Devin Maeztri 12:56 pm on July 26, 2023
Tags: community-event ( 7 ), event tooling ( 2 ), next-gen-events ( 15 )

Proposal: Next Generation Event URL

In June, we started discussing tooling for NextGen WordPress events. One of the ideas we discussed is an updated URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org mapping, to accommodate a diversity of event types events.wordpress.org/city(or country)/year/event-type.

We anticipate that this new URL structure will make it much easier for new audiences to discover our community events, and for returning attendees to find what they’re looking for.

Community Day in Rome is the first NextGen pilot event to use this new URL structure. Their event URL is events.wordpress.org/rome/2023/training.

The second NextGen pilot event to use this new URL structure is a monthly online community building workshop for all community members in Japan. The event will kick off in August 2023 and is planned to continue into 2024.

The recent discussion in #community-team about the URL for NextGen events has resulted in several options to approach the URL, especially for multi-city, multi-year, and multi-format events.

Referring to the principles of readability, ease of understanding, and scalability, we’d like to propose the following URL:

events.wordpress.org/city(or country)/year/event-title.

The event-title can be anything that best describes the event. We can also add -2 to indicate the series of events.

For example

In 2023
events.wordpress.org/japan/2023/community-training
events.wordpress.org/japan/2023/community-training-2

In 2024
events.wordpress.org/japan/2024/community-training
events.wordpress.org/japan/2024/community-training-2

If there are no strong objections to this URL structure, we’ll be moving forward with it. Please comment if you have any questions or concerns about it.

Thank you to @angelasjin, @_dorsvenabili, @harmonyromo, @juliarosia and @samsuresh, for contributing to the post!

#next-gen-events #community-event #event-tooling

Néstor Brito 1:01 pm on July 26, 2023

I was fallowing this thread on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. and I found this URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org structure “events.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//city(or country)/year/event-title” very clear and consistent. Good work!
Isotta 8:15 am on August 3, 2023

I also agree that this structure is very clear and consistent. Thank you so much for moving this forward, Devin!
mujuonly 12:28 pm on August 3, 2023

+1
Naoko Takano 6:23 am on August 4, 2023

I support the proposed URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org structure too.

Food for thought.
What if an events series that spans over multiple years have this URL instead?
events.wordpress.org/japan/community-training

And each occurrence (e.g. monthly event) gets a URL like this:
events.wordpress.org/japan/community-training/2023/08/event-topic
- Steve Dufresne 12:30 am on August 10, 2023
  The url structure should also reflect the expected user journey, as in, how we expected users to be looking for events. Based on this structure events.wordpress.org/japan/community-training/2023, we are assuming this journey.
  1. I am based in Japan, and looking for events.
  2. I want to do community training.
  3. When can I do that?
  We also need to think of the archives as @sippis has mentioned.
  
  If I go to events.wordpress.org/japan what should I see? Would this be focused on finding you an event closest to today or finding your group of interest. That decisions matters and should be the lead for the second part after the country.
  
  Lastly, regardless of the order, I would leave out the month part from events.wordpress.org/japan/community-training/2023/08/event-topic. I personally don’t think it’s necessary.
Timi Wahalahti 2:08 pm on August 9, 2023

I’m a bit hesitant if the proposed structure is the best possible, but I don’t have much better alternatives to propose either.

events.wordpress.org/japan/2023/community-training feels too long for a single event base URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org. Addresses for pages and other content under the website become lengthy.

If we move forward with the proposed structure, we need to think about where events.wordpress.org/japan/2023 and events.wordpress.org/japan redirect. For the longevity of the solution, it cannot be redirected to the next/current event since, at some point, Japan can have multiple events parallel.

One option that came to mind would be using either events.wordpress.org/2023/japan-community-training or events.wordpress.org/japan/community-training-2023.

It does not make the URL significantly shorter, but it wouldn’t tie us too much into the location/year structure and is a bit more flexible when we explore the possibilities of the NextGen format. One added benefit is also that those look more like website base URL’s. Personally, I think that many paths in the URL can be confusing and challenging for visitors to understand which URL’s are for the same site.
- Steve Dufresne 12:12 am on August 10, 2023
  
  If we move forward with the proposed structure, we need to think about where events.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//japan/2023 and events.wordpress.org/japan redirect. For the longevity of the solution, it cannot be redirected to the next/current event since, at some point, Japan can have multiple events parallel.
  
  We could use the URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org parts as filters.
  
  events.wordpress.org, show all events
  events.wordpress.org/japan, show all events in japan
  events.wordpress.org/japan/2023 show all events in japan in 2023.
  
  I’m not saying the structure is the best, but the archives could behave in that manner without redirecting.
  - Devin Maeztri 10:21 am on August 16, 2023
    
    ++
Sam Suresh 12:52 am on August 10, 2023

After thoroughly analyzing the discussions both here and prior, I’ve narrowed down to three proposed URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org structures:

FIRST STRUCTURE
events.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//japan/2023/community-training
This follows the order of: platform > location > year > event type.
Key Insight: If the primary identifier for our events is the year, this URL would be the most suitable.

SECOND STRUCTURE
events.wordpress.org/japan/community-training/2023/08/event-topic
Ordered as: platform > location > event type > year > month > specific topic.
Key Insight: If we’re frequently organizing events every month and each event has its unique theme, this structure is recommended.

THIRD STRUCTURE
events.wordpress.org/japan/community-training/2023
The order goes: platform > location > event type > year.
Key Insight: Balance between simplicity and clarity

Upon comparison, the second structure seems apt if we standardize the Types of Events. However, if we are not setting a static event type, the first structure offers a more flexible approach.

Both the SECOND and THIRD structures hinge on having a defined Types of Event. In contrast, the first structure offers adaptability in naming events, aligning well with our NextGen goals.

So I will still suggest going for First Option.
Aditya Kane 5:27 am on August 10, 2023
I am trying to include a longer view of the URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org structure of events.wordpress.org/ and have a couple of questions I wanted to reflect on before finalising a version.
- Are we looking at making events.wordpress.org/ the one place to look up events around WordPress? I mean this as a place for WordCamps and MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. to reside.
- Do we think that our MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. program will someday be part of the events.wordpress.org/ platform?
Even if the answer to the above questions is NO (and I think it is probably a yes – but we are still at a very early stage) I assume that is what people will assume events.wordpress.org/ means. They would expect to see all events.

This is case events.wordpress.org// makes more sense.

The year/month and type of events part becomes a bit problematic.

That bounds us to having a certain type of event only once a year or once a month. This would not work, suppose we replace Meetups with this events.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/.

Also in that case how do we standardize the type of events part which at this stage might become a bit too prescriptive when we are still exploring events and letting organisers try out new ideas.

Hence I think only events.wordpress.org// makes sense for now and the rest can be revisited later?

So if someone visits events.wordpress.org/japan they see all the events in Japan.

If they visit events.wordpress.org/japan/2023 they see a list of all events in Japan and 2023. This stays consistent and inline with two questions above and whatever the answers to them might end up being.
- Junko Nukaga 12:46 pm on August 10, 2023
  
  +1
- Devin Maeztri 10:20 am on August 16, 2023
  
  ++
Ian Dunn 10:15 pm on August 15, 2023
From a technical perspective, I think events.wordpress.org/city(or country)/year/event-title is the most practical, because that’s essentially the same thing that we already implemented for the Rome site.

It shouldn’t be a problem to setup landing pages with archives, the way that Steve and Aditya mentioned:
- events.wordpress.org/city(or country) – shows all upcoming events
- events.wordpress.org/city(or country)/year – shows all events in the given year
- events.wordpress.org/city(or country)/title – shows all events in the given series
I agree w/ Timi that URLs will get long. Having the landing pages should help with that, since folks only need to remember events.wordpress.org/{city}, and they can get links to all the events from there. That doesn’t completely solve the problem, though.

I also agree w/ Aditya that folks will probably expect to see all WP events listed on the events.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/ homepage, including meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. and WordCamps. That shouldn’t be had to implement.
- Devin Maeztri 10:20 am on August 16, 2023
  
  ++

Welcome!

Get Involved

Let’s Talk

Learn More

Proposal: Next Generation Event URL

Welcome!

Get Involved

Let’s Talk

Learn More

Share this: