A month ago today, WPFolks went live with 41 folks signed up. Today there are 666 of us. Day one felt like sending a postcard into the dark. I didn’t know if anyone would actually use the things I had built. A month in, the answer is clearer than I expected.
This post is a check-in. What happened, what surprised me, what I shipped, what is coming next.
What folks built
The thing I underestimated was how much the community would just start making things. In the last week alone:
- 547 new plugins listed
- 173 themes, 136 snippets, 24 Folks TV videos
- 50+ new certifications verified
- 15+ new talks added to speaker profiles
- 37 new businesses in the directory
- 261 events on the calendar
Some folks deserve a direct thank you. Alkesh Miyani, Gautam Garg, Mehul Gohil, Kaushik Domadiya, Gaurangsondagar, Anh Tran, and a long list behind them did the real work this month. The leaderboard is not a vanity scoreboard. Every point on it is a thing someone made or a person they helped. Look at it sometime, and then go look at the folks at the top, and you will see what I mean.
What I shipped
The platform looked very different on day one. In a month I have shipped:
- Folks TV got real. Timestamped notes, pinned attachments, “what to watch next” suggestions, weekly picks, upvote and view milestones, courses with first-completion bonuses. From a video gallery to an actual learning platform.
- Certifications with a non-VIP cap so credential-stacking can’t outweigh community contribution. WP VIP, Marketplace, Niche, Other. The cap protects the leaderboard from gaming.
- Expert and Verified badges on folks listing, with sub-filters by speciality (25 areas, from Plugin Development to Headless WordPress).
- WordPress 7.0 contributor cards for everyone credited in the release. If you helped ship 7.0, you have a card at
/wp7/wpankit/. - Two-factor authentication (shipped today, in fact). Account and Security tab now lives in your settings.
- Activity privacy controls. You can keep your reactions and comments private from other folks while still tracking your own activity.
- Weekly digest rebuilt with stats, top contributors, sponsor block, and 12 content sections that auto-hide on quiet weeks.
638 releases on the theme in 30 days. Sometimes 5 in a day, sometimes a quiet stretch. The pace is the pace.
What surprised me
Three things I did not predict:
- Certifications became a real signal. I built that module thinking it would be a nice-to-have. It turned out to be one of the most-used profile fields. Folks want to show what they have earned.
- Folks TV pulled its weight. I was honestly nervous about whether anyone would submit videos. People submitted videos, then they wrote notes on them, then they suggested what to watch next. It is functioning like the platform inside the platform I hoped it might become.
- The leaderboard mattered more than I planned for. I shipped it expecting it to be a passive surface. Instead it became a magnet. Folks check their rank, see the gap, and ship one more thing. It is healthy competition, and it is welcome.
What did not work
To keep this honest: a few things missed.
- The weekly digest did not go out for three weeks while I was building Folks TV. That was a mistake. I am back on a Friday cadence as of today.
- The certifications module shipped without a cap on the non-VIP types. Within two weeks I had to add one. Should have anticipated that.
- The original profile page had a “My Talks” CTA card that duplicated a sidebar link. Folks pointed it out, I removed it. The lesson: ship, listen, fix.
What is next
Three things on the docket:
- Sponsor partnerships. The new digest has a sponsorship CTA at the bottom. Reaching engaged WordPress folks every Friday is a real value, and there is no middleman. If you run a product or service, reach out.
- WebAuthn / passkeys as a second-factor option. Today’s 2FA is TOTP plus recovery codes. Hardware keys are next once the wp.org Two-Factor plugin ships WebAuthn support.
- More signal for organisers. WordCamp leads have been asking for better attendee discovery and event analytics. That work is starting.
Thank you
Building in public is not a stunt. It is the only honest way to ship something that exists for a community. Every folk who joined, posted, replied, voted, signed up to an event, submitted a plugin, recorded a video, or just sent a “this is cool” email: thank you. The first month proved this can be a real thing. The next twelve will decide what kind of real thing it becomes.
Friday digests are back. Monday is the next ship. See you on the leaderboard.
— Ankit
@wpankit