Author Archives: jerrysarcastic

jerrysarcastic 5:50 pm on June 16, 2015
Tags: , screencasting, screencasts, video tutorials, ,   

Do you screencast or make video tutorials of how to use WordPress? WordPress.tv wants you!

WordPress.tv is a great place to go to catch up on your favorite 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. sessions, or perhaps virtually attend a Camp you could not make in person. These videos are a great way to up your game and learn about WordPress, especially if you are an aspiring developer, or established user.

However, for new users to WordPress, one thing we don’t have on WordPress.tv is videos of how to do things directly in the dashboard of their site. These are more “just getting started” kinds of videos, centered around common tasks or goals, such as:

  • How to configure widgets
  • Setting up a custom menu
  • Managing comments
  • How to insert an image gallery

These kinds of videos would do a lot to help teach WordPress to a new generation of users, and are just the kind of videos we want to host on WordPress.tv! How do we get there? That’s where you come in… 🙂

Submit your WordPress screencasts and video tutorials to WordPress.tv!

Are you a proud member of the WordPress community, who creates (or would like to create) videos that are focused on helping others learn how to use WordPress? If you answered “yes” then we would love your help in submitting your videos to WordPress.tv, so we can share them with the world in our “how to” section here: http://wordpress.tv/category/how-to/

Ready to go? You can use this handy upload form to send your video for review: http://wordpress.tv/submit-video/

What makes a good screencast or video tutorial?

We find that the following guidelines are all important to keep in mind when creating effective training videos for others to learn from:

  • Shorter videos are better – 3 minutes or less is a good guideline.
  • Focus on a single topic or task for your videos
  • Clear audio – Make sure your voice is easy to hear and understand
  • Focus on the browser window
  • No self-promotion or logos in the video

That last bit bears some explaining. While we want you to be able to benefit from your work, WordPress.tv is a non-commercial community-run website; we can’t accept videos with watermarks, logos, or self-promotion of any kind. We do have a place for you to enter your 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/ profile name as a producer credit, so you will get noticed!

Here is an example of an existing (slightly out of date) screencast that meets all the above guidelines: http://wordpress.tv/2013/06/22/how-to-use-the-image-galleries/

So why not share the love, and help train a new generation the joys of using WordPress. Good karma (and a free copy of WordPress) will be your reward for helping out! Thanks!

– Your WordPress.tv Community Moderators (aka “The Mod Squad”)

#public-submission, #screencasting, #screencasts, #video-tutorials, #wordpress-tv, #wptv-mods

jerrysarcastic 1:06 am on April 8, 2015
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WPTV Moderator chat moving to Thursday

As discussed in our meeting last week, the Mod Squad will now be meeting on Thursdays at 17:00 UTC (1pm EDT/10am PDT) in #WPTV in 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/..

Convert to your timezone

That is one day later (and one hour) later than our normal meeting time. See you there!

#wordpress-tv

jerrysarcastic 1:38 am on November 27, 2014
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WordPress.tv Moderator Chat – Recap

Today we discussed a few things that we have been working on since the Community Summit, and where we are headed for 2015. Full chat archive is here.

  • Moderator Handbook – We’re still working on building this out as a group, so we do also have some documents staged in Google Docs so we can iterate and add any feedback. Final text is then added to the handbook here (linked in the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme.)
  • Buddy System – To help onboard new moderators we are going to try out a “buddy system” where a new mod is paired with an experienced one. Documentation is here (#) and we also created a few buddy pairs for our newest mods
  • Assisting WordCamps – We have talked off and on and have done some preliminary leg work for this year. For 2015 we are going to actively reach out to an early camp, and offer to provide both guidance (how to set up for filming, etc.) as well as post-production help. If possible we will try to do this in a location where a mod is nearby, and also work video into the contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. for that camp.
  • Return of weekly meetings – We experimented with office hoursOffice Hours Defined times when the Global Community Team are in the #community-events Slack channel. If there is anything you would like to discuss – you do not need to inform them in advance.You are very welcome to drop into any of the Community Team Slack channels at any time., but in the end decided to return to a standard weekly format as our team has grown to a size where this makes sense. Our meeting time/location is in the sidebar, and we hope to see you next week!

We also added two new mods (Beth Soderberg and Evan Zimmerman) to the squad this week. Glad to have you both! 🙂

#team-chat

jerrysarcastic 7:37 pm on November 24, 2014
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WPTV Mod Squad Chat this Wednesday

Howdy Mod Squad, let’s have a meeting to discuss recent changes to the Moderator Handbook, and also do a bit of pre-planning for things we’d like to try and accomplish in 2015.

Join us 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/. at #community on Wednesday Nov. 26th at 17:00 UTC (9am PST, 12noon EST)

Convert to your time zone

Not on Slack? You can get set up here: https://make.wordpress.org/chat/

Hope to see you there!

#wordpress-tv

jerrysarcastic 5:05 pm on October 29, 2014
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WordPress.tv moderator chat moved to next week

Howdy WPTV mods, as may have heard, it was announced recently that we will be moving our chats from IRC to 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/.. As a result of this (plus the fact that @roseapplemedia and I are still at the Community Summit) it seemed best to reschedule our chat which was to be held today.

So let’s plan on meeting on Slack in the #community channel next week. I’ll be on vacation starting Wednesday the 5th (our normal day to chat) so how about we meet on Tuesday November 4th at 09:00 PDT (17:00 UTC) on Slack. Convert to your time zone

If you are not on Slack yet, please try to get signed up before our meeting. If you have a 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/ account, you are already invited to join. To sign up, just follow the steps here: chat.wordpress.org

If you have any trouble, please drop a comment and I’ll get you fixed up! 🙂

#team-chat, #wptv-mods

jerrysarcastic 11:10 pm on September 25, 2014
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WordPress.tv Moderator Squad Update

As mentioned last week, there has been a bit of a slowdown in video submissions to WordPress.tv, but that is rapidly changing with the addition of some recent submissions. We are moderating new videos from 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. Los Angeles, as well as the first batch of videos coming in for WordCamp Maine, who are using our new bulk upload method for submission. If you are handling video for a recent WordCamp, and in need of help, let us know here in the comments. The ModSquad is here for you!

Top 3 videos this week

In progress

We are experimenting with tweeting recent videos on the @wordcamp Twitter account, testing both manual tweets, as well as automated tweets using the Publicize functionality built into WordPress.tv.

#moderator-update, #wordpress-tv

jerrysarcastic 10:09 pm on September 23, 2014
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WordPress.tv – Moderator issues thread for week 39

Moderators, if you have any questions or issues with the videos your are moderating, feel free to leave a comment here in this thread, or drop in on IRC (#wordpress-getinvolved on Freenode) tomorrow from UTC 15:00 – 17:00 for our Moderator office hoursOffice Hours Defined times when the Global Community Team are in the #community-events Slack channel. If there is anything you would like to discuss – you do not need to inform them in advance.You are very welcome to drop into any of the Community Team Slack channels at any time.. Thanks!

Convert to your time zone

#issues-thread, #office-hours, #wordpress-tv

jerrysarcastic 3:39 pm on September 16, 2014
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WordPress.tv – Moderator issues thread for week 38

Another busy week 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. videos coming into the queue at WordPress.tv, and those videos NEED YOU, so if you have a question about any of the videos you are moderating, please drop a line here in the comments.

Office hoursOffice Hours Defined times when the Global Community Team are in the #community-events Slack channel. If there is anything you would like to discuss – you do not need to inform them in advance.You are very welcome to drop into any of the Community Team Slack channels at any time. tomorrow

Aside from comments on this thread, if you want to talk shop or have question that is better for chat, please drop in on IRC (#wordpress-getinvolved on Freenode) tomorrow from UTC 15:00 – 17:00.

Convert to your time zone

#issues-thread, #office-hours, #wordpress-tv

jerrysarcastic 10:49 pm on September 9, 2014
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WordPress.tv – Moderator issues thread for week 37

Howdy WPTV Mods!

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. season is in full tilt, and the queue is ready for your modding pleasure, so if you have a question about any of the videos you are approving, please say so here in the comments.

Office hoursOffice Hours Defined times when the Global Community Team are in the #community-events Slack channel. If there is anything you would like to discuss – you do not need to inform them in advance.You are very welcome to drop into any of the Community Team Slack channels at any time. tomorrow

Aside from comments on this thread, if you want to talk shop or have question that is better for chat, please drop in on IRC (#wordpress-getinvolved on Freenode) tomorrow from UTC 15:00 – 17:00.

Convert to your time zone

#issues-thread, #office-hours, #wordpress-tv

jerrysarcastic 1:24 am on September 4, 2014
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WordPress.tv moderator squad: Meetup recap

The ModSquad gathered for a chat in IRC today to discuss some of the recent changes on WordPress.tv. The following items were discussed:

  • Changes to the Planet WordPress feed and blog.wordpress.tv
  • Using the “Featured” tag to promote content for weekly “Staff Picks” blog posts
  • Videos are featured based on technical quality (good sound/picture, slides clearly visible) and not content, which is already high quality.
  • Coming soon: creating a publicize connection to the 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. Twitter account to promote videos as they are published.
  • Post production – underway with first camp. Mods in attendance asked if they want to help edit slides into presentations
  • First mod-produced video (editing in presentation slides) here. Props @roseapplemedia

As always, if you are a mod, and couldn’t make it on IRC, or just want to see what was discussed in more detail, the chat log is available here.

#team-meetup, #wordpress-tv