Archives

Hugh Lashbrooke 11:46 am on September 15, 2015
Tags:   

HelpHub kick off (for real this time!)

If you’re tagged in this post then you have previously showed some level of interest in being involved in working on HelpHub.

After an initial stalled attempt at getting the HelpHub project going, I’m excited to announce that it’s finally underway!

You can get some background on the project by checking out the original kick off post as well as the project spec, but the ultimate goal of HelpHub is to have a central location that houses user documentation as well as the support forumSupport Forum WordPress Support Forums is a place to go for help and conversations around using WordPress. Also the place to go to report issues that are caused by errors with the WordPress code and implementations.. Think of it as a searchable knowledge base linked with the community support forums – a concept that I’m sure you’re all familiar with. This will complement DevHub nicely and will allow us to fully transition away from the Codex (once everything has been moved over to the relevant hubs of course).

I’ve been putting together an action plan for the project and ready to get going with it, so in order to really kick things off we’ll be having a meeting in #docs at September 22 2015 13:00 UTC (next week). In that meeting we will be getting to know everyone who will be involved, assigning roles and discussing the way forward. I will publish a more specific agenda 24 hours before the meeting.

In order for you to start thinking about how you would like to jump in, we are looking for the following roles to be filled:

  • Content planner
  • 3-4 Developers (who will work closely with the metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. team)
  • Designer (working closely with the meta team as well)
  • Writers (there’s no limit to the amount of writers we can have involved in this!)

If your name appears here then you either commented on one of the previous HelpHub posts with your feedback, or you pinged me directly to indicate your willingness to be involved. The meeting and project is, of course, open to anyone to join.

@samuelsidler @siobhan @justingreerbbi @blmbmj @nlarnold1 @kdrewien @craig-ralston @philerb @jazzs3quence @andrea_r @ipstenu @rachelwhitton @siobhyb @normalize @goblindegook @maartenvp @eliorivero @saurabhshukla @ariwinokur @saracope @wturrell @dinsan @mchildress @wturrell @la-geek @mac2net @netweb

#helphub

Jen 6:04 pm on June 20, 2014
Tags: ,   

Team Meetup at WCSF (More)

Hi again! We’re working on making sure we have enough room blocks to make sure all the contributors who are coming in October can get a decent rate (or have a room provided by us if needed). Some of you replied to my post from last week and filled in the survey so I’d know you were planning to come, but some haven’t. Additionally, some people did the survey and marked themselves as team members of teams they’re not actually involved with, so I need your help! 🙂

I just want to make sure we count everyone so we can try to put you at the same hotel to make the meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. part easier (though I know most people on this team are also heavily involved in other teams, so we’ll figure that once we have a solid tally of who’s planning to come at all).

If you didn’t read the post before, the plan for the event is:
Sat/Sun — WCSF conference
Monday — community summit
Tues/Wed — team meetups (team being together to talk issues, make plans, work together, etc)

The people who identified themselves as active members of the docs team in the survey are: @jerrysarcastic, @drewapicture, @trishasalas, @topher1kenobe, @hanni, @kpdesign, @nicolealleyinteractivecom, @davidjlaietta, @jazzs3quence, @sewmyheadon, @siobhan, @otto42 (all authors on this team blog), as well as:
Cousett Hoover, Benjamin Hansen, John Blackbourn, Ed Caissie, and Russell Fair.

Is this an accurate list? @kpdesign, can you let me know if these folks are all active with the docs team, and also tell me if there’s anyone missing that you think should be there from the team? Comment here, email me, hit me in irc, whatever’s easiest.

Any docs folks not listed above who are active on the team and want to come to the team meetup should fill out the survey so I can have you on the list as we start deciding which hotels to put each team in. We’ll be spread out among 4 or 5 hotels, so I want to be sure we can keep the teams together.

And just a reminder that we have a travel assistance program this year to help contributors who don’t work for a wp-based company and can’t cover travel costs on their own. Apply for travel assistance by June 30 Applications for travel assistance are now closed. If you need help, contact @jenmylo.

Thanks!

#meetup, #wcsf2014

Kim Parsell 11:29 am on May 3, 2014
Tags:   

Docs Chat: May 1, 2014

Thank you to everyone who came. For anyone unable to attend, you can read the logs here.

The following is a summary of the topics that were discussed.

1. DevHub: The new code reference is now live. The team is working on code reference improvements, and work continues on the handbook theme and 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..

2. Admin Help: @Clorith said the team is moving forward with user testing, having users do goal-oriented tasks which focus on one area of the admin at a time to identify specific pain points. The test site uses real data provided by @jazzs3quence. He also represented the team at Tuesday’s Featured Plugin meeting.

3. Weekly Chat Time: I asked whether we should change the weekly docs chat to an earlier time on Thursday that would be more convenient for team members to attend the meeting. Discussion will continue in a separate post.

4. Handbooks: We had a new handbook contributor join the chat. @topher1kenobe worked with @siobhan at 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. Austin’s 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/, getting set up to work on the handbooks. He also talked with @blobaugh about working on the Plugin Developer Handbook.

#chat-recap

Trisha Salas 3:56 am on April 11, 2014
Tags:   

Admin Help Update for Week of 4/7/2014

We’ve had a quiet few weeks as I was busy building a resume, interviewing and rounding up code.  But yay for new jobs and time to move forward!

Thanks to @clorith and @jazzs3quence for picking up the 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/! I’ve talked to @designsimply and we are going to start user testing asap.  In the meantime we can continue to watch the older usertesting.com videos and I would love to see some write ups like @jazzs3quence recommended. 🙂

Thanks for the patience everyone, back to weekly updates from here.

#admin-help

Kim Parsell 7:31 pm on March 30, 2014
Tags:   

Docs Chat: Mar. 27, 2014

Thank you to everyone who came. For anyone unable to attend, you can read the logs here.

The following is a summary of the topics that were discussed.

1. DevHub: @siobhan said there are two issues left to address with the parser. Once that is finished, attention turns to completing the handbook and code reference themes. (3/25/2014 team meeting summary)

2. Admin Help: @jazzs3quence said they are looking back at the original user testing videos, and prepping for new user tests. They have received some good feedback on the list of admin tasks. Starting this week, the weekly meeting on Mondays will be held at 17:30 UTC.

3. Handbooks: @blobaugh said he received an email from @jdgrimes, offering to donate some tutorials on unit testing for the 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. Developer Handbook. @sewmyheadon said there is nothing new to report on the Theme Developer Handbook. He said the next Docs Meetup in Seattle is April 5th, and hopes for another good turnout to work on both handbooks. You can attend in person in Seattle, or remotely in the #wordpress-sfd IRC channel.

4. Codex Updates for 3.9: The Codex will need to be updated after 3.9 is released. @siobhan suggested we go back to doing a virtual sprint for the updates. We can build the task list for the sprint from the 3.9 version page that @DrewAPicture is working on.

5. Upcoming Docs Conferences: I posted earlier this week about upcoming docs conferences. @siobhan will be speaking at Write The Docs in Portland in May. I’ll be attending the OpenHelp conference in Cincinnati in June. OpenHelp contacted @siobhan about whether we plan to send a team and/or sponsor this year’s conference in Cincinnati.

6. Docs Chat Time Change: Starting this week, the meeting time will shift to 23:00 UTC on Thursday to get us back to our old schedule – 4pm PDT, 5pm MDT, 7pm EDT, 12am London (Friday).

#chat-recap

Trisha Salas 7:52 am on March 19, 2014
Tags:   

Admin Help User Task List

WordPress User ‘Tasks’

We are gathering a list of things (tasks) any user might do in the course of setting up a WordPress site.

We need your help to add to this list!!

Please feel free to add your ideas in the comments.

  • Upload and configure WordPress
  • Remove the default post and comment
  • Drop by the theme editor and find the right theme
  • Writing my first post
  • Make the site “yours”
  • Create some content
  • Create a new front page
  • Remove the default admin account or restrict its permissions
  • Add new user(s)/admin(s)
  • Setup Akismet
  • Search for and install a 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.
  • Setup pretty permalinks
  • Change the default tagline from “Just another WordPress blog”

You can read more about the purpose for this list here.

#admin-help

Kim Parsell 1:19 pm on March 16, 2014
Tags:   

Docs Chat: Mar. 13, 2014

Thank you to everyone who came. For anyone unable to attend, you can read the logs here.

The following is a summary of the topics that were discussed.

1. DevHub: Work continues on fixing parser-related issues. @samuelsidler said volunteers are still needed to help with the handbook theme. If you would like to work on the project, leave a comment on this post, or come to the weekly IRC chat on Tuesdays at 16:00 UTC.

2. AH-O2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org: There are some big changes, and a new direction, for both the team and the project. The new co-leads are @trishasalas and @Clorith. @jazzs3quence will still be involved in the project in a supportive role. Their weekly meeting on 3/10/2014 was used to discuss the Feature PluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins Meeting, and the feedback @jazzs3quence received regarding the current implementation of the 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.. They also began laying the groundwork for the new direction the project will take. If you would like to be part of the effort, please attend the weekly IRC chat on Mondays at 18:30 UTC.

3. Handbooks: @sewmyheadon and @hanni met on Wednesday to discuss the current status of the handbooks. @philiparthurmoore has made progress on the Theme Developer Handbook intro. @sewmyheadon still needs to review it.

4. WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Style Guide: The team discussed a post that proposed a community-written (and maintained) style guide for WordPress Core to follow. The consensus was that WordPress has its own voice, and there are places where that voice could probably be refined a bit. A WordPress Core style guide could be written, but it would be a canonical reference rather than a community-driven guide.

5. New 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: @jenmylo reached out to the team reps a few weeks ago about identifying people in each team to get badges on the new profiles that are being worked on. At some point they hope that the process may be automated, but for now, the profile badges will be manually added. I have already provided a preliminary list of names of team members.

6. In-House Mentorship Program: @DrewAPicture and I talked to @jenmylo and @andreamiddleton about the program at 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. Phoenix in January. They hope to kick off the one-month ‘contributor onramp’ within the coming month. The team discussed what the requirements are, what tasks we could have someone work on for the one-month contributor onramp, and possible mentors.

7. Group Chats Calendar for WordPress Project: @GaryJ brought up the idea in IRC for a group chats calendar that people could subscribe to. @siobhan said this would be a project for the MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. team, if a decision was made to implement one. Concern was expressed that, without a maintainer, the calendar could end up with incorrect information listed. The consensus was that the chat times listed 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. for each of the Make blogs should be sufficient for now.

#chat-recap

Trisha Salas 3:19 am on March 14, 2014
Tags:   

Admin Help Updates from 3/10/2014 Meeting

There are some big changes and a new direction for the team, new co-leads are myself and @Clorith.  @Jazzs3quence will still be involved in a supportive role.

The first part of the meeting was used to discuss the Feature PluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins Meeting and the helpful comments @jazzs3quence received regarding the current implementation of the 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.. The key takeaways are:

  • This really comes down to storyboarding, not building. Which is great, but it doesn’t really lend itself to a plugin model, at least until later in the process.
  • (but) Before even storyboarding I’d start with a list of goals, a list of problems. I’d run user tests on starting with WP and starting with features they’ve never seen and see where they trip up.

We agreed as a group that we need to not think about solutions at this stage but rather, to figure out what the problem(s) are. It was also mentioned that a singular solution will not be enough, we need to identify personas and do user testing as well as story boards.  (Not necessarily in that order.)

@Clorith Mentioned that the idea of guided tour had been mentioned before and @Sams reminded us that @Nacin recommended we look at the user testing again.

Our previous user tests can be found here:

https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2013/09/04/admin-help-user-testing-videos/

https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2013/09/16/admin-help-videos-round-two/

@Sams suggested that “it’s better to have user tests of different user types and, if you’d like, build personas off of those” so that will be the initial direction we take along with storyboards.

We would like to expand on the user testing by identifying any and all tasks with WordPress so that we can identify as many ‘pain points’ as possible.  There have also been some significant changes in the theme screen and the widgets since our last tests so we would like to essentially start fresh with user testing.

The initial plan is to start a P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org post to gather task ideas for  user testing.  We would like to get input from as many of you as possible so that we generate a thorough list of all of the tasks within WordPress (multisiteMultisite Multisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core. Advanced Administration Handbook -> Create A Network. included!)

As always, we welcome more input and participation.  The meeting is on Mondays — 18:30 UTC

#admin-help

Kim Parsell 12:36 pm on March 8, 2014
Tags:   

Docs Chat: Mar. 6, 2014

Thank you to everyone who came. For anyone unable to attend, you can read the logs here.

The following is a summary of the topics that were discussed.

1. DevHub: Work continues on fixing parser-related issues. @sams said volunteers are needed to help with the handbook theme. If you have HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites./CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site./theming skills and would like to help with the theme, leave a comment on this post, or come to the weekly IRC chat on Tuesdays at 15:00 UTC.

2. Docs Issue Tracker: @otto42 added the ability to create issue types for the tracker. @siobhan suggested that we keep the terms list to a reasonable amount. Before adding any terms, we should discuss what terms are needed for 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/ users reporting docs issues, then look at our project needs.

3. AH-O2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org: @jazzs3quence presented the 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. proposal at the Featured Plugins Chat on 3/4/2014, and said there were some concerns voiced about the implementation they used, and whether it will actually help resolve the current issues users are having. At their next weekly meeting, they will be discussing the feedback from the Featured Plugins Chat, reviewing the plugin’s goals, and brainstorming new ideas. If you would like to be part of this effort, please attend the meeting on 3/10/2014 at 18:30 UTC. (3/3/2014 team meeting summary)

4. Handbooks: Progress is being made on both handbooks. The Plugin Developer Handbook focus is on creating the content for sections 5, 6, and 12. @philiparthurmoore is working on the outline for the Theme Developer Handbook intro. He and @sewmyheadon talked on Wednesday, and @philiparthurmoore will be working on the intro this weekend.

5. Docs Sprints: The Seattle Docs sprint last weekend went very well, with 13 people contributing. @sewmyheadon wrote a short recap of the sprint, along with the information for the April sprint.

6. Inline Docs: @DrewAPicture said the hook docs initiative surpassed the 80% complete mark this week, with less than 30 files to complete. If you would like to help, you can claim one of the remaining files.

7. Codex: The 3.9 version page has been created, and some information has already been added. The page is marked as a stub, and volunteers are invited to contribute by updating the page. Contact @DrewAPicture if you have any questions.

#chat-recap

Chris Reynolds 8:47 pm on March 3, 2014
Tags: ,   

AH-O₂ Update — 3 March, 2014

Help Overview refactoring
@brainfork has been ill and was unable to work on this this week. @jazzs3quence created tickets for some of the issues that were reported in https://github.com/jazzsequence/WordPress-Admin-Help/issues/50 many of which were things that @brainfork was planning to work on. See:
https://github.com/jazzsequence/WordPress-Admin-Help/issues/55
https://github.com/jazzsequence/WordPress-Admin-Help/issues/57
https://github.com/jazzsequence/WordPress-Admin-Help/issues/47
https://github.com/jazzsequence/WordPress-Admin-Help/issues/46

Tooltips
@clorith is going to work on refactoring the tooltip structure a bit to make it more flexible for devs and give us more options for tooltip styles.
@trishasalas will be working on some new styles for the tooltips
Between the two of them, we’re hoping to nail:
https://github.com/jazzsequence/WordPress-Admin-Help/issues/58
https://github.com/jazzsequence/WordPress-Admin-Help/issues/56
https://github.com/jazzsequence/WordPress-Admin-Help/issues/45

Admin Help Inventory spreadsheet
@ubernaut has added tooltip locations to the Pages admin pages in the spreadsheet we’re using to keep track of such things. He will work on adding the actual TinyMCE formatting buttons this week.

Target Date
We’ve set a tentative target date for April 1. This will give us time to test the 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. and fix any issues before the discussion begins about WordPress 4.0 feature plugins.

Help wanted!
To meet this target, we need help:

  • adding tooltips — though this process may be changing, the changes should make things easier and we can help with the transition — mostly we need new tooltips to be added (or at least written) for all the elements (that have not been added already) in the spreadsheet (or for anything else that’s missing that isn’t included)
  • testers — we’d love to have more testers look at this and let us know if/when they find any issues

If either of these things sound like ways in which you could contribute, you can let us know in the Google Group, in the comments of this post, or in our Monday meeting.

Our next meeting is next Monday 18:30UTC.

#admin-help, #ah-o2