 Hello, everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress Open Source Project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I'm your host, Josepha Hayden-Champosi. Here we go. We've barely gotten moving here in 2023, but even so WordPress is already working towards its next major release, coming to us at the end of March. You've probably heard by now that with this release comes the quote end of phase two, but for a lot of folks that's raising some questions about what to expect. So I'm going to spend a little time today sharing what I currently know. Let's start with what that phrase does mean. Firstly, all of the projects with the exception of two, I believe, on the phase two scoping ticket will be shipped in the Gutenberg plugin before WordPress 6.2 release comes out. Barring any major breaking issues, those will then land in that major release in WordPress 6.2. So like 99% of the features we considered in scope for phase two will be in core by April. It also means the block editor may finally shed its beta label. We've been discussing that possibility with the input of the community over the course of the last few major releases, and we'll do the same as we get ready for the 6.2 release as well. That discussion is tracked over in GitHub, and I can share a link to that in the show notes for anyone who is a little super nerd like me. The ticket number is 39293, so not only if you're going to memorize it and be one of those cool WordPressers who can call tickets to mind based on just the numbers. This is a good one because not only is it an important topic to be able to recall, but also it's a palindrome, so you get to be fancy and know that forever. But anyway, I'll put a link to it in the show notes for all the rest of us. Fingers crossed that we get to remove that label this time around, but also the acceptance criteria on it is pretty clear, so it's really a matter of yes or no on all of the columns all the way down. So what does that phase not mean? Firstly, it does not mean that we will stop accepting user feedback or bug reports on any features up to this point. It is always encouraged to file a ticket on track or GitHub detailing any bugs that you've encountered. If you've never reported a bug before, don't worry, we have all been there. I'll gather a link or two that has some information for first timers. If you ever run into me at a WordCamp, feel free to ask me about my first bug reporting experience. And after you've heard that, you will immediately go and file that bug that has been sitting screen-shotted on your desk for six months because it honestly cannot get any worse than my first one. Secondly, it definitely does not mean that we will stop shipping refinements to the user experience. As much as I'd like to say this isn't true, I think all open source contributors know that no matter how much you test a solution, you can't actually account for all possible use cases when you work on a project this size. So as we find things that we didn't realize were a little rough to use, we will of course make the effort to smooth those workflows as quickly as possible. So that's my little reassuring TLDR for what that phrase means. If you're listening to this and haven't spent much time in the block editor as it exists today, I encourage you to do so. It has really changed substantially since it was first merged in 2018 and it represents thousands of hours of research and problem solving and creation and outreach. If you know someone who has contributed to the project or whose content helped you make sense of some inscrutable part of it, also maybe drop them a line and let them know you appreciate their hard work. That brings us now to our smallest of big things. Firstly, we are thinking a lot right now about the paths to contribution, both at the start of your contribution journey and as you grow into a long-term seasoned contributor. There are a couple of different discussions related to that right now. So there are actually two project-wide discussions that are on make.wordpress.org slash project. And then there's one that is specific to word camp membership and that is on make.wordpress.org slash community. You can head over to any of those and share your experiences, thoughts and any wild ideas that you have. The second thing on my smallest is that there are a lot of pages across wordpress.org that are getting shiny new designs. If you want to get involved in those discussions or you just want to catch early previews of what's coming to the site, you can hop over to make.wordpress.org slash design or join the design team meetings in Slack. And the last thing is that word camp Asia is coming quickly. My friends, this event is near and dear to my heart. I hope to see a lot of you in person, but if you won't be able to make it in person, we still have you covered. There will be a live stream and the schedule for that is already on the site. It shows the times for each session in your local time zone so you can easily decide which presentations you absolutely must see right in the moment. And that, my friends, is your smallest of big things. Thanks for tuning in today for the Wordpress Briefing. I'm your host, Joseph Hayden-Champosy, and I'll see you again in a couple of weeks.