We scouted the latest tools, made smart dev maneuvers, and highlighted the latest features and community wins. Arm yourself with this intelligence so you can continue your mission with precision and honor. ⚔️
Stick around until the end to see how a behind-the-scenes techie gets his moment in the spotlight.
In today’s edition:
- Wise Mentors Wanted: Guiding the Next Generation of WordPress Contributors.
- Defender 5.7 features a privacy-friendly CAPTCHA that keeps bots out without annoying people.
- A few jokes that will be an absolute hit at the next Klingon party you attend.
Hot off the press: what’s new?
smoke? The cover of telhNow’s new HolvaD WordPress smoke? SQpIrr Daleghptu’be’be’be’be’beth, Telh Holly Holly Hospital. NaDev raq.
qaStaHvIS chah WordPress Dees ‘j yqaw yqaw: sitete DuHIvDI’ I am bots, id IqIpqu’ ‘ej nom tIqIp! Chapel’!
Translation:
And why not? Why shouldn’t WordPress be translated into the glorious language of the Klingon Empire? They say you haven’t experienced Shakespeare until you’ve experienced that read it in the original Klingon. The same applies here.
Keep reading for your bi-weekly WordPress news and remember: if enemy bots attack your site, hit them hard and fast! Success!
P.S Click here to read some Klingon jokes. Spoiler alert: they don’t translate well.
Mentors needed: Yes, you with the opinion
WordPress Campus Connect is expanding its series of student-led events worldwide and they are officially looking for new mentors to help guide the next wave of professionals.
This is your chance to pass on your hard-won wisdom and rack up some serious good karma.
If you have at least two hours to spare per week, the program is looking for experienced contributors who:
- Support 3-5 student organizers
- Review event plans
- Offer feedback
- Organize consultation hours occasionally
In return, mentors get training, a snazzy Campus Connect mentor badge on their WordPress.org profile, and the satisfaction of knowing that their encouragement helped turn curious noobs into passionate nerds.
Our own Hosting Support Lead Aditya Shah was a speaker at Campus Connect Jaipur, where he hosted a workshop at the university and helped students set up WordPress and create their first website.
He also heads the WordPress Bhopal community and co-organized the WP Build tour where 1,700 students from six colleges in Madhya Pradesh, India, learned how to set up a domain and launch their online portfolios, all in one day.
If you would like to shape future community leaders without spending a lot of time on it, you can sign up to December 15.
👉 Apply via this form.
👉 Full announcement on Make/Community.
🎁 I saw mom implement 6.9
By the time this newsletter hits your inbox, it will December 2what means WordPress 6.9 is officially here. To make your exploration go more smoothly, here are a few resources worth keeping open in a side window:
Grab your favorite drink, start a gathering place and enjoy the fresh scent. Aaahhh…
And the bonus good news: you won’t have to wait forever for the next one. WordPress will return to three major releases per year from 2026with planning for 7.0 already underway and scheduled for March or April.
This will really grab your attention…
Defender 5.7 has just been rolled out and comes with a very welcome upgrade: Cloudflare turnstile support. It’s a privacy-friendly CAPTCHA that keeps bots out without turning your users’ experience into a super annoying escape room puzzle.
Turnstile is lightweight, invisible and does not track users across the web. In other words, you get better security, no extra friction, and no creepy data collection.
Once you enable this, Defender quietly steps in to protect:
- Login forms
- Registration forms
- Password reset
- Comment forms
If you’re looking for a way to beef up your human ports without driving the humans crazy, this is a solid upgrade to enable. Oh, and of course you can display the Cloudflare Turnstile widget in any language, including Klingon. 😉
👉 Here’s the full usage guide if you want to quickly go through the settings and options.
Mind Blogging Facts and Statistics
- 77 accessibility improvements. That’s the number of wins for inclusivity that will drop by 6.9 today, including better color contrast, helpful auto-complete fields, and improved screen reader notifications. (Source)
- 11,354 WordPress sites. That’s the number of times WeWatchYourWebsite owner Thomas Raef found malware in September. 81% of these infections came from stolen administrator credentials or hijacked session cookies. 😬 ( Source)
- 20 years. This is how WordPress was born on November 21st. Happy Belated Birthday, WP! (Source)
Blogs and resources not to be missed
Keep your users informed: why a killer changelog really matters.
Do you think publishing regular content is equivalent to “doing SEO?” Not quite. Here’s what you might be missing.
DesignSetGo: Justin Nealey’s new plugin lets you create beautiful, interactive blocks without sacrificing speed.
What really happened during the Cloudflare outage? Here is the disturbance behind the scenes.
Here’s one for the gearheads: Open Channels FM founder BobWP breaks down its tech stack.
Jamie Marsland firmly believes in it AI is NOT going to kill WordPress.
“What if WordPress had a true ‘all-in-one’ menu?” Rich Tabor goes to investigate.
Distraction during the coffee break
NSFW⚠️ WP Product Talk Blooper: Zack Katz accidentally clicks and drops an f-bomb in a live episode. 😂
Regan Khadgi says he gained 3kg during a five-day visit to the WordCamp Mumbai venue. Of all the delicious foodwho can blame him?
The ultimate work-from-home setup. (Except for the dragon attacks.)
Easy plugin search: just describe what you want the tool to do and Ploogins finds and compares options.
Hi! Leave that alone! That’s mine emotional support unfinished project!
Who would have thought your WordPress site could do that moonlight as a retro arcade?
When your job is nothing but you still knows how to make it fun.
And finally…
John literally gets his name in lights.
Do you like this mix of nerdery and nonsense? Forward it to your favorite WordPress geek. 💗
#DEV #lIchopbechugh #ghewmey #bugs #dont #bite