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Welcome and links to documentation
Attendance: @katiejrichards, @topher1kenobe, @mdburnette, @rmartinezduque, @meher, @femy, @courane01, @timohaver
Welcome to the newcomers joining the Photos channel (Slack usernames): @Jeanette Mullins @Allan Douglas @Heather Roy @Shubham @Passoniate @Femy
Project milestones
This month, we have a few milestones to share since our last meeting on April 1st. It was a slower month and, as you’ll see a bit later on, there was some discussion about why and what we can do to encourage more submissions.
But first, the numbers for this month.
As of this meeting, the directory includes over 2500 user-contributed photos, including passing numbers 2400 (Tortoise) and 2500 (Kekse, Weihnachtsbäckerei, Keksdosen, backen, Weihnachten, Süßes, Marmelade, Zuckerguss, Tradition)! Only 25+ currently pending moderation, so we’ll want to promote the directory and get some more submissions!
The last week also included the 231st individual contributor to the directory. This shows us that, even though the submission count wasn’t very high, there were a lot of new contributors. 🎉
Every week we’ll share some raw stats here as well. Here are a few stats for the month leading up to this meeting:
- 151 photos were submitted in the last month
- 76% have been approved
- 17% are pending
- 7% have been rejected for not meeting conditions to be published in the directory
Current issues
Our largest issue at the moment stems from our backlog of moderator applications. The current moderators and team reps have begun discussions to clarify how moderators need to be vetted and the process by which this will happen. This is quite possibly the first WordPress team that uses volunteer community moderators so we’ve been looking through Community Team documentation on how they’ve historically vetted and approved potential event organizers and adapted that process for the Photos team.
We want to make sure folks are onboarded with all the tools and information they’ll need to hit the ground running. If you submitted an application to become a Photo Directory moderator, we assure you that we will respond soon!
Also, there is an application to join the Photo Directory moderating team in the team handbook.
Open discussion
In contrast, photo submissions seem to have slowed down without any real reason we can determine. For example, our April 1st team meeting recap showed that 230 photos had been submitted in the week leading up to the meeting, where we only had 151 in the whole month leading up to this one. A lack of moderators would explain a backlog of pending photos, but it doesn’t explain low submission counts.
Some things that were discussed to potentially help with this were:
- Running contests of some kind to boost submission counts
- Looping in Marketing, Social, and Training teams to help promote the directory
- Awarding .org contributor badges when users upload X number of photos
- Call for meetups (Community team) to help promote or speak about the directory at events
We’ll look at these options over the next month—in addition to promotion surrounding the upcoming WordCamp 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. Europe event—to see how we might bolster photo submissions from the community.
Finally, accessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) concerns were discussed—primarily surrounding the lack of alt text attributes for directory photos. Although the team had discussed an additional field at time of submission for this text, ultimately it was not added to the submission form. Talks regarding this field will resume this month.
Additionally, it was discussed that retroactively filling in alt text fields for photos already submitted could make a great contributor 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/. activity. This is a great callout, though logistics around how that would practically work without granting moderator access to dozens of folks would be necessary.
Next Meeting
You are welcome to join the team at any time! If you are new to the Photos team, please introduce yourself in the #photos channel before the meeting (or anytime!) and feel free to join us in the meeting and participate as you are able.
Photos Team Mission
The Photos team helps people use and contribute to the WordPress Photo Directory through creative commons licensed (CC0) photography that can be used without cost or attribution, for any purpose, via wordpress.org/photos.
Getting Involved
Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join in, comment on posts, and participate in meetings and on projects.
Team Links
- WordPress.org/photos
- WordPress Photo Directory team handbook
- Our Team Blog
