Agency News Weekly

It’s Official – Only One Major WordPress Release for 2025

• WordPress 6.8 will be the only major core release this year following a meeting of Core Committers on April 4.
• The stated reason for the decision was a reduction in weekly core contribution hours by companies like Automattic (from 4000 to 16) and Newfold Digital (from 329 to 20).
• The Repository’s story on this topic brings excellent insight to some of the people and opinions associated with this decision. As usual, it’s a great read.
• What does this decision mean for those of us who run agencies or do client work?
• From a technical perspective, maybe not much unless you’re all in on the Site Editor (as I wrote on March 17 when the changes to the release schedule were first being discussed).
• I’m particularly interested in the focus on canonical plugins to deliver new features rather than core development.
• As an agency owner, my biggest concern is perceived stagnation of the project in the tech world, which is a big deal as WordPress struggles to compete with platforms like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify.
• It used to be easy to demonstrate how WordPress was a superior solution when clients had questions. Now that might be a harder sell, especially to those who hear tech industry chatter.

Seeing More Form Spam Lately? This AI Bot May Be to Blame

• An AI-powered spam bot called AkiraBot has been targeting hundreds of thousands of websites with convincing spam messages generated by OpenAI technology.
• The Python-based bot uses GPT-4 model to create genuine-looking form entries that are based on the website’s content.
• The messages promote questionable SEO services under names like Akira and ServicewrapGO.
• Akirabot has also demonstrated an ability to defeat popular CAPTCHA systems, including Turnstile, hCAPTCHA, and reCAPTCHA.
• OpenAI has taken action by disabling the API key and associated assets used in this operation (at least for now).

If You Target Quebec Customers, Make Sure You Know About Bill 96

• By June 1, 2025, websites that target Quebec residents must be available in French at no disadvantage compared to other languages.
• Quebec’s Bill 96 is a sweeping law that expands the use of French across business, education, and public services.
• For businesses, the bill introduces strict requirements around offering French-language services, signage, contracts, and digital content (including websites and mobile apps) when doing business in the province.
• Companies located outside Quebec (or even outside Canada), must still comply if they target Quebec customers.
• Non-compliance with the bill can result in significant fines ranging from $3,000 to $30,000 per day, and company officers can being held personally liable. 
• If you or your clients target customers in Quebec, this is weighty legislation that needs attention.

• The Admin Bar’s 2025 Web Professionals Survey results are in. Interesting stats here from more that 1200 respondents.
• The WordPress Foundation has secured trademarks for “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress” in the EU (along with UK and Australia). How this could impact your agency.
• Corey Maass has released the PauseTab Chrome Extension – pause a tab now and bring it back exactly when you need it. Super cool.
• WordPress.com has released an AI Website Builder that will create a WordPress site on their platform based on your prompts. Here’s Matt Medeiros’ take.