Now I should talk about day two in Manila onwards. Yes, today is the start of the actual WCA 2025. But…
My heart is full of uneasiness. If anything, I feel like, “Ah, I’ve actually come here,” that kind of sensation. The delicious dinner from the previous day and the soft, fluffy bed in the fancy hotel didn’t seem to help with this guilty feeling at all. When I went to the breakfast venue, naturally there were some of the core committers’ inner circle people. If this had been me during WCUS 2023, if that incident hadn’t happened, I probably would have been excited and asked for signatures on my T-shirt, but I just couldn’t muster that kind of enthusiasm anymore.
Still, the hotel breakfast was extremely delicious, with a variety of Filipino local dishes available every day, which I enjoyed. I failed to take a photo, but there was a pink vinegar sauce that I really liked, and I want to know what it was. I wonder if I could make it at home.
I think it’s probably this. I want to find the recipe:
Also, there was a cucumber and yogurt sauce (whether the recipe is Turkish cacık, Greek tzatziki, or an original creation is unclear) which I’ve loved since I discovered it in Turkey. Finding these two sauces alone made my breakfast mood-lifting. Additionally, I love the scent of Calamansi, a local citrus fruit, and just seeing piles of it made me feel energized.
Furthermore, there were items like Taho, similar to Taiwanese douhua, and meat buns, which made me feel the proximity between the Philippines and Taiwan. Ah, Taiwan. I still haven’t properly written my wonderful Taiwan travel’s blog.
Heading to the Venue at Last
I headed to the contributor venue by taxi with mixed feelings – excitement about seeing people I hadn’t met in about a year since Taiwan, yet also that unsettled feeling of not knowing what face to make or what to do. Along the way, I saw people sleeping on motorcycles in park-like areas and densely packed shanty towns that were almost artistic in their compactness. The scenery was completely different from the elegant hotel I had just left, with stark exposure of the wealth gap. Though my small heart being shaken by this won’t change anything, I don’t want to become numb to it either, so I strained my eyes to take it all in. Another kind of uneasiness grew within me.
In contrast to Conrad’s flowing beauty, PICC with its sturdy concrete straight lines was impressive – the ceilings were low but had a solid feel, and though it looked somewhat dated, the interior art was interesting, and I thought it was good in its own way. Speaking of which, there was an art book in Conrad’s breakfast area that I glanced at and found quite interesting, so I’d like to take my time to look at it again.
At the entrance was what my friend calls “security theater” – a soft gate check that makes you wonder if it’s actually providing any security at all, though I guess it has some effect? But they’re not really checking anything, are they? I couldn’t help smirking every time I passed through. I had experienced this in the US too, but the gate staff there seemed tough regardless of gender, showing off their guns like in movies and constantly being intimidating (well, I guess that’s their job), so I couldn’t possibly smirk there. But in Manila, the staff were relatively gentler, so by the second day of my stay, I was already passing through with such a cynical attitude.
Perhaps as punishment for that attitude, or maybe because my playful style with an aloha-shirt-like appearance drew too much attention, I unlocked the achievement of being asked to show my ID by the doorman of the main contributor room. Probably it was just because I wasn’t wearing it around my neck.
For three days, I was basically late for the start time, so it’s fundamentally impossible to ask me for a complete report on WCA 2025, but as my own record, let me dig up and write down my already fading memories.
After greeting various acquaintances, I headed to the Core table and tried to check on the current status of logical properties, but it wasn’t something that could be resolved in a day, and it didn’t seem like something I could do anything about. More than that, I could only wonder who would take this forward and how. Apart from the joy of reunions, I mostly heard only sighs and bitter smiles, though that might be because my heart was too negative.
I thought about continuing the Storybook maintenance I had casually started last year, but people who have been actively committing recently, probably mainly from South Asia like India, were intensely pushing it forward, and I felt it was no longer my place to contribute, so I quietly closed it.
There’s no place for casual contributors here anymore. Due to “that decision”, PRs have piled up much more than before with an overwhelming shortage of reviews, and with more people committing full-time even to small issues, I don’t think contributions from casual committers like me would help at all. An OSS that seems to have no place for hobby contributions feels unhealthy to me, but that’s how it is, so nothing can be done. With that, I can easily imagine that the already decreasing number of new contributors who don’t rely on corporate power will disappear, diversity will decrease, and the community will further weaken. But perhaps they plan to handle that with money too. At least to me, it feels like I’m being told to leave.
Just as WordPress (.org) itself is no longer for small personal sites, contributions no longer count on the small power of individuals. But if that’s the case, miracles like a second Aki Hamano can never be born again. But that’s okay, it’s just business – that’s how it feels like I’m being told, and I can’t escape from the gloom. Is this the result brought about solely by a community that has completely turned into a business? I understand well that it can’t sustain without becoming a business, but if everything is settled by business logic, a community without margins or leeway will rapidly lose its creative power and centripetal force.
Even if they don’t bear fruit, I don’t want to give up planting seeds🤞
In the midst of this, my favorite committer remembered me, and being able to talk a little with her was like a light in the darkness. It might have been the highlight. Of course, she also couldn’t commit to Gutenberg at all, and the “fingers crossed” sign we exchanged was bittersweet, but she was still divinely wonderful as ever. I was so flustered that I forgot to ask for a photo with her… Given how brilliant her latest feature addition was, I don’t want this to be the last. I’m filled with the desire for hope to continue. 🤞
But lunch was surprisingly delicious! The buffet was consistently delicious for all three days, which was surprising. Definitely the No. 1 WordCamp lunch in my history. But that’s only among the WordCamps I’ve been able to attend, so don’t misunderstand. I think my friend said the food in Greece was equally delicious. That’s a very good thing. It might not be something a designer should say, but at such events, rather than visual venue decorations, I wish they would spend money to prepare delicious lunches. Delicious food often resolves many things.
I was also happy to eat with Jessica from Germany. But I felt sorry that I couldn’t talk well. During WCUS 2023, I clearly remember how she calmly accepted my broken English, cared for me whenever she saw me, and sincerely encouraged me, which really saved me. Of course, she remembered it too, we were happy to reunite in Taiwan last year, and it was an honor to interact again this year. That’s why I was self-conscious about not having the positive WordPress topics that she might have wanted to talk about or that I should have brought up, and I was stuck for words on my own. It was clear to me that it wasn’t just due to my lack of English skills.
Still, I was happy to be able to celebrate our reunion. After the meal, I was also happy to talk with Ren, whom I met in Taiwan. He was concerned about the theme.json implementation for WordCamp.org that I casually started last year and reported on its progress. Though I said “casually,” I proposed it thinking it could be one key to restoring WordPress’s centripetal force, but as expected, it was apparently rejected. I understand very well that they have other priorities right now, so it can’t be helped. The community isn’t interested in how much opportunity the completely unattractive WordCamp sites are losing, because it’s already a business. Nothing can be done. I, who left the WCA team, have no motivation at all to tackle the solution, because it’s completely a business now. Regarding this, I’ve even reached the point where I feel like, “Just solve it with money.”
However, I’m truly glad that excellent talents like him are actively involved. He must have been busy as the Meta table lead this year, but unexpectedly, I was honored to have a proper conversation with him.
Yes, beyond the familiar Japanese community members, there are still many capable, attractive, and kind-hearted people like my favorite committer, Jessica, and Ren in this community, which doesn’t seem to me to be driven solely by business logic, and I’m still confused about it. Am I just experiencing the lingering scent of a lost centripetal force, tasting a legacy? Or is there still something I can do?
With such feelings of bewilderment going around in circles, I enjoyed brief greetings and reunions with several others, and the delicious food gave me energy. In the afternoon, for some reason, I was helping James, who is surprisingly fluent in Japanese, with Gutenberg’s Get Started in English, which was a kind of reality escape? Thanks to him, who was also an English teacher, it became an English lesson for me, but I’m worried if it was really meaningful for him. At that table in the afternoon, Japanese, English, a little Tagalog, and probably Korean too? were mixed, and it became a table helping with onboarding to Core and Core Editor.
I was probably feeling nostalgic. I think it was the memory of being onboarded myself with everyone’s help a few years ago that made me feel that way.
I had completely forgotten about it, but it was at the time of this article. This is one of the benefits of keeping a blog.
I participated in WordCamp Haneda Contributor Day – Photosynthesic blog
It was already six years ago. How time flies. Is VVV no longer used by anyone? Right? I couldn’t have imagined a future with something like @wp-now/wp-now – npm. This was also mainly created by people from A8c. And it has stopped since last autumn.
Still, I feel like there was the same kind of passion at that table this time too. I want to believe that. Even if it doesn’t directly lead to commits, I want to believe there’s a passion that leads to something. I still want to believe that in five years, something unimaginable will have been created again.
As a result, even though I didn’t really do anything, I was somehow completely exhausted and didn’t have the energy to join everyone for dinner at night. But instead, I was able to have a girly experience of eating a large plate full of halo-halo by the fancy poolside with a friend, which was nice.
…What should I do, I haven’t done much contributing and didn’t watch many sessions, so I was planning to finish all three days of the main event in one article, but I’ve written so much. It would be too much to ask the very small number of serious readers to follow along with the remaining two days from here, so I’ll end it here.
