Tag: wordcamp

  • The process of aging out

    The process of aging out

    So I’ve been keeping an eye on the WordCamp US 2025 ticket sales report, mostly out of a morbid sense of curiosity. With a month left on the clock, just over 500 tickets have been sold. If you add the 130ish comped tickets for volunteers, speakers, and sponsors, we’re hovering at right around 650 attendees.

    The event’s website, however, is still boasting that over 1500 WordPress professionals will be there. That’s some pretty optimistic math if you ask me.

    Is this a “if you build it, they will come” situation? Are we expecting another 850 people to up and materialize by wading out of the Willamette? The gap between the marketing copy and the reality of the numbers is… significant. At this point it feels less like any kind of marketing strategy and more like a collective delusion.

    You can’t help but wonder what this says about the state of the WordPress community when its premiere event of the year — one that Matt bragged about being “better” than the other regional flagships at WordCamp Europe earlier this year — struggles to fill seats. I don’t know what the answer is, but I’m pretty sure that pretend everything is fine ain’t it. The disconnect is jarring.

    It’s hard not to see this as a symptom of a larger community malaise. The exhaustion is palpable. Last year’s WordCamp US felt like a turning point for a lot of folks. Watching Matt Mullenweg use his State of the Word address to publicly air grievances with WP Engine wasn’t just awkward — it was a peek behind a curtain that many of us would have preferred remain drawn.

    The subsequent drama has felt less like a productive debate about the future of the platform and more like rich, venture capital backed assholes bickering on one of the world’s nerdiest stages. It’s been tiring. And for a community that’s been running on passion for two decades, tiring is a very dangerous word.

    Maybe we’re all just getting old. The people who were in their twenties when this WordPress thing started are in their forties and fifties now. We have mortgages, kids, and a much lower tolerance for massive companies duking it out over the free software that so many of us have put so much of ourselves into. We’re aging out.

    The idea of flying across the country to watch a keynote that turns into yet another personal gripe session instead of the vibey community gathering it used to be has made WordCamp lose its appeal. The burnout that some of us saw poking its head above the horizon ten years ago is now a full blown sunrise.

    So what are we left with? Approximately 43% of the projected attendance for the flagship North American event. There’s a dark irony in that number, given WordPress’s own market share. Maybe it’s not a failure, but a self fulfilling prophecy. A project that powers a huge chunk of the web, running an event that’s less than half full.

    Perhaps this is the new normal. A smaller, more fractured community held together by legacy code and nostalgia. Or maybe it’s just a blip. An off year.

    I’m not sure which one is worse.

  • In Transit

    Heads up, SF peeps! This weekend I’ll be driving up to the Yay Area for WordCamp to rep both DreamHost and Preshrunk in an official capacity.

    As it stands, I’m driving up Friday night and crashing out at Frazier’s secret headquarters somewhere in the East Bay. Since I don’t like being part of the problem — or paying for parking — I’ll be taking as much public transit as I possibly can. So it’s handy that I managed to stumble upon these handy iPhone related Muni apps that use NextBus information. Now all I need is a native looking (i.e. pretty) trip planner and I’m all set. So… Does anybody know of one off the top of their heads — or am I stuck using 511.org over EDGE?

  • WordCamp WiFi

    I probably could have put this on the last post, but I’ve just gotta say that the WiFi here is really quite nice. Much nicer than the conference WiFi that I’m used to, actually. Hopefully it stays nice thru the day.

  • WordCamp Sessions

    Just in case you want to say hey, here’s the sessions I’m going to try to be in at WordCamp:

    • 9:00am Widgets Showcase (Main Hall)
    • 10:00am Blog Promotion and Writing a Compelling Blog (Main Hall)
    • 11:00am State of the Word (Main Hall)
    • 2:00pm WordPress as CMS (Main Hall)
    • 3:00pm Blogs and Journalism (Main Hall)
    • 4:00pm High Performance WordPress (Second Room)
    • 5:00pm Microformats and Structured Blogging (Second Room)

    If you want to check out the other talks, you should probably peep the schedule for yourself.

  • Travel Sick

    After spending seven and a half hours on the road — three of which were in LA traffic I might add1 — I’m set up on the fold out at Frazier’s downright palatial Oaktown lair.

    Tomorrow is WordCamp, where Frazier and I will will be representing Hipster Mafia2. What that means is him and I are going to go to assorted talks and I’m going to give out business cards and act like a wanker3.

    If you see me in the hall and want to say hello or throw rotten fruit, walk over and do so.

    I’ll try to update a few times tomorrow as I sit in the sessions — but you know how it goes with me and promising to make updates, right? ;)

    1. OC to SF by way of Culver City is not something I’d call fun. But that 30 mile, one and a half hour detour netted me $130 and helped me get rid of my Sidekick II.
    2. That basically means Preshrunk — but we might have another property someday soon.
    3. Hopefully Arrington or Calacanis don’t magically appear and out-wanker me. That’d make me sad.