WP Weekly 23 – WordPress 2021

2021 is on the horizon, promising better things. This year, the WordPress ecosystem remained busy with Gutenberg blocks editor changes and with a usual stash of new products, services, lifetime deals, and more. What to expect in the WordPress ecosystem in the year 2021? Let’s ponder over!

What’s Buzzing in WordPress 💖

  • State of the Word… the 2020 edition will be delivered by Matt Mullenweg on Thursday, Dec 17th, 2020 at 1600 UTC, streamed live on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter. Also, you can submit your WordPress loaded questions for a possible answer via this event.
  • Interesting Stuff… Kjell Reigstad’s new Photocopier plugin adds photocopy effect to your images. Under the hood, effects are rendered via CSS and SVG filters, neat!
  • Let’s Think… why you should abandon Internet Explorer 11 and explain that to your clients. Also, understanding the real costs involved in maintaining a WordPress website (ain’t free!).

Extended WordPress Buzz 🔥

  1. In the News… Yoast and Elementor have announced a partnership. As a result, you can find the Yoast SEO sidebar on the left-hand side of the Elementor editing screen. Also, WordPress powering 50% of all websites, can this be a reality soon?
  2. Blocks Life… Full height alignment and font size support for code block added in Gutenberg 9.5 release. Also, Generate Blocks 1.2.0 release candidate is now available as they get closer to the launch of the pro version of the plugin.
  3. Core Updates… the WordPress 5.6 RC4 is now available (WP 5.6 is scheduled for release on Dec 08, 2020). Also, the core blocks editor will have new improvements in WP 5.6 for easier content creation like richer backgrounds, sharper gradients, and more.

Quick Bits 👍

  • Carrie Dils sheds light on Genesis in the full site editing world.
  • Christian Denat with new version of ACF Json Location Manager.
  • Affiliate WP is working on a portal like dashboard experience.
  • Flywheel hosting has launched growth suite for agency users.
  • How soon, the return of in-person WordPress events possible?
  • While WordCamp India 2021 from Jan 21 will be an online event.
  • Popular among WP users, Slack has a new owner – Salesforce!

[State of the Word] WordPress in 2021 🗯

2020 has been a crazy year, to say the least. For the WordPress community, almost every in-person got cancelled and a few got life in the online format. Plus, with economy changes a lot of people in the WordPress ecosystem saw and felt the shift on the money, mind, (and body).

Looking forward to 2021: even better Gutenberg (full site editing), WordPress marching forward, and just life going back to normal! Let’s see what more and different we can hear in the State of the Word this year!

💖 The WP Awards 2026

Nominations ends this week, Submit Nomination of own or your favorite WordPress products or services.

Upcoming Events 💬

Flagship WordCamps
April 09 - 11, 2027: WordCamp Asia 2027, Penang, Malaysia.
May 27 - 29, 2027: WordCamp Europe 2027, Málaga, Spain.
Not yet announced: WordCamp US 2027.

Offline Events for WordPress
October 16, 2026: WP Suomi 2026, for Nordic WP enthusiasts, Oulu, Finland.
October 27, 2026: PressConf EU 2026, in Barcelona, Spain.
November 11, 2026: CloudFest Americas, in Miami, Florida, USA.

Upcoming WordCamps
September 18, 2026: WordCamp Belgrade 2026, Belgrade, Serbia.
September 18, 2026: WordCamp Bretagne 2026, Rennes, Brittany, France.
October 03, 2026: WordCamp Rajasthan 2026, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.
November 05, 2026: WordCamp Canada 2026, Vancouver, Canada.
November 12, 2026: WordCamp Netherlands 2026, Netherlands.
November 13, 2026: WordCamp Pisa 2026, Pisa, Italy.

Use the Submit Form to feature your WordPress product / service news - it's free, with the mission of spreading WordPress goodness. Connect on Social platforms: Twitter (X), Facebook, LinkedIn, & Bluesky.

New Here? Click Here to get the next issue of WP Weekly. Some content may contain affiliate & sponsored links, see disclosure.

❤️ Our Community Sponsors

Universally

Universally allows you to easily translate your WordPress site into any language within minutes, so you can benefit from multilingual SEO & grow your traffic. It seamlessly integrates with popular SEO plugins, WooCommerce, and more.

SEOPress

SEOPress is the WordPress SEO plugin for people who manage more than one site: full white label for client handovers, one-click migration from Yoast or Rank Math, and bulk AI generation of titles, meta descriptions and image alt text.

WPVibe AI

WPVibe.ai allows you to safely manage your WordPress site with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or any other AI agent of your choice for free. Use our deep integrations with popular plugins like Elementor, WooCommerce, and more at no extra cost.

Fluent Cart

FluentCart combines performance, flexibility, & control in one powerful WordPress eCommerce plugin. It empowers you to sell physical or digital products, hybrid product listings, subscriptions, memberships, and more.

WP Shell

WP Shell is an online course by hosting expert Karl Kubelet. Learn how to run & manage your own WordPress site on dedicated Servers, VPS, or Cloud. It covers provisioning, setup, security, performance, backups, disaster recovery, & more.

WP Engine Newsroom

In the WordPress ecosystem, media companies often are forced to stitch together disconnected tools. Designed specifically for media organizations publishing at scale, learn how WP Engine Newsroom simplifies publishing.

20i hosting

20i® Managed WordPress Hosting offer blazing fast cloud platform with free Staging, Cloning, WordPress Manager, CDN & Edge Cache. Embrace traffic spikes with dynamic autoscaling built for always-on, always-fast performance.

Melapress

Melapress builds professional-grade WordPress security & management plugins: 👁️WP Activity Log – complete user & site audit logging and activity tracking 🔐Melapress Login Security – strengthen user account security. And, many more plugins.

image

Here is an opportunity to enhance the visibility of your WordPress products and services among WordPress users, freelancers, and agency owners with the community sponsorship program at 'The WP Weekly'.