Makarand Mane 10:56 am on September 2, 2025
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Growing New Contributors: Kolhapur’s Online Contribution Journey

After the success of WordCamp Kolhapur 2025, I wanted to keep the momentum going. Instead of hosting just a one-day contributor sprint, we ran a nine-event Online Contribution Series with our Kolhapur WordPress Community—and it worked even better than we imagined.

Why We Started

I led this initiative as the Lead Organizer of 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. Kolhapur 2025, with strong support from Abhay Kulkarni and our local team.

The idea was simple: many people cannot always attend physical contribution days because of travel, equipment, or time limits. So we decided to go online. This made contributing easier because:

  • People from other cities and remote areas could join.
  • Screen sharing allowed participants to get quick help and solve issues on the spot.
  • Back-to-back sessions were possible without travel fatigue.
  • We could focus completely on contributing instead of logistics.
  • Many people couldn’t bring laptops or travel for in-person 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..

While in-person events are great for networking, going online gave us more focus, less travel, and higher participation in actual contributions.

How the Series Worked

I took inspiration from both in-person Contributor Days at WordCamps and online Contributor Days. We mixed the best of both formats by spreading activities across several meetups, with each session focusing on one Make WordPress team.

This format allowed contributors to:

  • Explore one team at a time (CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., Polyglots, Photos, Patterns, WordPress.tv, Test, etc.).
  • Learn hands-on with real-time guidance and screen sharing.
  • Join sessions easily, even back-to-back, without the barrier of travel.

It was a simple approach that gave contributors confidence and made learning easier.

Impact

This approach brought real results:

  • Many first-time contributors joined and discovered how WordPress is built.
  • Participants earned multiple badges and props, which encouraged them to stay involved.
  • Our reach expanded beyond Kolhapur, with contributors joining from other regions.
  • Some participants grew into mentorsEvent Supporter Event Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. themselves, guiding others in future meetups.
  • Several contributors continued contributing independently after the series ended.

How You Can Run One in Your Community

If your community finds it hard to gather people physically for contribution days—or if you want to give contributors a chance to dive deeper—an Online Contribution Series can be a good idea.

  • Focus each session on one Make WordPress team.
  • Use screen sharing to help contributors in real time.
  • Ask participants to set up their 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/ profiles and join 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/. before the first session.
  • Celebrate every contribution and explain how badges and props work.

Acknowledging Our Contributors

I’m thankful to the 29 community members who actively joined and contributed in this series. Your energy kept the initiative alive!

@contactprashantpp, @sohamjoshi8275, @snehal5774, @mrunalkulkarni, @harshada555, @rajeshrathodwp, @surajswalstar, @iamshubhamsp, @digitalpritam, @vaibhavsweb, @ketanniruke, @diguj, @atharvprakashan, @prathameshbhagat1511, @shreyashd21, @sunithak, @snilesh, @amitbhosale, @vgnavada, @rupesh5438, @akshaydhere, @adityab98, @sketchboy, @vaibhav2527, @dheeraj2995, @rajendrapatilraj, @prathameshp, @krupajnanda, @hiabhaykulkarni & @mkrndmane

📖 You can read the full detailed recap (with session details, photos, and stats) on central.wordcamp.org.

Our Next Steps

The Kolhapur WordPress community will continue to host contribution-focused events, and we welcome contributors from around the world to join us.

If you’d like to try something similar, connect with the Make WordPress Community Team

Together, we build a better WordPress for everyone.

Props to @webtechpooja for reviewing this post!

#meetups, #contributor-event, #contributor-meetup, #contributor-mentorship