The plugin system transformed WordPress for core developers and the wider community. It meant that the core product didn’t need to include every developer's pet feature, just the features that made sense for a majority of users. <a href="http://archive.wordpress.org/interviews/2013_05_15_Boren1.html#L65">Ryan says that</a> the plugin system enabled core developers to implement the 80/20 rule: "Is this useful to 80% of our users? If not, try it in a plugin." Unlike hacks, which involved editing core files, plugins could be dropped into a directory in a user's WordPress install. Non-technical users were able to extend their blogs without having to mess around with PHP. The barrier to entry around extending WordPress inched lower.

Internationalization was another major advancement in WordPress 1.2. From its very beginning, the WordPress community was international in nature. The original developers were from the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France, and a <a href="http://wordpress.org/support/topic/world-domination-?replies=43">forum thread from January 2004 shows how international the growing community was</a>. Community members came from Hong Kong, Wales, New Zealand, Japan, and Brazil. With people from all over the world using WordPress, translations soon followed. The <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20031205101812/http://wordpress.xwd.jp/">Japanese WordPress site was set up in December 2003</a>, only six months after WordPress launched. As WordPress wasn't yet set up for localization at that time, (<a href="http://profiles.wordpress.org/otsukare">Otsukare</a>), a community member from Japan, <a href="http://wordpress.org/support/topic/localization-help-needed?replies=102">created a multilingual fork of WordPress</a>. This was an internationalized version of WordPress that people could use to make their own localizations. It was popular among WordPress users from non-English speaking countries who wanted WordPress in their own language. Its popularity emphasized the necessity of internationalizing WordPress. A lack of proper internationalization tools in WordPress could have led many community members to use the fork instead. Maintaining two codebases in this way would have been inefficient and bug-prone.