Hello World, GoodbAI Code Standards

Stick around ‘til the end for a sweet birthday surprise…

In today’s edition:

AI is building plugins, but is it also breaking the repo? (Plus: the “vibe coder” problem in one brutal tweet).
22 years old and still the life of the party. WordPress, you magnificent CMS, we raise a glass to you!
Genius tools you’ll wish you’d built yourself, including a /edit cheat code and a post-shuffling script.

Hot Off The Presses: What’s New?

WordPress Plugin Boom or AI Doom?

New plugin submissions to WordPress.org have doubled in 2025, according to the Plugin Review team. That’s right, the plugin ecosystem is thriving like a caffeine-fueled dev during a last-minute launch. Faster reviews, better tooling, and more folks shipping shiny new ideas. What’s not to love?

Well… maybe how they’re getting built.

According to HubSpot, 93% of web designers have used AI in the past 3 months. And over in dev-land, tools like AI code assistants and plugin builders are lowering the barrier to entry faster than you can say “GPT, generate a settings page.”

But before we roll out the red carpet for our new robot overlords, a word of caution: this AI surge may come with a side of spaghetti code. As The Repository reports, there’s growing concern about code quality, long-term maintenance, and what happens when your plugin dev pipeline is basically vibes + autocomplete.

When WordPress.org announced the formation of the WordPress AI team, it received a healthy dose of cynical skepticism on the internet’s official home of cynical skepticism, Reddit. And even the official WordPress AI website builder was tested and deemed a “waste of time” by tech writer Amanda Smith.

This viral tweet explains the problem pretty clearly. Code can’t be written with vibes alone, you still need version control, implementation plans, testing, documentation, logging… etc. You know, actual dev stuff.

And yes, it’s kinda funny, until you’re trying to debug someone’s weekend AI experiment in production.

Let’s not forget that clean code is still a thing. Just because AI can generate a plugin doesn’t mean it should, or at least, not without a human double-checking it with more than just a “looks good to me” shrug.

If we’re not careful, we’re all just one auto-generated shortcode away from a support ticket apocalypse. 🤯 We’re just crossing our fingers that WordPress will still give us the option to disable it. 🤞

Let Them Eat Code: WordPress Turns 22!

Code-themed birthday cake for WordPress's 22nd birthday.

WordPress officially turned 22 on May 27th, which means it’s now almost old enough to have a quarter-life crisis, but still too young to rent a car without fees.

From its humble blogging beginnings in 2003 to powering 43% of the web (and 93% of your in-laws’ small business sites), WordPress has seen it all: the rise of Gutenberg, the fall of classic widgets, and the eternal “Are page builders ruining the web?” debates.

Over the last two decades, WordPress has quietly shaped the internet more than most people realize. It made publishing accessible, community contributions meaningful, and being a self-taught developer not just possible, but respected. Love it or yell at it, WordPress has been there for us – for side projects, client sites, passion blogs, startups and countless other creative corners of the internet.

So here’s to 22 years of code, community, and that little dashboard we’ve all stared at for so many hours. Happy belated birthday, WordPress. We wouldn’t be here without you. 💙

👉 Take a stroll through WordPress history
👉 Here’s how the community celebrated
👉 Reddit, of course, had thoughts

Handy Things From Very Smart Folks

Because the WordPress community never sleeps (and apparently doesn’t believe in boring tools), here’s a round-up of clever things made by clever people:

Slash Edit by Ronald Huereca:
- Just slap /edit on the end of any content URL and boom, direct edit access. It’s like a cheat code for WordPress admins. So simple, it’s almost criminal.
  👉 Check out Slash Edit
10 GitHub Gems You (Probably) Didn’t Know
- Saketh Kowtha reveals a list of GitHub cheat codes, including secret URLs and overlooked power features, that will have you looking 10x smarter with 0x extra effort.
  👉 Read: “Holy forking repositories!”
Shuffle Your Evergreen Content Like a DJ
- “Every day I’m shufflin’…” This tiny-but-mighty script lets you randomize your evergreen posts to keep things fresh. Because your content deserves to be seen, and because randomness is fun.
  👉 Get the code
Design Nerd Alert: Compass Template for E-Learning
- Compass is a sleek Tailwind CSS video course template with some tasty design candy treats inside.
  👉 Take a peek

Mind Bloggling Facts & Stats

WP Speakers currently features almost 200 speakers, sharing their hot takes in a wide range of formats from in-person talks to podcast interviews and virtual webinars. (Source)
According to a new WP Engine report, WordPress can cost up to 44% less than platforms like Adobe Experience Manager. (Source)
Patchstack has officially surpassed Microsoft as the #1 CVE coordinator in the world. Cheers for keeping us all safer, Patchstack team! (Source)

Blogs & Resources You Shouldn’t Miss

Turns out your WordPress site can be charming, responsive, and emotionally available (unlike your recent Tinder matches, amirite?) Get the scoop from Codeable on the Interactivity API.
Want to stay legal and not creepy? Here’s the WordPress dev’s privacy playbook for 2025.
Equalize Digital just dropped updates to Accessibility Checker that improve accuracy and performance. Fewer false positives, more peace of mind.
Pocket’s gone. But don’t worry, there are plenty more ways to pretend you’ll ‘read it later.’
Get the tea on all things Basel from the WordCamp Europe 2025 team via the Do the Woo podcast.
The FTC just hit unsubscribe on shady subscription tactics, and it’s about time.
🎵 “Young dev, there’s no need to feel down/ I said young dev, if you see your content around/ Just go now, to our blog today and you’ll be back to having a good time/ ✨🪩🕺💃✨ It’s fun to file a D. M. C. A.!”