There is a proposal to introduce a status of “maintenance mode” for features in WordPress that are only going to get security, bug and compatibility fixes. A bit controversial are items in the list to consider, TinyMCE, the Customizer, and Shortcodes, among others.

If you are still running sites with WordPress 4.1 through 4.6 then take note that security back-ports will no longer be available. Usage of these versions is very low.

In a post on the Automattic website it was confirmed that contributions to the WordPress project will resume.

In this tutorial Misha Rudrastyh does a deep dive into WordPress admin dashboard widgets. He shows how to remove them and create them.

A bug fix release of 6.8.1 is scheduled for April 30. Here are the current tickets being targeted for inclusion.

A lot goes into a WordPress release. Md Shahjahan shared a retrospective analysis of the WordPress 6.8 release showing contributor stats. It is an interesting look at what it takes and the fact that it is a world-wide effort involving many people and companies.

This is info for plugin and theme developers: There were some changes in the 6.8 release to how core caches and uses WP_Query. The core team is suggesting developers check their code to see if they need to make any changes.

Speculative loading is now enabled in WordPress 6.8 by default, but this may require some tweaks such as using full-page HTML caching to avoid additional server load. Rob Marlbrough shares what it means for SEO and your site performance, and how to set it up on your site easily.

WordPress 6.8 is rolling out. I updated a dozen sites without issue. Also, I don’t see any 6.8 problem chatter on WP org. Here is the release post.