Right here’s an unimaginable reality: collectively, you revealed greater than 660 million posts on WordPress.com in 2015, and made greater than 655 million feedback.
That’s an entire lot of pleasure, laughter, tears, perception, and thoughtfulness. And it’s only one a part of an enormous international group of individuals — WordPress now powers more than 25% of the internet — with pursuits starting from the news shaping our world to non-public tales that form our own families and lives.
We talked concerning the critical and the mundane, the foolish and the unhappy; we talked about creativity, sports activities, marriage, parenthood, politics, love, romance, variations, divisions, and id.
From all of us at Automattic to everybody within the WordPress.com group: it’s been a thrill to observe, take part in, and help your work.
Right here’s a fast roundup of notable moments from 2015:
Viral Hits of 2015
Kiran Gandhi, running the London Marathon.
I assumed, if there’s one individual society gained’t f— with, it’s a marathon runner.
—Kiran Gandhi, who ran the London Marathon whereas free-bleeding, within the viral submit, “Sisterhood, blood and boobs at the London Marathon.”
We now have all discovered, both by intuition or by trial and error, how you can reduce a state of affairs that makes us uncomfortable. The best way to keep away from angering a person or endangering ourselves. We’ve got all, on many events, ignored an offensive remark. We’ve all laughed off an inappropriate come-on. We’ve all swallowed our anger when being belittled or condescended to.
—Gretchen Kelly of Drifting Through on “The Thing All Women Do That You Don’t Know About.”
There isn’t any After – fortunately ever or in any other case. There’s solely as we speak. Simply at the moment – Throughout.
—Lisa Durant (Can Anybody Hear Me?) in “The After Myth,” on dropping pounds, and dealing with questions on id alongside the best way.
For moms within the office, it’s demise by a thousand cuts—and typically it’s different ladies holding the knives. I didn’t understand this—or how horrible I’d been—till 5 years later, once I gave delivery to a daughter of my very own.
—At Fortune, Katharine Zaleski writes an apology to the mothers she used to work with.
5-year olds shouldn’t straight line.
Why did this one?
Due to gun violence within the metropolis.
—The story of “A Senseless Death,” from don of all trades.
Women can do something that boys do nevertheless it seems that typically they get killed for it.
—In “Being a Girl: A Brief History of Personal Violence,” Anne Thériault (The Belle Jar) traces a lifetime of gendered assault, harassment, and threats beginning at age six.
Curry isn’t a product of the maths; he’s so good that he has his personal math. Certainly, the maths is thus far in Curry’s favor that the Warriors — and even basketball typically — might not absolutely perceive what they’ve but.
—At FiveThirtyEight, Benjamin Morris appeared for a mathematical reply to the query: just how good is Stephen Curry?
Masking World Occasions
Photograph by Lionel Beehner
From the tragedy of the EU refugee disaster to the group coming collectively to uplift one another following assaults in Paris and Beirut, WordPress.com bloggers provided distinctive views on what occurred all over the world in 2015:
“Most by no means thought they’d be on this place.”
—From Lionel Beehner’s visit to the Zaatari refugee camp. Extra blogs featured in “On the Run: Blogging the European Refugee Crisis.”
We don’t need to be united. We don’t should agree. We don’t all the time need to “stand collectively,” even. That’s exactly what makes us robust, and that’s exactly what makes our lifestyle value defending.
—Drew Messinger-Michaels (Everybody’s Talking at Once) on the Paris attacks. Featured in “Don’t Be Who ISIS Wants You to Be”: Bloggers on Paris and Beirut.
This can be a day for celebrating equal remedy by the regulation, and equal recognition by the state.
—Lela Urquhart, at Tropics of Meta, on the history of marriage. Featured within the roundup “#LoveWins! LGBTQ Bloggers Make Their Voices Heard.”
WordPress.com Bloggers with Books
A few of the most gifted, artistic individuals on the planet are a part of this heat, cozy WordPress.com group — right here’s just some who introduced new books in 2015:
Jenny Lawson
New York Occasions bestselling writer Lawson (additionally recognized spherical these elements as The Bloggess) revealed her second guide, Furiously Happy — CBC named it considered one of its Best of 2015 and Leisure Weekly called it “a wierd however lovely fusion of psychological well being consciousness and understanding that, whereas critical in elements, could have you snorting into your espresso or laughing loudly on the subway.”
Patrick Wensink
The author of five books launched Fake Fruit Factory this yr, and NPR named it one of 2015’s best.
Rachel Roddy
Roddy (of rachel eats fame) revealed her ebook Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome, and it is going to be released in the U.S. in 2016.
CN Lester
Lester (A Gentleman and a Scholar) may have a ebook out in November 2016 with Virago Press (Little, Brown), titled Trans Like Me: A Journey for All of Us.
John Scalzi
The sci-fi writer (Whatever) revealed his newest e-book, The End of All Things, in August.
Jennifer K. Armstrong
In 2016 the pop culture writer will launch her subsequent ebook, Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything, an examination of the historical past and cultural impression of Jerry Seinfeld’s beloved TV collection.
Alexander Chee
The writer behind Koreanish is publishing his subsequent novel, The Queen of the Night, in 2016.
Randall Munroe
The xkcd creator provided up his newest, Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words.
Kevin M. Hardcastle
The author launched a brand new brief story assortment, Debris, in September.
Mary Laura Philpott
The writer and illustrator revealed Penguins with People Problems in June.
Notable Quotes & Bloggers within the Information
“Nobody tells you that you’ll break down and bawl and abandon your cart within the cereal aisle at Safeway as a result of what lady, what mom, doesn’t know what her youngsters need for breakfast.”
—Teri Carter, in The New York Occasions, on “A Stepmother Losing Her Marbles.”
There isn’t any pleasure now and not using a shadow of bittersweet sorrow, however I expertise my emotions extra absolutely; as if a dial has been turned and my feelings amplified — the great and the dangerous.
—Hannah Richell, in Harper’s Bazaar Australia, on grief and losing her husband.
Let me inform you one thing you already know: Your housekeeper spies on you.
—Stephanie Land (stepville), in Vox, on her experience cleaning houses for rich clients.
Maybe that is what MTV has introduced us in thirty seasons of hot-tub events and blurry night-vision footage of under-the-sheets trysts that everybody regrets within the morning—it has helped practice us to see our day by day lives as a continuing appearing out of id in public.
—Amanda Ann Klein (judgmental observer) on “Thirty Seasons of ‘The Real World’” in The New Yorker.
Murders over cash, over ladies: In another neighborhood, we might name the killers youths committing crimes. In neighborhoods like Englewood and Auburn Gresham, we name them gang members, a label that has very actual penalties.
—Jason Harrington (Taking Sense Away) wrote on Chi-raq and the altering nature of gun violence in Chicago for The New York Times Magazine.
“The Information” distills the necessities of the The best way to Be a Woman collection right into a primer of types , the right start line for newcomers who need to discover somebody underneath the age of 6 who may give them a grasp class in private progress.
—The Atlantic on Marlo Mack (gendermom), whose podcast was named a Best of 2015 pick, and who was featured on Longreads earlier this year.
Over the century since its creation, the Periodic Desk of Parts has been studied virtually as a lot, if no more, comprehensively than the Harry Potter universe. It’s far previous time that the 2 educational faculties of thought have been mixed.
—Lauren James, at The Toast, with “The Hogwarts Houses of the Periodic Elements: A Critical Analysis.”
“I attempt however I can’t consider a single facet of getting most cancers, begin to end, that isn’t an act in a pantomime by which my participation is assured nevertheless I consider I select to play every scene. I’ve been given this position. . . . I’ve no selection however to carry out and to be embarrassed to dying.”
—Jenny Diski, author for the London Evaluate of Books, profiled in The New York Times Magazine this year.
Our Group, IRL
From the Press Publish conference in Portland and Phoenix, to the Longreads Story Night time in San Francisco and New York, our group received collectively in individual to rejoice our work, share recommendation, and search inspiration from writers and editors like Christine Lee, Mary Laura Philpott, John Herrman, Ananda Leeke, and extra.
Right here’s a wide ranging second from our Longreads Story Night time in New York, with The New York Occasions Journal’s Nikole Hannah-Jones:
The All-New WordPress.com Goes Reside
This previous yr marked the 10th anniversary of WordPress.com, and we celebrated by working behind the scenes to radically enhance the expertise. In November, we flipped the change on an all-new WordPress.com: quicker efficiency, a model new editor, desktop apps for Mac, Home windows, and Linux, the Discover Editors’ Picks showcase, and a lot extra.
It was all a part of a brand new open-source undertaking we codenamed Calypso, and we’re thrilled that that is just the start. We’ll proceed to make enhancements so publishing is straightforward, seamless and quick — on any gadget.
A Heat Welcome for Woo!
Ecommerce continues to develop in significance for individuals constructing their very own websites and companies, and this yr one of many largest names, WooCommerce, officially joined our parent company Automattic. Collectively, we’re excited to do much more to make it straightforward for companies (giant and small) to create and handle lovely on-line shops.
WordPress: Now Powering Greater than 25% of the Web
WordPress.com is only one piece of an enormous, open-source WordPress community, and collectively we hit a brand new milestone in November: WordPress is now powering more than 25% of all sites on the Internet.
The complete historical past of WordPress is now documented in a brand new ebook, Milestones, launched on GitHub in December.
New on WordPress in 2015
A number of notable corporations and publishers created new websites on WordPress.com and WordPress in 2015. Right here’s a couple of:
Feminist Frequency & The Online Safety Guide
The groundbreaking site and nonprofit group, created by Anita Sarkeesian, is now a part of the WordPress.com household, and we have been proud to work together with her on a brand new undertaking: The Online Safety Guide for shielding towards on-line harassment.
RED.org
We labored with the worldwide AIDS charity (RED) on their new website. The group is aiming to assist “ship the primary AIDS-free era in over thirty years.”
Kill Screen
The videogame arts & culture magazine launched a successful Kickstarter this yr to reinvent their print journal, and we helped them reinvent their website on WordPress.
The New York Review of Books
The legendary literary publication, based by Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein in 1963, joined the WordPress group in December 2015.
Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings
Popova’s treasure trove of interestingness has been on WordPress for a long time, however this yr she unveiled a recent new design.
Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman
The award-winning blogger, bestselling writer, Meals Community TV star, and longtime WordPress writer introduced her website to WordPress.com in 2015.
Upvoted
Reddit turned its large group into an editorially (or “Redditorially”) curated journal on WordPress.com.
Be a part of Us! Assist Make the Net a Higher Place
We had fairly a progress spurt this yr: 139 new individuals joined WordPress.com’s mother or father firm Automattic in 2015, and all of us are devoted to serving to you categorical your self, share your passions, or construct what you are promoting.
We anticipate 2016 to be an enormous one, too: Come work with us!
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