Design Contest Results and Lessons Learned

The PHP Foundation announced results from their community design contest to refresh the PHP 8.5 release page. Nuno Guerra won the $1,000 grand prize, with additional prizes awarded to runners-up and shortlisted participants. The contest used a hybrid scoring system combining jury evaluation (40%) and log-damped community voting (60%) to reduce social media manipulation. The Foundation shared lessons learned, including the need for separate tracks for on-brand updates versus blue-sky concepts, dedicated voting tools with randomized ordering, and clearer judging criteria. Implementation will happen collaboratively on php.net with community contributions welcome.