PNG Me In Coach, I’m Ready!

Stick around ‘til the end to see a dog who plays guitar better than I can…

In today’s edition:

• Move over WebP. PNG got her first glow-up in 22 years and now she animates.
• Ethical hosting gets a badge: The Secure Hosting Alliance wants to make hosting boring again (in a good way).
• WordPress just got a card game. It’s like PHP meets Pokemon.

Hot Off The Presses: What’s New?

“Silly code! Never mind that you’re riddled with more mistakes than my entire dating history – I just want you to magically know what I’m asking of you and do it!

Is that too much to ask?!?”

In times like these, it’s important to remember: Computers don’t make mistakes – they simply execute ours very carefully and without mercy.

That said, if your site is acting up, we’ve got you! We just dropped On-Demand Development One-Time Credits, so you can tag us in during those “I’m-about-to-throw-my-laptop” moments.

In the meantime, let’s jump into what’s new in WordPress.

Want a Mentor? Michelle Frechette’s Got You

Are you a woman in WordPress who wants to level up your skills, make connections, and finally stop screaming into the void every time you open GitHub?

Good news: applications are now open for the Autumn 2025 cohort of WP Includes, the community-led mentorship program run by WordPress powerhouse and general beacon of good vibes, Michelle Frechette.

Whether you’re a developer, designer, writer, marketer, or just someone who’s accidentally become your agency’s full-time “person who explains what WordPress even is,” this is your shot at a 12-week mentorship journey with someone who’s been there, shipped that and debugged worse.

Applications are open through September 5th, and it’s a low-pressure, high-support kind of deal. Over 5 months you’ll get monthly calls with your mentor, as well as access to a Slack channel where you can share questions, make friends and get the kind of support that really makes a difference.

So go ahead, apply to be a mentee, or a mentor, or both, and help make the WordPress community a little more inclusive, connected, and kind. After all, your career deserves better than winging it in isolation with 47 open browser tabs.

👉 Apply here before September 5th, 2025.

Look Who’s Getting All Ethical: A New Trust Seal for Hosting Just Dropped

Finally, some good news for anyone who’s ever asked, “Wait… is this host actually good or just good at marketing?”

Say hello to the Secure Hosting Alliance, a new coalition of 24 major WordPress hosting companies (think: DreamHost, Hostinger, GoDaddy, SiteGround, etc.) that just launched a Trust Seal aimed at defining what “ethical hosting” actually means.

Because let’s be honest: right now, the bar is somewhere between “our servers didn’t catch fire this week” and “we don’t actively mine Bitcoin using your footer.php.” Not exactly comforting.

This new trust seal is designed to set clear standards around security, privacy, accessibility, transparency, and how they handle government data requests — aka the stuff that actually matters when you’re choosing where to park your site.

This isn’t a feel-good badge.

Hosts have to prove they meet the standards, and the seal is licensed, not awarded permanently. This means it can be taken away if standards aren’t maintained.

No shady pay-to-play vibes — just good old-fashioned accountability. It’s good news that will end up strengthening the sector, avoiding the “race to the bottom” that happens when competing on price.

So if you’ve ever waded through a dozen hosting comparison articles and come out more confused than when you started — this might be a step toward a better, clearer future.

🔒Read more at The Repository.

PNG Got a Glow-Up. And Honestly? She Looks Amazing.

This news could totally change how you handle images… because PNG is back, baby. She just had her first major update in 22 years and she did not come to play.

Yes, that PNG – you know, the one that powered every logo on every website from 2003 to 2015.

In a surprise announcement titled “PNG is back!”, Chris Blume, chair of the W3C PNG Working Group, unveiled a revamped spec that’s here to challenge WebP and AVIF for the web’s image throne.

Here’s what PNG has to offer in her new era:

• HDR support, because your gradients deserve to be ✨luminous✨
• Built-in animation (yes, animated PNGs are finally a thing)
• EXIF metadata baked right in, so your image files can share exactly where, when, and with what lens they were taken

This makeover was inspired by the W3C Timed Text Working Group, who needed HDR support for subtitling. Chrome, Safari, Firefox, iOS, macOS, and Photoshop already support the new standard, and even more upgrades to compression and dynamic range are on the way.

Turns out, you can teach an old format new tricks.

Mind Bloggling Facts & Stats

• WordPress 6.8.2 includes 35 bug fixes, and finally closes a decade-and-a-half old ticket. Better late than never! (Source)
• According to this survey, “Brainstorming topic ideas” is the most common AI-assisted task, with 75.7% of respondents admitting they used LLMs to get the creative juices flowing. (Source)
• Small changes make a big difference: Neurodiverse teams are 30% more productive when given structured support and flexibility. (Source)
• Jonathan Desrosiers has contributed to WordPress for 12 years and landed on 22 consecutive Credits pages. Basically the Beyoncé of bug squashing. (Source)

Blogs & Resources You Shouldn’t Miss

How to build a referral program so good, your clients do your marketing for you.

Hide AI: for devs who want to roll back those Clippy-on-steroids “AI enrichments” cluttering up their dashboard.

Finally, crossposting to Mastodon without duct tape and Zapier. Don’t mind if we do!

Using AI to write your code? Tom Cafferkey warns that it may lead to your brain cells quietly checking out.

WP Trail Buddies pairs WordCamp noobs with seasoned attendees, because wandering around alone pretending to know what’s going on is exhausting.

Have you seen the responsive layout capabilities of Divi 5’s new page builder? Now THAT’S a flex.

Coffee Break Distractions

Christian (Craylor Made) and Bob Dunn (BobWP) have an enlightening convo with a visually challenging sock puppet.

Could this be the nerdiest t-shirt ever?

“The Oliver the company needed when it was 3 people (Me, my wife and Dave) is different from the Oliver the company needs that has 35 employees in 18 different countries.” – Patchstack CEO Oliver Sild talks personal pivots.

Unleash the Wapuu: a WordPress-nerd card game where you build a killer site – and sabotage your opponent with malware.

“Websites have blogs so clients can work without interfering with the rest of the site.” ← Too true.

“Is it worth submitting plugins to the WordPress repo anymore?” – Redditors weigh in.

If your WP dashboard is 90% passive-aggressive reminders to update your plugins, you might need this.

And finally…

A live performance from Tail. R. Swift.

Love this mix of nerdery and nonsense? Forward it to your favorite WordPress weirdo. 💗