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The conversation regarding the removal of WordPress plugin active install growth data has continued this week. The data chart was officially removed from the WordPress.org plugin repository back on September 29, 2022.

Even as plugin authors and other community members have asked for the chart’s return, no formal reason has been given for its removal. The possibilities of privacy and security issues have been brought up, but there’s been no official announcement from WordPress leadership.

Over at WP Tavern, Sarah Gooding reports on a Trac ticket discussion started by Mark Zahra. WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg has chimed in and said that adding relevant statistics for plugin authors “...will take some work but it’s doable.” Mullenweg also responded to a tweet from Zahra stating, “We’ll add something new for small plug-in devs.”

Meanwhile, the community continues to express concern. Investor and artist Jean Galea wondered if WordPress is entering a “death spiral”. And MasterWP’s Rob Howard says WordPress may be turning away its biggest fans.

Next up (listen to the podcast for more): Michelle Frechette with the Community Minute!

Links You Shouldn’t Miss

MasterWP’s WordCamp travel sponsorship program plans to keep on rolling in 2023. It aims to enable a diverse group of people to attend events by defraying travel costs. This year, the program helped seven recipients head to WordCamp US in San Diego, California.

Rob Howard wrote about the reasoning behind and the impact of the program. There’s also a form for anyone interested in receiving a travel stipend to attend WordCamp US 2023 in National Harbor, Maryland.

Howard also put out a call for potential sponsors. For our part, the WP Minute has made a $1,500 contribution.

From the Grab Bag

Now it’s time to take a look at some other interesting topics shared by our contributors.

• A hosted WooCommerce package will be coming to WordPress.com in 2023.
• Carl Alexander took a look at the ups and downs of contributing to WordPress outside of the official project.
• Matt Cromwell and Kim Coleman sat down with AccessAlly founder Nathalie Lussier to discuss outlining a WordPress product roadmap.
• WordPress 6.1 will see a performance boost, thanks to the addition of database query caching.
• A familiar name is listed in Newsweek’s “America's 100 Most Loved Workplaces 2022” rankings. Automattic, owner of WordPress.com and founded by Matt Mullenweg, came in at #31 this year.
• Open source search engine Meilisearch recently announced $15 million Series A round funding.

Classifieds listings buy yours

• WebDevStudios WebDevStudios is seeking a full time, remote Engineering Manager candidate interested in joining our growing team.
• Sitewide Sales Are you literally losing sleep on Black Friday? Schedule your WordPress site's Black Friday sale so you can sleep off Thanksgiving dinner.
• GapScout Sign-Up for Early Access - AI that scans reviews (on WordPress.org or elsewhere), revealing to you the most profitable opportunities!

New Members This Week

•  Dominyka Mikšenaite

Thanks to all of the members who shared these links today: 

• Lesley Sim
• Dave Rodenbaugh
• John Locke
• Angela Bowman