Hello everyone,

Thank you for your enthusiasm and participation in the recent vote for our new team representatives. We were excited to announce the results during 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. US 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/. tomorrow, but we’ve decided to take a little extra time to ensure everything is in place for a smooth transition.

We are currently reviewing some important legal details regarding the team leadership roles and countries of residence, and we also want to personally connect with the top candidates to confirm their willingness and availability to take on these responsibilities. This extra step ensures that our new reps are fully prepared to serve our community.

We’re looking forward to sharing the results during our next team meeting on October 4th, 2024. Your continued support and understanding are greatly appreciated, and we can’t wait to introduce the new team representatives soon!

Slack Log (Requires 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/. login to view. Set one up if you don’t have a Slack account.)

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!

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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 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. Europe event—to see how we might bolster photo submissions from the community.

Finally, accessibilityAccessibility 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 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/. 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.

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Next Meeting

• Friday June 3 14:00 UTC Team meeting, first Friday of each month

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.

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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.

• Here’s what you need to know to get started

Team Links

1. WordPress.org/photos
2. WordPress Photo Directory team handbook
3. Our Team Blog

Slack Log (Requires 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/. login to view. Set one up if you don’t have a Slack account.)

Welcome and links to documentation

Attendance: @katiejrichards, @topher1kenobe, @mdburnette, @angelasjin, @cagrimmett, @rmartinezduque

Welcome to the newcomers joining the Photos channel (Slack usernames): @Amit Patel, @Bhavesh Desai, @Himanshu Shekhar, @sagarladani, @Aezas Shekh, @aslammultani, @Brijesh Mandaliya, @Shusei, @Deval Talati, @Mayur Baroliya, @Bilal Ahmed, @Guillaume

Project milestones

With this being our first meeting, we don’t have “milestones since…”, rather overall milestones to share to kick us off. However our next meeting will include numbers since this meeting and will allow us to track how the directory is growing month-to-month.

As of this meeting, the directory includes over 2300 user-contributed photos, including passing numbers 2200 (Squirrel on a palm tree at dusk) and 2300 (Shadow phone) in the last week alone! With 75+ currently pending moderation, we’re well on our way to 2400 already.

The last week also included the 200th individual contributor to the directory, Hardik Thakkar. 🎉

Once again, our next meeting will feature some monthly numbers, but here are a few stats for the week leading up to this meeting:

• 230 photos were submitted in the last week
• 57% have been approved
• 33% are pending
• 10% have been rejected for not meeting conditions to be published in the directory

Current issues

➡️ One of the most recent challenges that the moderators have had to tackle is how to moderate photos that have already been uploaded by other authors/photographers to similar photo sharing sites like Pixabay, Unsplash, etc. Posting an image to another photo sharing site like Pixabay is not inherently a problem, as long as some considerations are made. We do need to consider whether there is a conflict between the license of the other photo site and CC0, which is the license the Photo Directory explicitly uses.

Moderators make every effort to verify sources. Please be aware that any photo found to exist on another site may take extra time to approve and publish.

Relatedly, another issue we’ve come up against when a photo has also been uploaded to another photo sharing site is determining who holds the copyright to the image. Unfortunately, we’ve found that many of these photos shared in multiple locations across the web are being submitted to the WordPress Photo Directory by someone who does not hold the copyright for the image. Photos submitted by users other than the original author will be rejected. As a reminder, one of the conditions the uploader agrees to when submitting a photo to the Photo Directory is “I have the copyright or other legal right to upload this image” as stated on the submission page.

One potential solution here might be to ask the uploader if the photo can be found on another photo site. This may, at least, streamline the approval process.

➡️ Also, there is an application to join the Photo Directory moderating team in the team handbook. The team reps are currently thinking through how to effectively onboard new moderators, since there isn’t a significant history of the WordPress project using volunteer moderators.

Open discussion

➡️ A ticket has been opened to add a checkbox to select ALL the checkboxes on the submission form, but this would be limited ONLY to people who already have a high number of approved photos. Potentially 30 or 40 is the starting number. By that time, they’ve checked those boxes a LOT, and know what they’re agreeing to.

➡️ Also, we’re still seeing the “silver” tag as color option. A ticket should be submitted to have it removed, if it isn’t already. (Silver was added haphazardly when colors were still able to be added manually. All colors are now selected from a list of possible options.)

➡️ The Social team is looking for ways to promote the directory and is looking for stories behind the photos. If you’ve uploaded a photo and have a story to share about its origins, reach out to @rmartinezduque in the #photos Slack channel.

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Next Meeting

• May 6 14:00 UTC Team meeting, first Friday of each month

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.

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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.

• Here’s what you need to know to get started

Team Links

1. WordPress.org/photos
2. WordPress Photo Directory team handbook
3. Our Team Blog