WordPress 7.1 Beta is here, Legal Drama Continues, and How CheckoutSummit Filling up the Gap of WooConf | WP More - Issue 37
Big updates across the WordPress world this week. Matt Mullenweg shaking up core Make WordPress groups with actions. Apply for WordPress scholarship before the deadline!
Hello WordPressers!
Welcome to this week’s WP More roundup — WP More newsletter issue 37, where you get curated news about WordPress and the WordPress community all in one place.
The WordPress world rarely sits still, and this week is no exception. From a major new release entering beta to a lawsuit revealing some eyebrow-raising internal conversations, there's plenty to dig into. We've also got a scholarship opportunity with a deadline coming up fast, so read on.
In this Issue:
WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 Is Here — and It's Packed
Apply Now: The Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship for WordCamp Europe 2026
Matt Mullenweg Wants WordPress Slack to Feel Less Like a Ghost Town
The First WooCommerce Conference in Nearly a Decade Is Happening in April
WP Engine’s Lawsuit Against Automattic Gets More Revealing
WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 Is Here — and It's Packed
The first beta of WordPress 7.0 dropped this week, and the feature list is substantial. The headline addition is real-time collaboration: multiple users can now edit the same post or page simultaneously, with offline syncing and a default HTTP polling provider built in. It’s opt-in during the beta period while the team gathers feedback.
On the design side, the admin experience is getting a visual refresh, new default color scheme, a cleaner dashboard, and smooth view transitions as you move between screens. Visual revision comparisons are also new, so you can see exactly what changed between versions at a glance.
For builders, there are several new blocks (Icons, Breadcrumbs, and Heading variations), an updated Navigation block, responsive visibility controls to show or hide blocks by screen size, and video backgrounds in the Cover block. Developers get a new WP AI Client in Core, a Client Side Abilities API, and PHP-only block registration with auto-generated inspector controls.
Key takeaway:
Real-time collaboration is the biggest workflow change for teams.
New blocks and responsive controls give designers more flexibility out of the box.
The final release is scheduled for April 9, 2026; test now at wordpress.org/beta-tester.
Read the full blog on Official WordPress blog here.
With so much changing under the hood, it’s a good time to spin up a test environment and kick the tires before it ships.
Apply Now: The Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship for WordCamp Europe 2026
If you’re an active WordPress contributor who identifies as a woman and has never attended WordCamp Europe, this one’s for you and the application deadline is March 15, 2026.
The Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship, supported by the WordPress Foundation, covers your ticket, round-trip airfare, and lodging for WordCamp Europe 2026. It exists to remove financial barriers for contributors who might otherwise miss one of the community’s most important annual gatherings.
The scholarship honors Kim Parsell, a beloved community member who passed away in 2015. Known warmly as #wpmom, Kim contributed countless volunteer hours to the documentation team and to supporting women entering tech. The scholarship continues her legacy of inclusivity and encouragement.
Eligible contributors span every corner of the ecosystem: core, translations, documentation, design, community events, and more. If you meet the criteria, the organizers want to hear from you. All applicants will be notified by April 15, 2026.
Key takeaway:
Applications close March 15, 2026; don’t wait.
Coverage includes ticket, flights, and accommodation.
Open to any active contributor who identifies as a woman and hasn’t attended WCEU before.
Read the full blog on Official WordCamp Europe blog here.
The scholarship is a reminder of how much the community invests in making WordPress a space where everyone can show up — which connects nicely to the next story.
Matt Mullenweg Wants WordPress Slack to Feel Less Like a Ghost Town
In a February 18 post, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg called for consolidating WordCamp Slack groups; currently spread across separate workspaces for WCUS, WCEU, and WCAsia into the main WordPress.org Slack. The idea is to reduce fragmentation, make collaboration easier, and give the community a livelier shared space.
Mullenweg also floated more social channels to make the Slack feel less like a pure work tool. He’s already created channels like #dogs, #cats, #today-i-learned, and #games to get things started.
The proposal prompted a healthy back-and-forth in the comments. Organizers from flagship events raised legitimate questions: What happens to existing workflows and app integrations? How do you keep sponsor discussions and surprise announcements private? What about local Slack communities where most conversation isn’t WordPress-related at all?
No final decision has been announced. Dion Hulse noted that Slack’s permission model has improved enough to deputize more people to manage channels, and Mary Hubbard suggested date-stamping private channels to keep things tidy over time.
Key takeaway:
This is a proposal, not a done deal; community feedback is actively shaping it.
Flagship event organizers have real workflow concerns that will need addressing.
More channels and better onboarding could make WordPress Slack genuinely useful for more people.
Read the full blog on Official Make WordPress blog here.
The Slack conversation reflects a broader question the WordPress community is working through: how do you build infrastructure that brings people together without creating new headaches for the volunteers running events?
The First WooCommerce Conference in Nearly a Decade Is Happening in April
WooConf, WooCommerce’s own conference series, went dark after 2017. Since then, WooCommerce has had a presence at WordCamps but no dedicated event of its own. Rodolfo Melogli — the person behind Business Bloomer, a long-running WooCommerce resource site — decided to change that.
Checkout Summit takes place April 23–24, 2026 in Palermo, Sicily. It’s capped at 150 attendees, features 12 speakers over two days, and nothing will be recorded or livestreamed. That last part is intentional: Melogli wants speakers to speak freely, without cameras running.
The lineup includes James Kemp, Woo’s Core Product Manager, delivering a keynote titled WooCommerce Unfiltered: Inside the Decisions Shaping the Platform. Other talks cover a WooCommerce-to-Shopify migration post-mortem, what building Shopify apps taught one WooCommerce developer, MCP integration, and a security breakdown of 20+ WooCommerce hosts tested against real exploits.
Melogli has been building the event in public, leaning on community support at every stage. WooCommerce signed on as headline sponsor. Tickets are €399 and all-inclusive. Around 70–80 of 150 spots have sold as of publication, and an inclusion grant is available for attendees who need help with costs.
Key takeaway:
Checkout Summit is the only dedicated in-person WooCommerce event since WooConf ended in 2017.
The no-recording policy is a deliberate choice to encourage candid conversation.
An inclusion grant covers ticket, flights, and accommodation for those who need it.
Find more: https://checkoutsummit.com
Read the full Report on The Repository here.
Melogli’s event may be small, but it’s already sparked a larger conversation — including from Automattic’s own leadership about whether it’s time to bring WooConf back.
WP Engine's Lawsuit Against Automattic Gets More Revealing
WP Engine filed a third amended complaint in its ongoing lawsuit against Automattic and CEO Matt Mullenweg this week, and newly unsealed passages make it one of the more detailed public accounts yet of what allegedly went on behind the scenes.
The complaint claims internal Automattic documents categorized competing hosting companies into tiers — from “friends” who pay substantial licensing fees, to “charlatans” described as “free game” who should have “every single WP site” stolen from them if they refused to engage. WP Engine alleges that in early 2024, Automattic devised a plan to offer trademark licensing deals to at least 10 competing hosts, with a stated approach of either closing a deal or “start stealing their sites.”
The filing also alleges that Mullenweg emailed a Stripe executive in October 2024 — days after WP Engine filed its initial lawsuit — urging Stripe to cut ties with WP Engine, with a threat to exit Automattic’s own contracts if Stripe didn’t comply.
Automattic has called the amended complaint legally insufficient and says it will file a renewed motion to dismiss. The next court hearing is scheduled for June 4, 2026, with a jury trial set for June 2027.
Key takeaway:
The unsealed documents include alleged internal language about “destroying competition” and pressuring third-party services.
Automattic disputes the legal sufficiency of the claims and is seeking dismissal.
The case won’t go to trial until June 2027 — this will be a long-running story.
Read the full report on The Repository Here.
Other reports from The Repository you might like to read:
Automattic, Mullenweg Ask Court to Keep Details of WordPress.org Hosting Negotiations Private
The WP Community Collective President Resigns Over Board’s “Tolerance for Risk and Discomfort”
Inside WordCamp Asia 2026: Planning for 3,000+ Attendees and a Live WordPress 7.0 Release
Matt Mullenweg: Global Sponsors’ Products Should Be “Fair Game” For WordCamp Talks
Mullenweg Calls for Markdown Endpoints on WordPress.org as He Pushes “Web OS” Vision
Don’t forget to subscribe & support them, they do some amazing hard-hitting WordPress journalism.
WordPress Must Read
→ The WordPress Interface Is Disappearing: What Comes After Gutenberg? (pootlepress.com)
→ API is the UI (rich.blog)
→ Open source has a big AI slop problem (leaddev.com)
→ A Modest Server-Centric Development Proposal (automattic.com)
On other WordPress News
→ Another wave of brilliant minds is joining the stage at WordCamp Asia 2026 (asia.wordcamp.org)
→ WordCamp Europe 2026 needs volunteers to help make this event unforgettable! Become a Volunteer! (europe.wordcamp.org)
→ Monthly Education Buzz Report – January 2026 (make.wordpress.org)
→ Matt Mullenweg Asked on polyglots: Where are we going? (make.wordpress.org)
→ What’s new for developers? (February 2026) (developer.wordpress.org)
→ What’s new in AI Experiments 0.3.0 (9 FEB 2026)? (make.wordpress.org)
→ Telex Updates: From Napkin Sketch to WordPress Block (and More) (wordpress.com)
→ WordPress Campus Connect: January 2026 Feedback Highlights (make.wordpress.org)
From WordPress Community
→ Sandeep Kumar receives the Yoast Care fund for his contribution to the WordPress community (yoast.com)
→ WordPress Studio MCP (youtube.com)
→ Matt Mullenweg CEO of Automattic: What is The Future of WordPress in a World of AI? (youtube.com)
→ The WP Community Collective Expands Board, Chris Reynolds Named Interim President (therepository.email)
→ Preserving the Open Web: Inside the New Wayback Machine Plugin for WordPress (blog.archive.org)
→ Leadership at the Peak (ma.tt)
→ #WPGivesAHand 2025: A Recap of Impact and Growth (wpgivesahand.com)
Conclusion
That's the week in WordPress, a major beta to test, a scholarship deadline to act on, and a legal case that keeps getting more complicated. If something here caught your attention, hit reply and let us know what you're watching. And if a friend or colleague would find this useful, send it their way. See you next week.
Nishat, WPMore
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