WordPress has had a rather exciting year, all covered in their handy A Look Back post. 2012 saw two major WordPress releases, addressing primarily theme customization and media management. There were also five security releases, a new default theme, and a record number of code contributions in the 3.5 release. The site itself also saw some improvements, including a new plugin page design with plugin and theme reviews, and Make.WordPress.org, a network of sites where teams and contributors can easily communicate with each other. Speaking of teams and contributors, 2012 also saw the very first WordPress Community Summit, a 2-day event attended by 108 of the top WordPress development, support, and overall community volunteers. 2012 was certainly a big year for WordPress, and with planning for WordPress 3.6 already underway, it looks like they’re going to hit the ground running in 2013.

New plugins Document Feedback allows you to get feedback from readers on the documentation you write. DuckDuckGo Search Widget allows users to search your site using the DuckDuckGo search engine. Restore Image Title restores the title attribute when images are inserted into posts. Updated plugins CampTix Event Ticketing is an easy to use and flexible event ticketing plugin. W3 Total Cache allows you to improve site performance and user experience via caching.

bbPress, the forum “cousin” of WordPress, has had a rather exciting year in 2012, and it’s all been wrapped up with a nice bow in their year in review post. Over the course of 2012, bbPress has seen two major version releases, a new core committer, and a redesigned site with an emphasis on showcasing and supporting bbPress. In 2013, the team plans to focus on improved searching, more integration with BuddyPress, and various performance improvements.

New plugins Font Emoticons replaces WordPress’ smileys with font-based emoticons. MU Plugins Tool allows you to selectively enable/disable any MU (must-use) plugins you have installed. Updated plugins Fast Secure Contact Form lets your visitors send you a quick e-mail message and blocks all common spammer tactics. Additionally, the plugin has a multi-form feature, optional extra fields, and an option to redirect visitors to any URL after the message is sent. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin displays a list of related entries on your site and feeds based on a unique algorithm.

Artblog is a simple theme designed for artists. Cheer a whimsical and textured holiday theme. Curiosity is a simple, clean, and elegant theme. Embed is a simple and elegant one coloumn Twenty Twelve child theme. Mimbolove is a simple and customizable theme with support for a custom menu, header image, two column layout, and a footer sidebar.

New plugins Initial Letter adds style options so you can change the size, color, and font of the first letter of each paragraph. Jetpack Subscriptions shortcode extends the Jetpack plugin and allows you to add a Subscription form anywhere inside your posts. Updated plugins Facebook makes your site deeply social by integrating functionality from Facebook. Keyring provides a very hookable, completely customizable framework for connecting your WordPress site to an external service. Slingpic is an image sharing tool that allows your users to share images from your site quickly and easily.

WordPress 3.5 has been out for a little over a week and downloaded over 2 million times, and the team all ready to start focussing on the next major release. The development on WordPress 3.6 will be lead this time by WordPress veteran Mark Jaquith, who is planning to focus this release on content editing improvements, listing “revisions, autosave, workflow, [and] editing modes” as suggested areas of focus. This is just his suggestion at this time, and a planning meeting in early January will further narrow down the focus to specifics. Mark is also looking for a backup lead, who will help with “the planning, execution, and delivery of the release” and otherwise cover for Mark if he is unavailable. If you have experience with WordPress core development, apply now!

Adroa was created for photographers and photobloggers to show off their images and portfolio in a light and fashionable style. Clean Retina is responsive, retina-ready, and easily customizable with numerous theme options. Lucent is a responsive, clean, and neutral theme. Spirit is a simple holiday blogging theme in a scrapbook style, with lots of depth and texture. Spun is a clean, lightweight, responsive theme that steps out of the way to put the focus on your content.