Support Team Update for January 30th

This weeks support discussion in #wordpress-sfd primarily focused on two topics that came up on the wp-forums list.

Contacting people off forum

End users posting their email addresses or asking others to contact them off forums is really frowned up. It’s to protect the users and also to prevent people form trying to solicit work or harvest emails from the forums.

PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, theme authors and contributors get a pass on that and can post their contact information in their sub-forum. If someone is part of the official support team but for some reason is not listed as a contributor then they can get a custom title to identify them too.

No one should ever ask others to post their email or login info and regular member’s email addresses do get redacted when found.

The idea really is to let official folk provide support while also protecting end users. If you’re providing official plugin or theme support and there is a misunderstanding then please feel free to escalate to the wp-forums list or pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” a moderator. That’s fine and the moderators want to help with those communication issues.

Plugin or theme authors requesting FTPFTP FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol which is a way of moving computer files from one computer to another via the Internet. You can use software, known as a FTP client, to upload files to a server for a WordPress website. https://codex.wordpress.org/FTP_Clients. or mysqlMySQL MySQL is a relational database management system. A database is a structured collection of data where content, configuration and other options are stored. https://www.mysql.com/. access from users

Sometimes a plugin or theme author wants to see what’s going on and the author request access to a user’s installation and edits code that’s not theirs (or any code on that system).

That’s not cool and really goes too far. Access to a user’s system like that makes the author responsible for that user’s system. If the author makes changes and something breaks later on as a result then it is that author’s fault.

Get information, ask for log data, have the user contact you and seek copies of the PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. files and look but don’t touch. If it’s the author’s code that is the problem then produce a fix in your own code. If it’s another theme or plugin then inform the user, suggest a fix, offer to contact the other author and/or update your FAQ.

But don’t make changes to the user’s files that way. That’s really going to far outside of the author’s area of responsibility.

Less moderators on a topic (don’t want to intimidate forum members)

Clorith brought up a very good point for discussion. Sometimes a moderator will chime in on a topic and perhaps make a “course adjustment” (edit a post) and explain briefly why that was done. Then more mods (I’ve done it myself) will hop on the topic and back the original moderator up. That number of moderators participating can seem like the user is being ganged up on.

It is great that we all back each other up but it might not be necessary and no one wants to intimidate forum members. People don’t like it when someone else (anyone) tells them they shouldn’t do something. A small number of members (not all thankfully) push back and/or want to pick a fight.

But most really want to play by the rules and genuinely do the right thing. As moderators we just need to keep that in mind and be aware of the user’s point of view. I’ve jumped into the fray myself but less pile on and a lighter moderation may be more productive.

It’s just something to be aware of and keeping that in mind could result in better moderation.

IRC

Except for an IRC participant needing a little conversation in the virtues of patience Clorith and tw2113 didn’t have anything that needed to be escalated to the #wordpress-sfd meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area..

Time to choose or re-up the Support Team repTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts.

Here’s one I should have brought up. This week I actually wrote a brief cheat sheet for an agenda. Complete with spelling and grammar mistakes too. Very grown up. And naturally I forgot to write this one down and missed raising this item.

Jen Mylo posted that it’s time to choose or re-up a team rep. Tonight or tomorrow I’ll create a brief make/support post on that topic as I have some small ideas and questions myself on that topic.

#support

Plugins update, January 30th, 2014

We’ve closed a large batch of plugins for security reports, as well as closed quite a few (though not more than normal) by request from the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party authors.

We’re currently discussing who will act as team repTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. for 2014 and will make a decision soon.

Repository stats for the last week.

Requested :195
Rejected : 22
Closed: 28
Approved: 154

Currently in the request queue: 47 (2 older than one week; 27 with no replies)

Plugins support email stats for the last week:

Currently open: 5 (2 with no activity in the last week)

#plugins

Docs Team Update – Jan 30, 2014

Howdy folks,

Here’s a recap of the major topics discussed at this weeks Docs Chat:

  1. New Docs Chat Time -We’re changing the time of the weekly Docs Chat (not Support) to:
    • Thursday 4pm PST
    • Thursday 5pm Mountain
    • Thursday 6pm Central
    • Thursday 7pm EST
    • Friday Midnight UTC
    • Friday 7am ICT
  2. Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. -we’re need to choose a new team rep this week, so please go comment on Siobhan’s post, New Team Rep (also, do we need one?).
  3. Docs Sprint -There’s a Docs Sprint  this Saturday, Feb 1 at 10am PST. Join the sprint in Seattle, or on IRC at #wordpress-sfd.
  4. AH-O2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. -@jazzs3quence and contributors are making progress, but still need help with:
    1. Documentation contributions for tooltips and overviews
    2. Testing and bug/issue reporting.
  5. Docs Project Landing Pages -We’re creating helpful landing pages for each docs-related project that provide an overview of the project and a clear path for contributors to get involved. Each docs project will add a page to the Projects section where @DrewAPicture posted the landing page for Inline Docs. @siobhan would like to have these pages complete by Feb 28th and would like a volunteer to oversee this project.

Full IRC Logs

#docs, #team-reps, #weekly-updates

Team Reps

We’re a little overdue to re-up/choose/elect team reps again based on the last round. We can do that, or we can go back to a longer term for reps, or we can revisit the concept of team reps.

  • Some teams are better than others about getting the updates posted.
  • On some teams the rep also acts as a lead, while on others it’s just posting updates.
  • The job description is to post updates and to be a liaison between your team and the rest of the contributor groups via this site. There are a lot of weekly updates, but not so much liaising. When I’ve posted things for comment, it has appeared that people are responding based on their own opinion rather than getting their team’s group opinion and relating it back.

So! Can everyone check with their team to see what they think and report back here? If we want to go with the status quo, then each team should choose their early 2014 rep this week. How the team chooses is up to the team. If any teams want to propose a different approach, hit the comment sections (please speak for your team rather than putting out suggestions that haven’t been run by them first).

Thanks!

#team-reps

Theme Review Team Update: 01/27/14

Currently

  • 29 new tickets are waiting for review.
    • 0 tickets are older than 2 weeks
    • 0 tickets are older than 1 week
    • 10 tickets are older than 3 days
  • 73 tickets are assigned.

In the past 7 days

  • 105 tickets were opened
  • 159 tickets were closed:
    • 137 tickets were made live.
      • 20 new Themes were made live.
      • 117 Theme updates were made live.
      • 57 more were approved but are waiting to be made live.
    • 22 tickets were not-approved.
    • 0 tickets were closed-newer-version-uploaded.

#themes, #trt

Mobile Group Update for Jan 27, 2014

  • iOSiOS The operating system used on iPhones and iPads.: version 3.9 is ready, will be announced this coming Thursday (Jan 30).
  • iOS: work on version 3.9.1 is beginning and will contain a lot of important fixes for the big point releaseMinor Release A set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality..
  • Android: go through second round of QA testing for 2.6 and release in time for Thursday this week.
  • Android: scope out the next major version of WordPress for Android, version 2.7.
  • Edit: we’re also ramping up elections for new Mobile Group Team Reps this coming week.

More info in this week’s dev chat summary.

#mobile

Community Team Update, January 26

  • Check out the WordCamp 2013 wrapup! We had more events, more speakers, more attendees, more non-US events, more sponsors, more… lanyard clips than ever before.
  • There’s a Proposal to reorganize community team meetings to focus on a specific topic each week. Since many of our projects overlap with other contributor groups, check out the schedule!
  • Discussions are underway for mentorship programs with the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and docs teams.
  • Myriad new WordCamps approved or in planning, many Meetups brought into the central fold.
  • The Community Expectations/Code of Conduct project is progressing, with Jen getting feedback from WC organizers & attendees.
  • Training programs: Courtney and Tracy Levesque are working on adapting Tracy’s teaching materials on theming into official WP curriculum. A key goal here is to give us good models we can use to turn the Theme School material into something releasable. We’d love more authors for future modules!
  • Potential WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. organizers and sponsors should be aware that of WP Foundation is still working on clarifying IRS Rules on Sponsor Donations.

 

Support Team Update for January 23rd, 2014

Items discussed in this week’s support portion of #wordpress-sfd:

Test WordPress 3.8.1-RC1 (which became obsolete a couple of hours later)

WordPress 3.8.1 was released Thursday and fixes a number of issues such as upload directory permissions and Twitter oEmbeds. You can read about the point releaseMinor Release A set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality. at the announcement post.

Heads up on a JetPack issue

There was an issue with the JetPack pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party that has been rectified already. The short of it was that previously published posts are being publicized and/or being emailed to your subscribers.

Reporting misbehaving IRC users

If you come across users in IRC #wordpress that are repeatedly misbehaving then please immediately pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” Mika (@ipstenu) or Sams and they’ll do what they can. If it’s after the fact then there isn’t much to be done at that point.

#support

Accessibility Team Update: January 22, 2014

Ticket Activity Report

@grahamarmfield reported progress on ticket 26602: Insufficient information for screen readers in themes.php. “On the new Themes page in trunk, it is now possible to tab to each of the themes within the list of themes found. However for screen readers there may be no audible feedback to tell the user which theme has focus.” Thanks to @joedolson for the initial patch and everyone else who worked on the solution. The status is now: closed defect (bug) (fixed).

Keyboard Testing

Some of us are proceeding with the keyboard functionality audit of all the admin screens. We have a target deadline of February 5, 2014 to complete the testing. There is a learning curve as each team member learns the routines. Some of us have never done testing so this is a valuable learning experience for us. We are comparing our findings before making them public. @rianrietveld has made a test instance available to us so that we are all using the same environment. She also posted about this on our WordPress Accessibility LinkedIn group. Thanks to everyone who is participating.

#accessibility, #team-reps, #weekly-updates

Docs Team Roundup – Jan 23, 2014

  1. DevHub – We are working on the developer.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ test site at developer.rarst.net. There’s a github repo and currently the main contributors are @krogsgard and @rarst, but we’d love to have other contributions.
  2. Docs Issue Tracker – Otto’s hard at work on the Issue Tracker and making progress. More to come soon. . .
  3. Inline Docs – @DrewAPicture and @kimparsell are still making steady progress.
  4. Docs Sprint – The Docs Sprint is going back to meeting once a month. Next meetup is Feb 1. Join us in-person in Seattle, or virtually via IRC in #wordpress-sfd.
  5. AH-O2 – The Admin Help (AH-O2) project now has an AH-O2 plugin in the repo for testing.  @jazzsequence needs content for Admin Help and is looking for contributors.
  6. Docs Project Landing Pages – We’ve decided to have landing pages for each docs-related project that provide an overview of the project and tell contributors all they need to know to get involved. Target date for completion is Feb 28th. There is a Projects section where others can add their landing pages like the Inline Docs landing page that @DrewAPicture posted. @siobhan would like a volunteer to oversee this project.
  7. Handbook Scope@siobhan brought up a concern that some of the content in the Handbooks getting out of scope. Currently, there aren’t formal scope documents for each Handbook, so we plan to create these and add/link to them from each docs project’s landing page.
  8. Administrative Chat@siobhan proposed an administrative chat to review where the docs team is, discuss how we get new contributors, and float ideas for future projects. @siobhan will suggest a date or two shortly.

Full IRC Logs

#docs