I keep hearing the same questions pop up lately, in Slack, at events, in casual convos with agency folks:
“Do we even need WordPress anymore?”
“Can’t AI just build the whole site?”
So I asked someone who would know, Adam Silverstein, a longtime WordPress core contributor. He’s also one of the people Kinsta proudly sponsors for his work on open source.
In the run-up to WordCamp US 2025, Adam joined me for a chat about his upcoming talk:
What followed was one of the most grounded, insightful takes on AI in development that I’ve heard in a while.
Here are a few takeaways:
AI is (still) just glorified autocomplete
That’s how Adam described it, a reminder that under all the hype, it’s still a tool that completes what we start. Helpful? Absolutely. But magical? Not quite.
WordPress isn’t going anywhere
Sure, AI can spin up a brochure site. But what about maintaining that site? Editing content? Handling forms and workflows? That’s what CMSs (WordPress) were built for.
Developers still matter
One of the best parts of the conversation was Adam’s take on junior devs. He sees AI as a way to accelerate their growth, not replace them. That said, he’s quick to point out the risk of over-relying on AI without understanding the code it generates.
“If you don’t have any discernment to tell what a good result is, you’re going to wind up with not-great code.”
Adam’s talk is coming up at WordCamp US, and I’m excited to see the full version. Until then, I highly recommend watching our full interview. Especially if you’re a developer, agency owner, or just trying to figure out where this whole AI-in-web-dev thing is headed.
In less than two weeks, WordCamp US 2025 kicks off in Portland — and Contributor Day is first on the schedule. I had the chance to catch up with Aaron Jorbin, core team lead for the event, to talk about what makes Contributor Day special and how to get the most from it.
For Aaron, these days are about more than code commits and bug scrubs. They’re about connecting faces to avatars, sharing half-baked ideas to get real-time feedback, and helping contributors — both new and experienced — find their place in the project.
His advice for newcomers? Decide on a team in advance (but don’t be afraid to switch if it’s not the right fit), do a little prep work so you’re not wrestling with setup on the day, and remember that any contribution is valuable.
For experienced contributors, Aaron suggests looking for ways to mentor, connect with other teams, and bring your unique perspective to the table — even if it’s outside your usual focus area.
We also talked about one of his favorite Contributor Day memories — helping a new contributor at WordCamp Philly in 2011 fix a small bug. That contributor was Mel Choyce, who has since gone on to become a core committer and lead releases.
Whether you’re there to write code, test, document, or just learn, Contributor Day is your chance to help shape WordPress — and maybe share a coffee or two while you’re at it.
Full Transcript(Edited for clarity):
Roger Williams (00:00)
For other coffee lovers, are there one, two, or three coffee shops in Portland that you’d say, “You’ve got to check these out”?
Aaron Jorbin (00:07)
You’re putting me on the spot here!
Roger Williams (00:09)
Okay, how about just one?
Aaron Jorbin (00:12)
I actually have an entire map of Portland with a number of my favorite coffee shops. The roaster that stands out is Upper Left Roasters, down in Ladd’s Addition. They brew a variety of single-origin coffees and rotate them daily. They also have a great little patio area. It’s a nice spot not far from WordCamp, and there are some food cart pods nearby.
Roger Williams (00:49)
Excellent. We’ll have links for people. How about a Portland feature you wish more people visited?
Aaron Jorbin (00:59)
It’s a bit out of the way, but the St. John’s Bridge in North Portland is gorgeous. Some say it was the model for the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s a suspension bridge with Cathedral Park underneath, where you can walk among the pillars and see the underside of the bridge. You can also walk across it, and on a clear day, see Mount Hood.
Roger Williams (01:32)
Wow. There’s a big event coming up — WordCamp US in less than two weeks — and Contributor Day is happening on Tuesday. You’ll be leading the core team. How do you approach a Contributor Day?
Aaron Jorbin (02:10)
Contributor Days are one of my favorite parts of WordCamps. They give new people a chance to see how the software is made and how the project functions, while also allowing existing contributors to meet in person, put faces to avatars, and share half-baked ideas to get quick feedback.
Roger Williams (02:53)
Right, because the WordPress project is essentially remote work. In person, we can read body language and tell if something’s working. For someone new, Contributor Day can be intimidating. What’s your advice?
Aaron Jorbin (04:00)
Decide beforehand what team you want to join — though it’s fine to switch if it’s not the right fit. Do some prep work; most Make Teams post instructions ahead of time. For core, that means setting up a local development environment before you arrive. Wi-Fi can be unreliable at big events, so avoiding large downloads onsite helps. And remember: any contribution you make is valuable.
Roger Williams (04:49)
If I’m not a developer, will I still have a good experience with the core team?
Aaron Jorbin (05:25)
If you’re in software development — project managers, product managers, designers, developers, QA testers — you’ll find plenty to do. If you’re more on the content or support side, other teams might offer a more immediate impact.
Roger Williams (05:57)
Do you have specific goals for this Contributor Day?
Aaron Jorbin (06:09)
I’d like to help passive contributors become more active. We’re planning a live bug scrub so people can learn how to run one and maybe lead their own in the future. We may also have deep dives into harder technical areas for those who want to tackle legacy parts of WordPress.
Roger Williams (07:02)
What’s your advice for setting up a reliable local environment?
Aaron Jorbin (07:38)
WordPress ships with one using Docker, with instructions in the readme. Using it means you’ll have the same environment as many other contributors, making it easier to collaborate.
Roger Williams (07:56)
For experienced contributors, how can they make the most of the day?
Aaron Jorbin (08:32)
Talk to other teams. If you usually work in the forums, bring common issues you’ve seen to the core team — we may point you to a Trac ticket or explain the reasoning behind a feature. It’s a great way to cross-pollinate ideas.
Roger Williams (09:10)
What about mentorship?
Aaron Jorbin (09:33)
It’s a chance for everyone to learn. Experienced contributors can hear about the challenges new contributors face. For example, we realized there’s no single document explaining Trac keywords and workflow, so I want to find people to help create that and test it with newcomers in real time.
Roger Williams (10:19)
Do you have a Contributor Day memory that could only have happened in person?
Aaron Jorbin (10:36)
At WordCamp Philadelphia in 2011, I helped a new contributor fix a small bug. That contributor was Mel Choyce, who has since become a core committer and led releases. That was her first contribution to WordPress.
Roger Williams (11:20)
That’s fantastic. Are you looking forward to getting back to Portland?
Aaron Jorbin (11:45)
Absolutely. I lived there years ago — it’s where I fell in love with coffee — so I’ll be visiting a few favorite spots and enjoying the “sweet nectar of the gods.”
Roger Williams (13:47)
Any talks you’re especially looking forward to?
Aaron Jorbin (13:47)
Jeff Paul is doing a workshop on ethical and scalable AI. There’s so much potential in AI, and I’m excited to see the ethical side addressed.
Roger Williams (14:31)
If people want to connect with you, where should they go?
When it comes to running an e-commerce store, most managers are focused on sales, marketing, and customer experience. But what happens when new regulations suddenly put your entire platform under the microscope?
That’s where Lillie Mazitova of Rocket Conseil comes in. Lillie’s Paris-based web agency that specializes in e-commerce automation and compliance. She’s spent over a decade helping brands navigate a constantly shifting landscape of regulations—everything from GDPR and payment security to the European Accessibility Act.
Lillie shared with me that there are some clear red flags that often mean a site will need a complete rebuild:
Using a SaaS platform that makes digital accessibility difficult to implement compared to open source.
Running on an outdated IT ecosystem with years of neglect.
Using a theme that was never designed with accessibility or compliance in mind.
In her words, compliance is “case-by-case,” but many companies wait until they get fined before taking action. And with the European Accessibility Act now applying to businesses with as few as 10 employees or €2M in turnover—plus fines of €20,000–€50,000 every six months—waiting is no longer a safe bet.
The good news? Accessibility and compliance aren’t just about avoiding penalties. Done right, they improve SEO, speed, and usability for everyone.
If your e-commerce store is facing compliance questions—or you want to avoid expensive rebuilds—reach out to Lillie on LinkedIn. Getting an expert in early can save you time, budget, and a lot of stress down the road.
Recently, I had the chance to catch up with Troy Chaplin, long-time WordPress contributor, plugin developer, and one of the key organizers behind this year’s WordCamp Canada, happening October 15–17, 2025 in Ottawa.
We talked about everything from accessibility to Contributor Day, and if you’re anywhere near Canada, or even just have a valid passport and a love for the open web, you should go.
WordCamp Canada: Come for the Talks, Stay for Contributor Day
WordCamp Canada is shaping up to be one of the most exciting WordPress events in North America this year. It kicks off at Carleton University in Ottawa with Contributor Day on October 15, followed by two days of talks and community on the 16th and 17th.
Yes, Dave Winer, co-creator of RSS, is a keynote speaker. That alone is worth the $100 CAD ticket price (roughly $65 USD). But what really stood out in my conversation with Troy was how much energy he’s putting into making Contributor Day a valuable, welcoming experience, especially for folks who’ve never contributed before.
Contributor Day: A Gateway, Not a Gate
Troy shared how he came into last year’s Contributor Day with a goal: contribute to Gutenberg for the first time. This year, he’s returning to help others do the same.
He’s also pushing for more collaboration with WordPress Accessibility Day, which happens to fall on the same day. That’s no coincidence. Troy works at a university, where accessibility isn’t just a checkbox, it’s a necessity. That mindset is baked into the way he thinks about WordPress.
As someone who spends a lot of time helping agencies and developers through my role at Kinsta, I’ve seen firsthand how powerful open-source contributions can be, not just for the project, but for the contributor. Contributor Day is where new contributors find their lane, and experienced ones find their people.
A Plugin for Accessible Publishing
One of the coolest things Troy mentioned was his new plugin, Block Accessibility Checks. It’s a validation tool that helps content creators spot issues, like missing button text or links, before publishing. Think of it as the WordPress version of Gmail’s “Did you mean to attach something?” prompt.
Version 2.0 of the plugin adds a developer API, so other block developers can plug in their own rules. It’s clean, useful, and built with the same collaborative spirit that makes WordPress great.
So, Should You Go to WordCamp Canada?
Yes.
Contributor Day isn’t just for seasoned developers. It’s for anyone who wants to better understand how WordPress gets built, and maybe build a little of it yourself.
Whether you’re looking to dive into accessibility, design, documentation, or development, there’s a place for you. And if you’re not sure where to start? People like Troy will help you figure it out.
Full Transcript: Roger Williams and Troy Chaplin on WordCamp Canada & Contributor Day
Roger Williams: WordCamp Canada is going to be in Ottawa this year—just to make sure people get to the right city. Can you remind me of the dates?
Troy Chaplin: Yeah, days one and two are October 16th and 17th on the campus of Carleton University in Ottawa.
Roger: Excellent. And I recall seeing that the keynote speaker is going to be the one and only Dave Winer, one of the creators of RSS. That’s pretty exciting.
Troy: Yeah, and in addition to that, we also have a second keynote speaker—Evan Prodromou. He’s really big in the Fediverse and ActivityPub space. We’re also close to confirming a third keynote speaker for Contributor Day.
Roger: Wow, more big announcements coming. But the most important thing here is: people need to buy tickets and go to the event. Head to the website, grab your ticket, and share that you’re attending. Let’s make this a big one.
Troy: Absolutely. Tickets are $100 CAD—so around $65 USD. Where else can you get two or three days of solid content for that?
Roger: And also get access to Contributor Day, which is always a really fun and fascinating part of any WordCamp. Now let’s shift gears and talk about your WordPress contributions. What have you been up to?
Troy: My main focus recently has been an article I’ve been working on for a while—an advanced multi-block tutorial. I finally submitted it for review. I’ve also been digging into Gutenberg issues, particularly in the design area, and making some accessibility-related contributions. Design contributions take patience, but it’s been rewarding.
Roger: What about your past articles?
Troy: The first one was about building a multi-block plugin that mashed assets together. This new article improves that by supporting static, dynamic, and interactive blocks in one package. It also uses Webpack to help with block variations and styling, all while reducing complexity for developers.
Roger: Is that available publicly?
Troy: Yes, it’ll be available in the WordPress Training Team GitHub. I’ve also written about hybrid themes and block categories. Writing those helped me learn things I didn’t know before—like how much you can actually do with block categories.
Roger: Definitely deep technical content. But it’s fascinating, even for those of us who don’t write code. Now, back to Contributor Day—what’s your mindset going in?
Troy: Last year, my goal was to contribute to Gutenberg for the first time—and I did. This year, I want to focus on accessibility, especially with Contributor Day overlapping with WP Accessibility Day. I’d also love to help onboard new contributors, just like I was helped last year.
Roger: That’s what makes Contributor Day special—new people, experienced people, and face-to-face collaboration. It really builds the community. Huge thanks to you and all the contributors who make WordPress what it is. Anything else you want to share?
Troy: I’ve been building and maintaining a plugin called Block Accessibility Checks. It ensures content creators meet basic accessibility needs—like making sure buttons have text and URLs. Version 2.0 includes a developer API that lets others use the validation engine for their own blocks, whether it’s for accessibility or other purposes. It’s flexible and integrates into the options pages of my plugin.
Roger: That sounds like the Gmail “Did you mean to attach something?” alert, but for publishing. What’s the plugin called?
Troy: Block Accessibility Checks. I focused on accessibility, but in hindsight, it could also be used more broadly for validation. Still, I’m happy with the direction.
Roger: Love it. We’ll link to the plugin and the event below. Everyone—go buy your ticket to WordCamp Canada and make plans to be in Ottawa in mid-October. If someone wants to reach out to you, what’s the best way?
Troy: You can find me on the Make WordPress Slack, or go to WPSlack.ca to join the WordPress Canada Slack group.
Roger: Perfect. Always a pleasure talking with you, Troy. Thanks so much for your time.
When I sat down to chat with Arpit G Shah, I wasn’t expecting to get a crash course in how a client request turned into a thriving WordPress plugin business. But that’s exactly what I got.
Arpit started out building custom websites in India after graduating in Information Technology. Like many of us, his early experience was hands-on: working in PHP, customizing themes, tweaking plugins, and delivering websites for a wide range of clients.
But it didn’t take long for the realities of agency life to set in.
“We needed to offer service during the day and also stay up late to support overseas clients,” Arpit told me. “It became hard to manage. That’s when I started looking for something more scalable.”
That “something” turned into WPSyncSheets, a plugin business born out of a real-world problem: a client needed to manage data between Gravity Forms and Google Sheets in real time. So Arpit built the integration, and then realized it wasn’t just a one-off. There was real product-market fit.
He launched the first plugin in 2018 and hasn’t looked back. Today, WPSyncSheets includes integrations for Gravity Forms, WooCommerce, and more, with features like syncing coupons, inventory, and pricing directly from Google Sheets.
It’s the kind of plugin that scratches a real itch for agencies and store owners alike.
What’s next? AI.
Arpit’s team is working on WPSyncSheets AI, a new version designed to help manage massive inventories, think 50,000 products, while detecting duplicates and mismatches between data fields automatically. It’s not just about automation; it’s about insight.
“The AI will clean and map the data for you,” Arpit said. “It’s about making things easier before import.”
On top of that, Arpit’s deeply involved in the WordPress scene in India, co-organizing his local meetup and encouraging global folks to come to WordCamp Asia in 2026.
“We had 2,000 people at just one local meetup,” he said. “Imagine what WordCamp Asia will be like!”
If you’re building plugins, managing clients, or just thinking about how to shift from service to product, Arpit’s story is worth following. It’s proof that you can go from solving one client’s problem… to helping thousands of others solve theirs too.
Last week I hopped on a call with three Codeable experts—Edith Allison (WooCommerce), Tome Pajkovski(performance), and Elson Ponte (front‑end & project management)—to talk about that moment every site owner dreads: when a plugin update breaks the site.
Below is a quick‑read recap for busy agency owners and DIY site builders, followed by the fully edited transcript if you’d like to dive into the complete discussion.
5 Key Takeaways
Every plugin update is a security update. Most WordPress vulnerabilities start in plugins. Staying current closes the door before attackers get in.
Staging isn’t optional. Spin up a staging site, run updates there, test critical paths (forms, checkout, log‑in), thenpush live.
Automation + eyeballs = safest combo.Kinsta’s automatic updater handles the busywork—rolling back if screenshots don’t match or PHP errors appear—but a human still needs to test payments and watch for alert emails.
Know when to call a pro. If checkout fails, a plugin is abandoned, or a security breach occurs, hire a vetted developer. Codeable’s fixed‑price model removes guesswork.
Give limited access. Start freelancers on Kinsta’s staging‑only Site Developer role; promote privileges only when trust is earned.
(Time stamps removed, filler words trimmed for clarity.)
Roger Williams: What’s your process when an update breaks something?
Elson Ponte: I try to prevent disasters by testing on a local or staging server first. If something breaks in production, I check the logs, identify the culprit plugin, roll it back, and clear any caching or minification that might mask the real issue. Then I bring the site back up as fast as possible.
Roger: Good point. For non‑technical readers: server logs are your friend. In MyKinsta you can view them in the dashboard or via SSH.
Roger: Today I’m joined by Elson, Tome, and Edith from Codeable. We’re talking about WordPress plugin updates—why they matter and how to handle them. Quick intros?
Edith Allison: I’m based in Austria and specialize in WooCommerce development.
Tome Pajkovski: I’m from Skopje, Macedonia. I do a bit of everything, but performance is my passion.
Elson Ponte: I live on Madeira Island, Portugal. I started as a front‑end dev and now wear a project‑management hat as well.
Why Updates Matter
Roger: Patchstack says 97 percent of WordPress vulnerabilities come through plugins. Edith, from a store‑owner perspective, why else should we update?
Edith: Security is obvious, but performance is huge. Plugin authors constantly reduce queries and streamline code. If you don’t update, you’re stuck with last year’s speed.
Tome: And some plugins connect to external services. If those APIs change, only the new version keeps working.
Automatic vs Manual Updates
Roger: WordPress Core now auto‑rolls back fatal errors, and Kinsta’s updater adds visual regression tests. When do you still choose manual?
Edith: I don’t automate on shops. I update every other week at a quiet hour, then monitor orders for the day.
Tome: Start on staging. Update gradually. The higher the business risk, the slower you go.
Keep a Human in the Loop
Elson: Automation is great, but someone must click a form, place a test order, and watch alert emails. If Kinsta rolls back an update, the site stays up—but you still need to find out why it failed.
Troubleshooting 101
Elson: Logs first. Disable the problem plugin. Roll back. Clear cache. Test again. Document everything.
Edith: Have a second browser or your phone open—not logged in—so you see what customers see.
Tome: Don’t hand freelancers the master login. Use limited roles.
When to Hire a Developer
Roger: Red‑flag moments?
Edith: Broken checkout.
Tome: Abandoned plugins or tanking Core Web Vitals.
Elson: Security breaches.
Roger: That’s where Codeable shines—vetted experts, fixed bids, payment on success.
Performance & WooCommerce
Tome: Lab scores are diagnostics. Real users matter.
Edith: Fifty good plugins beat one bloated mega‑plugin every time.
Closing Thoughts
Roger: Prevention beats all‑nighters. Use staging, stay updated, and keep a trusted dev in your contacts.
When Andrew Palmer built his first website in the late ’90s, armed with nothing but a night school HTML class and Notepad, he probably didn’t imagine leading a team of AI agents two decades later. But here we are.
I recently caught up with Andrew for a conversation that spanned printing presses, dot-com chaos, and his latest mission: bringing AI-powered collaboration to agencies through the new Atarim AI.
And let me tell you, this is more than another AI wrapper.
A Career in Constant Reinvention
Andrew’s journey started in print. He ran massive print operations in the UK, with hundreds of employees and millions in revenue. But as the web emerged, he didn’t just adapt, he jumped in with both feet.
“I needed a website, so I built it,” Andrew says. That DIY instinct became a theme throughout his career: launching Elegant Marketplace, managing plugin portfolios, selling agencies, and even co-founding Bertha.ai, one of the first AI writing tools for WordPress.
He’s been through Joomla, Drupal, Dreamweaver, and more than his fair share of yelling at early versions of WordPress. But that friction taught him something: the true bottleneck in web work isn’t tools, it’s communication.
That insight led him to Atarim.
From JPEG to Game-Changer
When Andrew first saw Atarim (then WP Feedback), it was just a JPEG mockup on an iPad. But he saw the potential immediately.
“Three days after sending a client a collaboration link, a website that had been stuck for a year was finished,” he told me. “That’s when I knew.”
He joined the team as an investor and evangelist, eventually stepping into a customer success and sales role, though let’s be honest, he was probably doing that unofficially for years.
Now, he’s back full time, and things are heating up.
Enter: Atarim AI
Atarim is now going AI-first with a bold new vision: giving every freelancer or agency a virtual creative team.
Here’s the pitch: six AI-powered teammates embedded in your workflow, each specializing in different roles, SEO (Index), clarity (Claro), accessibility (Navi), creative (Pixel), QA (Glitch), and more. It’s like having a $500K team in your pocket.
Need accessibility feedback? Navi’s got you. Want SEO suggestions? Index is on it. Missing alt text, broken buttons, poor layout choices? The team flags it all, while also giving you positive reinforcement where you’re getting it right.
This isn’t just AI as a tool. It’s AI as a collaborator.
Real-Time, Real Feedback, Real Results
This new version of Atarim doesn’t just analyze your site. It scans, suggests, and sparks conversation. Click “Review,” and within 90 seconds, your AI team returns with thousands of insights, plus the ability to turn those into tasks or dig deeper with chat.
Even better? It’s not limited to WordPress. Atarim is becoming platform-agnostic, integrating with Figma, Shopify, and others.
As Andrew put it: “We’ve seen users double their output with no new hires, just by speeding up the loop. That’s productivity, and that’s profit.”
Want In?
The Atarim AI early access program is open now, and Andrew made it clear: this is not a black-box beta. Participants will actively shape the tool, just like the agencies who’ve helped evolve Atarim from day one.
When I asked Mark Westguard how he got into the web, he didn’t start with a business plan or a bootstrapped success story. He started with a memory, coding as a kid, discovering the web at university, and getting excited about the early days of Netscape.
In our interview, we traced his path from launching one of the UK’s fastest-growing web agencies in the ’90s (yes, the ‘what’s a website?’ era) to his unexpected move into product development. And that path included:
Creating an RSVP tool for his own wedding that turned into a licensing deal with Condé Nast
Running an agency in New Orleans where a team member introduced him to WordPress and WordCamps
Listening to his team’s pain points and deciding to solve one: forms
“Forms felt like putting an alien on the page,” they said.
So he built WS Form, a fully responsive, developer-focused plugin that handles just about anything you can imagine on the frontend, including some pretty creative uses of AI.
Why He Didn’t Replace Support with AI
Mark is thoughtful when it comes to customer support. He sees AI as a tool to assist support, not automate it completely. Repeat questions like “Why won’t my form send email?” could be triaged with AI suggestions, but the final response is still human.
“Support has been one of the strongest points of the product. I want to keep it that way.”
And that’s a philosophy I think more product builders should pay attention to. It’s easy to chase efficiency. It’s harder to stay human at scale.
AI Inside the Product
WS Form also includes AI in smarter ways. You can:
Ask it to build a form (“Make me a mortgage calculator”)
Use OpenAI endpoints to generate images, transcribe audio, or create content
Build a form that outputs a blog post and featured image, then publishes it in WordPress
This isn’t just novelty. It’s practical automation that stays in the user’s control.
Mark’s Advice for Builders
At the end of the interview, I asked what surprised him most about moving from agency work to product work. Without hesitation: support.
The shift isn’t just about building a plugin. It’s about maintaining relationships, documentation, and real trust with users over time.
That’s what makes WS Form work. And that’s what makes Mark someone worth listening to, especially if you’re trying to build a product of your own.
💬 Question for plugin devs and indie builders:
How are you thinking about AI in your product or support flow?
Let’s keep this one going—drop your thoughts on LinkedIn.
I recently had the chance to sit down with Weston Ruter, a longtime WordPress core contributor and someone whose story reminded me why I love talking to people about the open web.
Weston’s first computer wasn’t some fancy setup, it was a Radio Shack Tandy with no drives and a cassette player. From there, he graduated to a Gateway PC (complete with the cow print box) and slowly built his skills through trial and error, Netscape Composer, and eventually diving into raw HTML when the WYSIWYG editors crashed.
Before WordPress came into his life, Weston built his own CMS. All static HTML written to the file system. Basically a static site generator before anyone was calling it that.
WordPress + Open Web = Perfect Match
His first taste of WordPress came via a one-click install from his hosting provider in the early 2000s. But what really drew him in was the project’s commitment to open standards. Weston had been geeking out on W3C specs for fun (yes, really), and WordPress felt like home.
Fast forward a few years and Weston was working at an agency where he helped bring WordPress into client work. Eventually, he started contributing directly to WordPress core, starting with Customizer enhancements that brought widgets into a visual drag-and-drop experience.
He hasn’t looked back since.
Today’s Work: Making WordPress Admin Faster
In our conversation, Weston shared what he’s working on now: improving the WordPress admin experience by making use of the browser’s back/forward cache (BFCache). The goal? Instant page loads when navigating between admin screens, especially for logged-in users. It’s the kind of deep performance work that doesn’t always get the spotlight, but makes a real difference in day-to-day use.
He’s also helping lead efforts around client-side performance metrics, speculative loading, and other clever ways to speed things up without breaking things. It’s technical stuff, but it all comes back to something simple: making the web feel fast and easy.
Why I Loved This Interview
Weston’s story is a reminder that big things often start with small curiosities. A broken web editor. A random blog post. A Perl script sold for $25. That spark of “I wonder if I can build this…” is what pulls so many of us into tech in the first place.
If you’ve ever rolled your own tool, obsessed over site speed, or just wondered how people end up contributing to major open-source projects like WordPress, this one’s for you.
Thanks again to Weston for the conversation—and to everyone out there keeping the open web alive.
Roger Williams (00:00) At what point did content management systems become the thing and did you ever roll your own?
Weston Ruter (00:05) Oh, yes, of course. uh, I called it, uh, well, I was interested in, in HTML. There’s these front link relationships where you can have like parent or in like next and previous. And, and so I made a CMS that was, like family, something
Roger Williams (00:07) you
Weston Ruter (00:28) related to the family and you would create children, pages, and then they would have siblings and it was all HTML written to the file system. I guess static site generator before it was cool.
Roger Williams (00:42) Yeah,
nice. At what point did open source software and specifically WordPress come into your world view?
Weston Ruter (00:49) I had a blog that I made about linguistics back in, I think, 2003, maybe? was through my host. There was a one-click install and it was WordPress. So I think it was, I think it was WordPress at one point, something like super old. And I didn’t do a lot of hacking on it back then, but.
Roger Williams (00:59) Okay.
Weston Ruter (01:15) That was my first exposure to WordPress. then I’ve always really loved just open standards and open web technologies.
Roger Williams (01:27) Hey everybody, it’s Roger with Kinsta. I’m joined today by a new friend, Weston. Hey Weston, how you doing?
Weston Ruter (01:32) Doing well.
Roger Williams (01:32) Awesome. Hey, you know, we connected because you’re a contributor for the WordPress project and, um, you know, Kinsta is helping out support your work with that. And I wanted to just chat with you and, know, obviously we want to talk about the WordPress project. That’s, that’s the most exciting stuff, but I’m really curious to like, get to know you a little bit better and learn kind of your origin story. How did you like get into computers and WordPress and stuff? Take us back a bit. Like, do you remember like your first computer memory?
Weston Ruter (02:01) Yeah, we got a Gateway PC back in I don’t know 1995 or something It came in the cow box the spots and It was just before Windows 95 came out. So we got Windows 3.1 1 1 for work groups, right? and So I that was my first computer
Roger Williams (02:10) Yeah.
Yep. ⁓
Yes, yeah.
Weston Ruter (02:29) Actually, we had a Radio Shack Tandy before that.
Roger Williams (02:32) Yeah.
One drive or two drives?
Weston Ruter (02:35) It had no drives, it had the cassette player that you played the programs into it via. So I remember, I think it was called Star Quest and it was a game that was 2D black and white game with the monitor, you know, molded into the keyboard. That was my video games I had as a kid. And then we had a Pong game too that my mom had.
Roger Williams (02:38) ⁓ okay.
yeah.
Sure, sure.
Weston Ruter (03:00) We were,
my mom, my parents were not all on board with the video games for our household.
Roger Williams (03:06) in a similar boat so with the gateway 95 I mean the internet was right there so it like a ol prodigy how were you getting online right
Weston Ruter (03:14) we had Juno, our email service to dial up to get the emails. And eventually we got GTE. They had, they had a like five megabyte, free website hosting service. So that was my first, I guess, attempt at getting a webpage made. but I had to.
Roger Williams (03:16) Okay. Yep. Yeah.
⁓
Okay.
Weston Ruter (03:36) learn or add to use HTML at that time to be able to do that. And I didn’t know HTML. So I kind of, that was kind of a dead end. then, then I was using Netscape at the time, of course, and Netscape 4 had a composer, application that came with it, that you could do whizzy wig, webpage building. And so that’s how I started learning how to.
Roger Williams (03:46) Yep.
Okay.
Weston Ruter (03:57) how to make web pages and then, but it was kind of buggy. So, and because I was using these heavily table-based layouts, as you did back then, was the nesting was so complicated that it would crash Netscape Composer. So that was what forced me then to dive into the HTML source so that I could make the change I needed to manually because,
Roger Williams (04:05) Yes.
Weston Ruter (04:18) it would crash otherwise if I tried to do it with the user interface.
Roger Williams (04:21) Yeah, it was always fascinating how much those WYSIWYG’s just fell apart as soon as you started just trying to make some slight changes to them. Alright, so then fast forwarding a bit, did you go to university for computer science or anything like that?
Weston Ruter (04:33) Yep. I have a bachelor’s degree in computer science and also minors in linguistics and Spanish. I, I was wanting to study like computational linguistics and I was interested in that intersection, but I did, I found some crossovers, but I still appreciated that experience. I, I use, I still speak Spanish and love learning languages, learning.
Roger Williams (04:35) Okay.
Weston Ruter (04:55) American Sign Language right now as well.
Roger Williams (04:58) Okay, all right, all right.
When you’re in your comp sci, I took one semester of comp sci and the thing that kind of drove me a little crazy in there was nothing was about the web or the internet. was all just, we were doing like 3D graphics and stuff like that. Was that kind of your similar experience or did your program kind of delve into the internet a little bit?
Weston Ruter (05:20) No, it was mostly C++ and just like operating systems and more lower level things. So most of what I’ve learned or what I learned from the web on the web about the web was from getting like my first computer book was Pearl for Dummies. that from getting that from Barnes and Noble and reading it cover to cover and
Roger Williams (05:35) Okay.
Weston Ruter (05:39) I just ate it up and then yeah from there on it was a lot of the dummies books.
Roger Williams (05:44) Sure,
sure. So the old CGI bin directory and building stuff. At what point did content management systems become the thing and did you ever roll your own?
Weston Ruter (05:54) Oh, yes, of course. uh, I called it, uh, well, I was interested in, in HTML. There’s these front link relationships where you can have like parent or in like next and previous. And, and so I made a CMS that was, I think it was, can’t even remember the name. think it was like family, um, something
Roger Williams (05:56) you
Weston Ruter (06:20) related to the family and you would create children, pages, and then they would have siblings and it was all HTML written to the file system. I guess static site generator before it was cool.
Roger Williams (06:34) Yeah,
nice, nice. At what point did open source software and specifically WordPress come into your world view?
Weston Ruter (06:42) I had a blog that I made about linguistics back in, I think, 2003, maybe? was through my host. There was a one-click install and it was WordPress. So I think it was, I think it was WordPress at one point, something like super old. And I didn’t do a lot of hacking on it back then, but.
Roger Williams (06:52) Okay.
Weston Ruter (07:08) That was my first exposure to WordPress. then I’ve always really loved just open standards and open web technologies.
all the W3C specs, I would like read them and like just study all the different aspects of them. And because WordPress was like had web standards as a, as a priority and like, you know, those XHTML valid, buttons and all that, the emphasis on adherence to
Roger Williams (07:37) Sure.
Weston Ruter (07:42) The web standards I think was attractive to me about WordPress, but then I…
Yeah, I started to use it in other projects and I like to do things online and open and not close. So actually there was one closed source project I had back in 1999 called Router Search, which was a Perl program for doing like a site search. I modeled it after Yahoo at the time.
Roger Williams (08:15) Okay.
Weston Ruter (08:15) with all
the search operators before Google was, I guess, on my radar so much. But I sold copies of the licenses for like 25 bucks and I think I made 200 bucks from that. For me at the time that was like living large. But yeah, ever since then everything has been open source. I haven’t sold any software that I remember.
Roger Williams (08:27) Nice.
Absolutely.
Weston Ruter (08:37) But yeah, so WordPress, open source, web technology, open web technology, open web standards, it’s all like perfectly aligned with my interests and started using WordPress at a agency I was working at in 2007 and kind of got them on board with using WordPress for building out their sites for clients.
Roger Williams (09:01) Okay.
Weston Ruter (09:02) That was kind of the launch pad for me to then go fully in on using WordPress for client projects.
Roger Williams (09:09) Okay, okay. At what point did you start contributing to WordPress?
Weston Ruter (09:13) Well, let’s see.
I read a blog post about this that dives into the history and now I think it was 2000-
Nine is my first core props But I started contributing heavily because
At the time I was at XWP and we had a client who we wanted to use the customizer for so that they could have this live preview experience to be able to see the changes that they’re making before they go live. And there were features that were lacking which, which were needed for them. And so I started to
The biggest feature I started working on was the, in the beginning was adding widgets into the customizer. And so instead of, so it was basically like block builder 1.0 in WordPress, where you could have visual drag and drop of blocks, but in the customizer and not using blocks, but using widgets and having the live preview experience there. so we use that for clients to help them build out.
Roger Williams (09:53) Okay.
Weston Ruter (10:12) their landing pages and index pages and things like that.
Roger Williams (10:16) Very cool and from then and then that was it. As soon as you started contributing you were hooked and you haven’t looked back.
Weston Ruter (10:22) Yeah, the work that I did on the adding widgets to the customizer got me heavily involved in the customizer component. then because of that work, I was given commit access to WordPress core back in 2015. And so I’ve been, and then I was a co-lead of the 4.9 release and
Roger Williams (10:40) Okay.
Weston Ruter (10:50) I’ve just been consistently involved in every major release since 3.2, I think, or 3.5. I can’t remember. My blog posted a little.
Roger Williams (10:58) Wow, awesome. Absolutely,
absolutely. So besides the customizer, are there any projects that are now baked in that really stand out to you that you were really proud to be a part of?
Weston Ruter (11:11) Well, the past couple of years, I’ve been heavily involved in the core performance team. And in that team, we have a plugin called Performance Lab, which is like a…
collection of performance feature plugins that are incubating for eventual merge into core potentially pending feedback from the community. And in that project, there’s one called, there’s a plugin called optimization detective, which uses
is a framework for collecting client side metrics for how a page is actually laid out to be able to then apply optimizations more accurately than what WordPress can do on its own. Because say if you have a page that’s laid out and you have an image which is the
what’s called the largest contentful paint. WordPress is gonna guess what that image is gonna be, but it doesn’t know if it’s actually in the viewport or not in the initial viewport. And so you could be that the first image in the post is actually way outside the viewport because there may be paragraphs of text or maybe it’s visible on mobile but not desktop or…
Or vice versa. so this project will, will let visitors to the site contribute those metrics for how the page is laid out to then be able to then better optimize those pages for future visitors so that the actual important elements get prioritized and how they get loaded. if there’s like a, if there’s like a embed that, you know, well,
change its height when it loads, like a tweet or something from Blue Sky or WordPress post embeds, it’ll measure the height that those embeds have after they’ve resized and then reserve the space for that so that when they do load, they don’t cause that layout shift. so a lot of optimizations are possible when you have those client-side metrics that WordPress doesn’t have.
Roger Williams (12:55) Okay.
Weston Ruter (13:02) by default because it’s a server-side, PHP-based environment.
Roger Williams (13:06) Okay, okay, so that’s using all JavaScript and client side operations.
Weston Ruter (13:10) Yeah, well, it’s using, it’s using the, it’s using a web vitals library, from the Google Chrome team, as well as, I mean, that’s an abstraction on top of this underlying performance observer on the web platform. And so it uses that to collect those metrics about the, measurements about where elements are on the page.
which are in the viewport, which aren’t on the viewport. And then with that data saved to the database, then all of those optimizations can be done server-side with PHP, so there’s no JavaScript involved at the actual serve time.
Roger Williams (13:43) Oh, okay.
Excellent. Excellent. All right. So very cool. Very above my pay grade here. I’m swimming in trying to figure out the words here. But sounds really cool. So, you know, today we’re at 6.82 I think is coming out like today or really soon.
Weston Ruter (13:59) Just yeah.
Roger Williams (14:01) just came out. Six nine is on the horizon. We’re kind of getting roadmaps in a little early to start speculating too much on that. But it sounds like you’ve got a project that you’re hoping to get in there. Can you tell us more about that?
Weston Ruter (14:14) Yeah, there’s one of the new features in 6.8 was this thing called speculative loading, which allows you to navigate more quickly when you to other pages on the site by if you hover over the link, the browser will start to or actually by default in WordPress, the it’s the conservative eagerness so that as soon as you click, as soon as you mouse down or touch
Roger Williams (14:19) Yeah.
Weston Ruter (14:35) down on the link, it’ll then start making the request for the page before you release the mouse click or release the finger. But you can have it do more aggressive pre-rendering of those pages so that the navigations appear to be instant because the browser has loaded the page that you are going to already in the background. So it’s
basically the same as like switching tabs in the browser. Well there’s another much older ability related to that and it’s called the back forward cache or BF cache and if you navigate around a random WordPress site you’ll notice and you’re not logged in that navigating I mean most of the time unless there are certain
scenarios where this BF cache is blocked from working. But if the BF cache is working, if you navigate from page A, B, C, D, E, and then you hit the back button, then those back button navigations will be instant. The previous page will show up instantly. And then if you go forward, the next page will show up instantly. And that’s the BF cache. But if there is a unload event hit listener or
the page uses WebSockets or the page is served with this no-store cache control response header, then the browser won’t put it in the BFcache, and so then the browser will basically have to rebuild the page from scratch. Whereas when it’s in BFcache, the entire snapshot of the page
All the JavaScript, all the DOM, everything is stored there in memory so that it’s immediately there, available to you to go back to. But if, yeah, bfcache is not available, then you’ll notice that there’s, it feels sluggish to then go back and forward. And that’s the experience you get now in the WordPress admin because all pages are served in, when you’re logged in, all pages are served with this no store.
directive for the cache control header. And that was done in part to prevent those pages from being cached by like a proxy, like varnish or something. But also for privacy, because if you are working on something super sensitive and then you log out, well, if the pages you were working on aren’t bfcached, then you could just hit the back button to go back.
Roger Williams (16:27) Okay.
Weston Ruter (16:40) and see what those are, what was on the page, even though you wouldn’t be able to make changes because you had been logged out. So for those reasons, the new store directive was added, but there are alternative ways to preserve the privacy by this page show event listener and other mechanisms that I’m working on.
Roger Williams (16:58) Yeah.
Weston Ruter (16:59) but, and then there’s this, no, private directive for the cash control response header, which is what actually is intended for preventing those pages from being cached in by proxies. So that’s already there in WordPress. And so what, what I’m working on is, is there’s a track ticket and then I have a plugin that’s pending for the.org directory. It’s called no cash BF cache.
and it will allow you to when you’re in the login screen there’s with a checkbox that says the checkbox that says remember me along with that there’s this new little sparkle button and it will say if you click on that it opens this popover that says now new feature if you remember me it’ll also enable bfcache and so when you have
Roger Williams (17:28) Yeah.
Weston Ruter (17:41) then logged in, it will then omit that no store directive from the response header and then also include JavaScript on the pages to make sure that after you’ve logged out that those pages in bfcache get evicted so that the privacy is preserved.
Roger Williams (17:57) Okay, alright, so you’re going to single-handedly improve the speed of WP-admin.
Weston Ruter (18:03) Well, that is the hope that, I mean, in my own use of the WordPress admin, was feeling it was painful for me to navigate around. So I wanted to improve it for myself. And so, and actually a couple of years ago, was, I think it was WordPress 6.5. There was a track ticket for the use of unload event.
Roger Williams (18:14) Sure.
Weston Ruter (18:24) listeners in WordPress admin, which are another reason why BFcache is blocked. And so I was thinking, I was excited because I got that committed and I was saying, okay, now we’re going to have BFcache. But then I didn’t realize that at the same time or shortly before this other commit came in that added no store. So all that works, I removed, unload was invalidated by the no store. So it’s revisiting that.
Roger Williams (18:44) you
Weston Ruter (18:50) that ticket from 6.5 and hopefully will allow for a much faster navigation experience in admin. And also on the front end too, because if you’re logged in, this no store directive is sent to every request while you’re logged in. let’s say if you have a WooCommerce store where you’re logged in as a customer or BB Press or Buddy Press or membership sites, anything like that.
you’ll be able to benefit from this BF cache to speed up navigations.
Roger Williams (19:18) Very cool. I’m looking forward to this happening because I too would like to see things sped up a little bit in the admin. As far as working on this goes, if other contributors are interested in working on it with you, what does that look like in this instance?
Weston Ruter (19:32) There’s a track ticket that is on the WordPress core track. And then I have a repo on GitHub that is open and available for anybody to contribute to.
Roger Williams (19:41) Excellent. All right. All right. We’ll grab a link for that and throw it into the notes here. The time has flown by I don’t want to take up too much more of your time, but I’d be remiss to not get at least some of your excuse me. Get some of your thoughts and insights on the hype of the day AI. Are you a vibe coder? Do you utilize these tools when you’re working?
Weston Ruter (20:00) I don’t vibe code. I haven’t tried it, but I do use some of the auto completion features in PHP storm. I have, I use, actually I enabled a Gemini code assist for GitHub, which I’ve been really happy with because it basically adds a AI coder viewer to your, all your projects. And actually I learned about it from Adam Silverstein.
Roger Williams (20:13) Okay.
Weston Ruter (20:23) because he had a code for his. And so whenever I open a pull request and Gemini code assist will give me a summary of the changes in the pull request and then it will give me inline code review comments about areas of concern or, and then it’s caught things that I missed. So really useful.
Roger Williams (20:42) Okay, so almost like a grammar leaf for coding.
Weston Ruter (20:45) Yeah, I don’t use Grammarly, but yeah.
Roger Williams (20:46) Okay, all right.
Am I am the ultimate of laziness so I use all of these tools although I don’t code But if I did I would definitely use them all too So that that’s great. I Appreciate the insight on you know using AI, but you know maybe being a little bit skeptical of it Maybe not you know both feet jumping into the deep end. Is that pretty accurate?
Weston Ruter (21:08) Well, I mean, I will use Gemini, I have Gemini subscription, like Gemini Pro, whatever it’s called. So I will use it to brainstorm ideas and get code reviews even like in the Gemini web app. But in terms of the IDE, I’ve still been exploring the best like, I use PHP Storm, I’m trying to figure out the best.
Plug in and there’s various options, like all competing, Gemini, chat GBT, and then JetBrains is own plug-in. So I’m still like waiting to see who’s gonna win me over.
Roger Williams (21:41) Okay, okay, all
right, all right. So you’re being wooed, I love it. This has been great, Weston. I really do appreciate your time and giving us some insights into like your history and how you approached computers and the WordPress project. If people wanna get in touch with you, ask you questions or pick your brain and whatnot, what’s the best way for them to reach out?
Weston Ruter (21:59) Probably blue sky or I mean I’m on blue sky Twitter LinkedIn You can send me a contact form message on my my blog. So yeah, it was very very nice
Roger Williams (22:11) Excellent, excellent. All right, well, we’ll have links for all of that in the notes for people to reach out and ask you all types of questions. Really great talking to you. I look forward to speaking with you again soon. Have a great day. What’s that? WordCamp US, we’re, six weeks out. So I’ll see you there and I’ll hopefully see everybody else there as well. All right. All right, Weston, have a great day,
When Brad Williams talks about building websites, he doesn’t start with plugins or page speed. He starts with a Commodore 64 and a number-guessing game he wrote when he was eight.
That moment, typing BASIC code from a book into a machine his family bought off a cousin ,ignited a career that would take him from Marine Corps programmer to co-founder of WebDevStudios. Along the way, he taught himself HTML on PageMill, got made fun of for using Macs in the ’90s, and learned that formal schooling wasn’t where he’d thrive.
So he joined the Marines. They trained him in Visual Basic, taught him to think in arrays and conditionals, and gave him a security clearance to work on military intranet systems he still can’t show in a portfolio. It was structured, intense, and formative.
After leaving the military, Brad entered the web professionally, and eventually stumbled across WordPress while at a conference in 2006. That moment shifted everything. He became a tinkerer, a plugin hacker, and then a WordPress agency founder. By 2010, he and his team went all in on WordPress.
Now, Brad’s latest project, ThemeSwitcher Pro, is another bridge. It’s designed for people stuck in the Classic Editor, helping content teams migrate one page at a time to block-based editing, no dev time required, no redesign budget needed.
It’s a clever plugin. But more than that, it’s a continuation of Brad’s whole philosophy: solve real problems with practical tools, and make the modern web a little more accessible for everyone.