Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on February 14, 2008 as part of Blog Herald’s WordPress Wednesday series. The archived version is available at the Internet Archive.
In February 2008, the WordPress Wednesday News column covered what seemed like routine platform updates: beta testing for WordPress 2.5, debates about URL canonicalization, migration stories, and the platform’s expanding global reach.
Reading these dispatches seventeen years later reveals something more significant—a snapshot of WordPress at the precise moment it began its trajectory toward powering nearly half the web.
The Weekly Pulse of a Growing Platform
WordPress Wednesday News served as the community’s bulletin board during a period of rapid transformation. The February 14, 2008 edition covered topics that ranged from the technical to the personal: WordPress 2.5 development progress, the perennial www versus non-www URL debate, a blogger’s epic 16,000-post migration, Movable Type users switching platforms, WordPress adoption in Kazakhstan, and even a community member’s unfortunate mugging.
This mix of development news, practical tips, migration stories, and human interest captured what made WordPress different from other platforms—it wasn’t just software, it was a community.
WordPress 2.5: The Release That Changed Everything
The WordPress 2.5 beta testing discussed in that February 2008 column preceded one of the platform’s most significant releases. When WordPress 2.5 launched the following month, it introduced a completely redesigned administration interface codenamed “Crazyhorse.” The new dashboard layout, created in collaboration with design studio Happy Cog, established the visual foundation that WordPress would build upon for years.
That release also brought a new media uploader, gallery functionality, and the beginnings of what would become WordPress’s signature ease of use. The 185 days of development, 364 changed files, and contributions from over 110 developers represented the kind of community-driven development that would become WordPress’s competitive advantage.
The Great Migrations
Migration stories featured prominently in WordPress Wednesday News throughout 2007 and 2008. The 16,000-post migration mentioned in February 2008 was remarkable for its time—evidence that WordPress could handle serious content volumes. Bloggers switching from Movable Type, Blogger, and other platforms were discovering WordPress’s combination of flexibility and approachability.
These individual migration stories, multiplied across thousands of bloggers, drove WordPress’s market share growth. By 2008, the platform had already begun attracting publishers who needed more than a simple blogging tool. The migration wave that WordPress Wednesday documented would eventually see WordPress grow from a blogging platform to a full content management system powering everything from personal blogs to enterprise websites.
Global From the Start
The mention of WordPress reaching Kazakhstan in that February 2008 column reflected the platform’s international expansion. WordPress.com made the platform accessible to users worldwide without requiring technical hosting knowledge, while the self-hosted version attracted developers and publishers globally.
That international growth continued—and occasionally faced challenges. In 2011, Kazakhstan briefly blocked WordPress.com entirely due to content on two specific blogs, affecting hundreds of Kazakh bloggers. The incident highlighted both the platform’s global reach and the tensions that can arise when open publishing platforms operate across different regulatory environments.
Today, WordPress is available in over 200 languages with active contributor communities on every continent. The global adoption that WordPress Wednesday News tracked in its early dispatches has made WordPress the world’s most widely-used content management system.
The URL Debate That Never Dies
The www versus non-www discussion from 2008 remains relevant today, though the stakes have evolved. Modern WordPress handles URL canonicalization more elegantly, and the widespread adoption of HTTPS has added another configuration layer. But the underlying principle WordPress Wednesday News emphasized—pick a canonical URL format and stick with it—remains sound advice.
Today’s WordPress site owners face similar configuration decisions around SSL certificates, CDN integration, and multisite setups. The platform has grown more complex, but the community’s approach to sharing practical guidance hasn’t changed.
What WordPress Wednesday Documented
The WordPress Wednesday News series, which ran on Blog Herald from 2007 through 2008, captured WordPress during its transition from promising blogging tool to dominant CMS. Each weekly column aggregated development updates, plugin releases, community events, and the kind of practical tips that helped new users succeed with the platform.
Lorelle VanFossen, who wrote the series, understood that WordPress’s success depended not just on the software but on the community surrounding it. Her columns connected readers to WordCamps, meetups, support forums, and the volunteer efforts that kept WordPress documentation current and accessible.
That community-first approach defined WordPress’s growth strategy. While competitors focused on features, WordPress built an ecosystem of themes, plugins, and contributors that made the platform more valuable with each passing year.
From 2008 to Today
The WordPress that appeared in February 2008’s Wednesday News was version 2.3, with 2.5 on the horizon. Today, WordPress has passed version 6.0, introduced the block editor, embraced full-site editing, and powers approximately 43% of all websites—over 835 million sites worldwide.
The security challenges have scaled with that growth. In 2024 alone, researchers discovered nearly 8,000 vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem, mostly in third-party plugins and themes. The platform that WordPress Wednesday News covered as a scrappy blogging tool now requires enterprise-grade security practices.
But the fundamentals haven’t changed. WordPress remains open source, community-driven, and committed to democratizing publishing. The WordPress Foundation continues the mission that was already visible in those 2008 weekly columns: making powerful publishing tools accessible to everyone.
The Value of Community Memory
Revisiting WordPress Wednesday News from 2008 offers more than nostalgia. These dispatches document the decisions, debates, and community dynamics that shaped a platform now central to the web’s infrastructure.
The migration stories show how WordPress won users one blog at a time. The development updates reveal the iterative improvements that compounded into market dominance. The community news demonstrates that WordPress’s real product was never just software—it was a movement.
For today’s WordPress users, site owners, and developers, these historical snapshots provide context for understanding where the platform came from and why certain design decisions were made. They’re also a reminder that the vibrant WordPress community of 2025 was built by thousands of contributors, bloggers, and enthusiasts whose efforts were chronicled in columns exactly like this one.
This article is part of Blog Herald’s historical coverage of the WordPress platform and blogging community. Blog Herald was founded in 2003 and is now operated by Brown Brothers Media.
