Representing WordPress

Anyone involved in your 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. in an official role, including you, is representing WordPress. Because of this, it’s important that you vet each person/company that wants to be an organizer, speaker, or sponsor, to make sure they meet the requirements for promotion by WordPress.

General things we feel strongly about:

  • WordPress users! Lately there have been quite a few people wanting to organize 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. for the publicity value, who don’t even use WordPress to power their own blogs/sites. If you’re looking to stand up and be a WordPress community leader, you need to be  a WordPress user. It seems silly to have to state that explicitly, but there you have it.
  • No discrimination on the basis of economic or social status, race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, age, or disability. They shouldn’t engage in discriminatory practices, and you shouldn’t discriminate against anyone.
  • No incitement to violence, or promotion of hate on our watch, please.
  • No spammers.
  • No jerks. That sounds silly, too, but it’s important. If someone is in an official role and winds up alienating a chunk of your local WordPress community, that hurts WordPress as a whole. Anyone in an official role should behave appropriately.

If WordPress-based, there are a few additional requirements:

  • Respect the WordPress trademark. Any person or business currently misusing or infringing on the WordPress trademark will need to fix any misuse before they will be allowed to take on a sanctioned role in a meetup.
  • Embrace the WordPress license. If distributing WordPress-derivative works (themes, plugins, WP distros), any person or business should give their users the same freedoms that WordPress itself provides. Note: this is one step above simple compliance, which requires 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. code to be GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples./compatible but allows proprietary licenses for JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/., CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site., and images. 100% GPL or compatible is required for promotion at meetups when WordPress-derivative works are involved, the same guidelines we follow on 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/.
  • Do not promote others who fail to respect the WordPress license or trademark. If a business or person does not distribute WordPress-derivative code promotes businesses or people who do, they should meet the above guidelines.

As the meetup organizer, it will be your responsibility to ensure that these expectations are met by all members of your team, speakers, and sponsors.

As the meetup organizer, if you, or any of the members of your team, speakers, and sponsors, do not meet these expectations, then that person/persons will be removed from their role in the group.

If the person removed is the main organizer of the group, then a member of the WordPress Global Community teamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps. will also email all members of the group, inviting a new organizer to step forward, at least as the initial next step.

If you’d like to read more about WordPress and the GPL, here are some great resources:

WordPress and the GPL
Themes are GPL, too
Why WordPress Themes are Derivative of WordPress

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