Summary for Documentation Team Meeting 16 March, 2020

Attendance

@softservenet, @kenshino, @milana_cap, @pbrocks, @ataurr, @felipeloureirosantos, @pmbaldha, @atachibana, @kartiks16, @passoniate, @tjnowell, @marcio-zebedeu, @estelaris, @deadpool76, @sukafia, @cristianozanca, @leogermani

Notetaker: @milana_cap

Facilitator next week: @estelaris

Next meeting will happen on

Monday, March 23, 2020, 15:00 UTC

Project Updates

Codex rerouting for Functions are were done 410 of 1069 (38.4%). Almost all credits in this week are @stevenlinx.

Handbook Revamp

@leogermani started document for reviewing Handbook: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X6MiAD7qpdEEMAfFE2pM_hFAynlPg0g5aOSa1em05O8/edit?usp=sharing

Everyone is welcome to review Handbook and leave feedback in document. Especially people new to the team. If Handbook makes no sense for them then we need to improve it. If you read handbook and have no idea what is project about or how to contribute to it, it means the handbook is poorly covering the project. Anyone should be able to start contributing after reading it.

First tasks are Welcome message, which is really outdated, and Handbook home page (as Welcome message links to it). Deadline for this is 7 days from today. @leogermani will gather all the feedback.

New value/motto to the Docs team – Better now than perfect tomorrow.

Leave feedback in the document, please.

Outliers in Codex

Specifically talking about Codex pages which are neither Theme, 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 or APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. specifics, e.g. https://codex.wordpress.org/Converting_Database_Character_Sets

Plan is to first identify these pages on a list so that we can describe what they are doing as a group and figure out where to put them.

Suggestions are that we just create “Misc Handbook” and move pages there as we discover them or to make a list of all pages first.

We’ll postpone this decision until the time we have 10 such pages identified. Someone should take ownership of this and we will discuss it on next meeting.

Policy for External Linking

There is an ongoing discussion about this: https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2020/03/16/external-linking-in-docs-policy/

Everyone is welcome to participate in discussion.

Documentation License

There is an ongoing discussion about this: https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2020/03/16/documentation-license/

Everyone is welcome to participate in discussion.

Categorization Project, Alterations Workflow

HelpHub article can be found in several categories, but @estelaris‘ research has proven that this is very bad for usability. Essentially we’re categorising poorly and therefore there is such a need to categorise them multiple times.

Here is the document to illustrate this research: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lNxlyouZ9N6NuwA21lld3t_TZ6T–TVQGzB8fdjBl-M/edit?usp=sharing

The classification we have has been inherited from Codex and it is a classification from 15 years ago. It may have worked at some point but as we add new articles, it makes no sense any more.

However, we cannot disrupt the structure as we have millions of users that are familiar with the structure but we can make smaller changes to adapt and make it easier to search for users and even for Google.

Here is the post to explain the project: https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2020/02/21/findings-in-the-reclassification-of-wordpress-org-documentation/

We need to set real goals and clear tasks/workflows for this project. Document for following process: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_Ea2yeF5Rfy_YDk7pBRJ4rdljhMjygXFqBq8gWwhbaE/edit?usp=sharing

First we are going to define “Discoverability” and set few user stories. A dedicated meeting will be held for this. @milana_cap volunteered to help @estelaris with this.

Open Floor

@sukafia proposed adding HelpHub categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. or article on extending WordPress. What it is and what it can be used for. It is suggested that @sukafia review HelpHub article where this info could fit and add suggestions for edit. @softservenet volunteered to help.

Transcript of the meeting: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RP4WU5/p1584370804344000