominal fee to ensure commitment. - **Sponsorship Directory**: A searchable site for companies to find and sponsor WordPress contributors directly. - Not a payment processor; just a facilitator. - Inspired by both Michelle’s need after job loss and Marcus’ WP World project. - Discussion of feature expansion (allowing companies to sponsor for specific feature work, browse by team, etc). ### 📱 WordPress TikTok and Social Media ([22:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhCJ1Vr_UwQ&t=1321s)) - Michelle runs the new official WordPress TikTok, focusing on fun, authenticity, and engagement. - Use cases: ASMR videos, trend participation, live Q&A at events. - Candid insight into the learning curve, content strategy, and how community is built in new digital spaces. ### 🧠 AI in WordPress & Industry Disruption ([24:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhCJ1Vr_UwQ&t=1486s)) - Introduction of the new AI team in WordPress, working on LLM abstraction, feature registration, tech debt, MCP integration, and sustainability. - Panel reflects on a $2,000 AI-generated video ad, which would have cost millions to film conventionally. - Anxiety and optimism about AI’s impact: - Potential for entire industries (e.g., ad agencies) to be disrupted. - Value of human creativity, “authenticity badges,” and the limits of AI-generated work. - AI’s dual role as productivity tool and threat. ### 🔒 Security Concerns: AI Scams ([33:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhCJ1Vr_UwQ&t=1990s)) - Rise in AI-powered scams, particularly targeting older adults (voice cloning, phishing). - Michelle’s real-life story: Teaching cybersecurity at her mother’s residence after her mother was scammed by a fake McAfee call. - Practical warnings and need for digital literacy. ### 📜 Authenticity and the Future of Content ([35:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhCJ1Vr_UwQ&t=2118s)) - Extended debate about distinguishing human vs. AI-generated content. - Ideas floated: “Human-created” certification, watermarks, AI detection tools for education and journalism. - Broader philosophical concerns: What value will audiences place on authenticity? How do we balance innovation with the risks of a flooded, inauthentic landscape? --- ### 🗒️ Notes - **Panelist Dynamics** - Warm, conversational, honest tone. - Banter is used to build rapport and maintain engagement. - **WordPress Community Health** - New community-driven initiatives (speed networking, sponsorship directories) respond to real needs (connection, funding, inclusivity). - Openness to feedback and evolution (e.g., Michelle and Marcus iterating sponsorship features). - **AI’s Industry Impact** - Strong consensus on disruption: Agencies, creative industries, and traditional advertising at risk. - Human creativity still highly valued. - AI as both an efficiency booster and a threat. - **Security and Ethics** - Growing risks from AI-powered fraud. - Importance of digital literacy and personal responsibility. - **Authenticity** - Deep concern about distinguishing genuine human work from machine-generated content. - Calls for innovation around validation, watermarking, or “realness badges.” - Philosophical debate about the future of trust in digital content. --- ## 📖 References: - [This Week in WordPress #337 (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhCJ1Vr_UwQ) - [SponsorMeWP.com](https://sponsormewp.com) - [SpeedNetworkOnline.com](https://speednetworkonline.com) - [WordPress TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@wordpress) - [AI Chat Summary (Make WP)](https://make.wordpress.org/) --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase **Original:** “If you are running a website and you want the highest, fastest standard, you can go to those hosting companies. If you are a hosting company or a registrar, you can come to wp.cloud to learn more.” **Paraphrased:** Website owners seeking premium, WordPress-optimized performance can use any of our partner hosts. Hosting companies and registrars interested in leveraging our platform can get all the details at wp.cloud. **Original:** “I'm worried about how AI is going to become a scammer's dream... I'm going to be talking about that, too. Hopefully a room full of people later today to help them think about how not to get scammed.” **Paraphrased:** I’m concerned that AI will make scams even more dangerous and widespread. That’s why I’m holding a session soon to educate a group about recognizing and avoiding these sophisticated frauds. --- ## 📰 Newsletter Blurb **WordPress Community Update:** This week’s WP Builds panel explored the rise of AI in WordPress, both as an innovation engine and a threat to creative industries. Highlights included Michelle Frechette’s new initiatives—speed networking for contributors and a transparent sponsorship directory for open-source funding. We also learned how WordPress is expanding on TikTok, bringing playful authenticity to new audiences. On the tech front, the new WP AI team is building out core strategy for LLMs, MCP, and more. The biggest debate: Can we protect authenticity in a world where $2,000 AI-generated videos rival million-dollar ads? Panelists urge vigilance around AI scams and digital literacy. As always, the WordPress ecosystem adapts with wit, transparency, and collaboration. **Links:** - [SponsorMeWP.com](https://sponsormewp.com) - [SpeedNetworkOnline.com](https://speednetworkonline.com) - [WordPress TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@wordpress) - [AI Chat Summary](https://make.wordpress.org/) --- ## ✅ Action Items: - Integrate lessons from open-source sponsorship directories into your contributor engagement and onboarding strategies. - Explore creating or supporting digital literacy workshops focused on AI-powered scams, especially for vulnerable community members. - Stay engaged with the WordPress AI team; consider how new LLM tools and abstraction layers might affect contributor workflows. - Reflect on authenticity in your content and advocacy: How will you communicate “realness” in your public work as AI blurs the lines? - Monitor evolving AI-driven advertising and media production trends to anticipate future skill needs. - Consider collaborating with or amplifying projects like SponsorMeWP and SpeedNetworkOnline to foster sustainability in open source. --- ## 🧪 Hypotheses: 1. Widespread use of AI in creative industries will force a premium on “certified human” content. 2. Directories like SponsorMeWP will increase both transparency and the total volume of funding for open-source contributors. 3. Digital literacy programs will reduce the success rate of AI-powered scams, particularly among seniors. 4. New AI-based WordPress tools will change the makeup of core contributor teams within two years. --- ### 📊 Methodology: - **Mixed-method research**: Surveys and interviews with WP contributors to measure impact of sponsorship directories. - **Content analysis**: Track engagement, funding, and DEIB outcomes from directories over time. - **Experimental design**: Run workshops on AI-scam prevention; measure before/after digital literacy levels. - **Case study**: Follow implementation of AI features in WP core and analyze effects on community structure and collaboration. --- ### ❓ Questions: - How can WordPress ensure AI enhancements don’t inadvertently exclude or marginalize segments of the community? - What are the most effective ways to certify “human-created” content in an open-source context? - How might direct sponsorship models change the incentive landscape for open-source contributors? - What policies can help mitigate the rise of AI-powered scams? --- ### 🔮 Future Research: - Study the long-term effects of open sponsorship directories on contributor diversity and project health. - Develop and test protocols for authenticating “human-made” content at scale. - Investigate the intersection of AI, DEIB, and open-source governance. - Analyze the economic displacement caused by rapid AI adoption in creative fields. --- ### 💡 Implications: - Emphasizing human authenticity may become a key value proposition in open source and creative communities. - Funding transparency can strengthen contributor engagement and sustainability. - Broader digital literacy is urgently needed as AI-fueled fraud grows more sophisticated. - The WordPress ecosystem’s adaptability could serve as a model for other open-source projects facing rapid tech change. --- ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment: - **Readability**: Conversational, plain English, accessible to a general audience (Grade 8-10). - **Visual Learners**: Video podcast, social media clips, visual directories; could improve with infographics or diagrams on sponsorship flow. - **Aural Learners**: Podcast format, panel discussion, TikTok videos; could add audio-only summaries. - **Verbal Learners**: Rich storytelling, analogies, lively conversation. - **Physical Learners**: Call-to-action for hands-on events (speed networking); could add interactive online workshops. - **Logical Learners**: Clear breakdown of processes (e.g., how SponsorMeWP works, AI team structure). - **Social Learners**: Emphasis on group events, open Q&A, networking. - **Solitary Learners**: Reflection opportunities (newsletter, independent sign-up for sponsorship). - **Naturalistic Learners**: Light, indirect (Michelle’s nature photography); could add more nature-based analogies. --- ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment: - **Screen Reader Compatibility**: Podcast transcript format is screen reader friendly; websites mentioned should be tested for semantic HTML. - **Keyboard Navigation**: Podcast/YouTube, directory sites generally accessible. - **Contrast & Readability**: Sufficient; newsletter and directory should be checked for contrast ratios. - **Text Resizing**: Main content responsive, though improvements possible on sponsor directory site. - **Improvement**: Add alt text to all images, provide transcripts for TikTok content, ensure all interactive elements are fully keyboard-accessible. --- ### 🌍 DEIB Assessment: - **Cultural Relevance**: Panel includes speakers from US and UK; projects are globally focused. - **Inclusive Language**: Conversational, gender-neutral, supportive of all backgrounds. - **Neurodiversity Support**: Structured, bullet points, open-ended participation. - **Representation**: Efforts made to broaden sponsor pool; TikTok channel seeks new audience. - **Psychological Safety**: Emphasis on open, welcoming community. - **Improvement**: Encourage more multilingual, multicultural, and accessibility-focused content; provide further guidance for marginalized contributors. --- ### ✅ Logical Validity: - **Strong Reasoning**: Consensus on both the promise and peril of AI; backed by examples (e.g., AI ad cost comparison, rise in scams). - **Balanced View**: Multiple sides discussed—both opportunity and risk. - **Causal Reasoning**: Clear chain between new tech and economic/social impacts. - **Counterarguments**: Human creativity’s enduring value is highlighted. - **Fallacies**: Occasional hyperbole (“your job just disappeared in front of your eyes”)—acknowledged as emotional but balanced by panelists. - **Tone**: Candid, occasionally humorous, occasionally anxious; avoids ad hominem or strawman. --- ### 🔍 DARVO Analysis: - **Deny**: No signs—panelists acknowledge both the risks and opportunities of AI. - **Attack**: None detected; critiques are aimed at systems/phenomena, not individuals. - **Reverse Victim/Offender**: Not present. Panelists empathetically discuss vulnerability to scams and job displacement, not shifting blame. - **Tone**: Empathetic, collaborative, solution-oriented. --- ### 🔍 SEO Evaluation: - **Keywords**: Naturally present—WordPress, AI, sponsorship, security, TikTok, community. - **Meta Description**: Could be improved with a clear 150-character summary. - **Headers**: Structure supports SEO; keywords used in subheadings. - **Content Length**: In-depth (well over 2,000 words in transcript). - **Internal/External Links**: Podcast, directory, TikTok, and Make WP links provided. - **Image Optimization**: Not applicable (podcast); relevant for referenced websites. - **Mobile Optimization**: Not evaluated; sites should be responsive. - **User Engagement**: Call to comment, join events, sponsor, etc. - **Schema Markup/Social Sharing**: No explicit mention; sites should use article/podcast schemas and Open Graph tags. --- ## 🎯 Conclusion: Episode #337 of This Week in WordPress delivers a comprehensive, community-centered conversation about AI’s rapidly growing impact on open source, creative industries, and digital safety. The panel highlights new tools and initiatives that make WordPress more connected, funded, and resilient—but also calls for vigilance, especially around authenticity and security. The future, as always, will be built by those who combine technical innovation with transparency, inclusion, and a healthy sense of humor. --- <!-- deep-read:sections end -->