Birgit Olzem 8:08 am on July 13, 2023
Tags: , DEIB,   

Proposal for Establishing a Make Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (“DEIB”) Team within the WordPress Community

TL;DR: This proposal suggests establishing a Make Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (“DEIB”) team within the WordPress community to enhance and support the existing DEIB initiatives. Building upon the tireless work of fellow community members, this new team would provide a more structured and coordinated approach towards ensuring that all community members feel valued, included, and able to contribute to their full potential within the safety of our code of conduct.

This team aims to be a shared resource to all other Make WordPress teams. The team’s roles and responsibilities include broadening representation, cultivating an inclusive culture, promoting equitable opportunities, facilitating collaboration, and continuous assessment and improvement. The team will work towards clear objectives and tangible outcomes, such as increased representation, improved inclusivity, and increased access to opportunities.

Update

As we work towards establishing an official DEIB team, a new channel on Making WordPress 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/. serves as a collaborative space for all members of the working group.

Whether you’re here to contribute to the ongoing efforts or simply to observe and learn, we’re glad to have you with us.

Please join #deib-working-group and collaborate on GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ DEIB Project Tracker

The Why

As an active contributing member of the WordPress community for over a decade, I have witnessed the need for a more structured approach to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) within our community. Although my background doesn’t include formal academic training in DEIB, my extensive firsthand experiences and keen observations have shaped my deep understanding in this area. I have faced setbacks, and seen fellow community members experience discrimination and ignorance. These experiences have motivated me to develop this proposal.

While several teams within the community promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), there is a need for a more structured and coordinated approach to these efforts in support of the whole project. A formal DEIB team would provide this structure, enhancing the existing initiatives and filling gaps where needed.

This formal proposal has evolved from an initial public idea exploration, which can be found in this blog post on my personal site. For a more in-depth exploration of this rationale, please refer to our whitepaper, “Proposal for Establishing a Formal Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Team“.

Acknowledgements:
Before delving into the proposal, it is important to acknowledge and thank all the community members who have dedicated their time and skills to raise awareness and educate about DEIB. Their tireless work has laid a strong foundation for the generations and iterations to come within the WordPress community. Thank you!

The How: Proposed Role and Responsibilities

The Make DEIB team could become a shared resource to other Make teams, and could include the following roles and responsibilities:

  1. Broaden Representation: The DEIB team would work to ensure that all members of the WordPress community, regardless of their background, have a voice and feel included. This could involve outreach to underrepresented groups, efforts to make the community more welcoming and inclusive, and initiatives to promote diversity in leadership roles.
  2. Cultivate an Inclusive Culture: The DEIB team would work to create a culture where everyone feels valued and included. This could involve training and education on DEIB issues, efforts to promote respectful and inclusive communication, and initiatives to celebrate the diversity of the WordPress community.
  3. Promote Equitable Opportunities: The DEIB team would work to ensure that opportunities within the WordPress community are accessible to all. This could involve efforts to make training and education opportunities more inclusive, initiatives to promote equitable access to resources, and work to ensure that all community members have the opportunity to contribute and participate.
  4. Facilitate Collaboration: The DEIB team would work closely with other teams within the WordPress community to coordinate DEIB efforts. This could involve sharing resources, collaborating on initiatives, and promoting DEIB across the community.
  5. Continuous Assessment and Improvement: The DEIB team would implement regular assessments of DEIB initiatives and make necessary improvements. This could involve collecting and analyzing data on DEIB efforts, seeking feedback from the community, and making changes based on this feedback.

For a more detailed discussion of these roles and responsibilities, please check out the white paper for the proposed Make Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (“DEIB”) Team by clicking the button below:

Read the whitepaper for the proposed Make “DEIB” Team

Enhancing and Supporting Existing DEIB Initiatives

The DEIB team would work closely with other Make WordPress teams, working groups, and initiatives that touch on DEIB topics, and leverage existing work to support the WordPress open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project.

Objectives and Tangible Outcomes:

The DEIB team would have clear objectives and tangible outcomes, particularly regarding the identified gaps and overlaps. These could include:

  1. Increased Representation: Measurable increase in the representation of underrepresented groups within the WordPress community, particularly in leadership roles.
  2. Improved Inclusivity: Measurable improvements in the inclusivity of the WordPress community, as indicated by community surveys or other feedback.
  3. Increased Access to Opportunities: Measurable increase in the 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) of opportunities within the WordPress community, such as training and education opportunities.
  4. Effective Collaboration: Evidence of effective collaboration with other teams within the WordPress community, such as shared initiatives or resources.
  5. Continuous Improvement: Regular assessments of DEIB initiatives and evidence of improvements based on these assessments.

Mid-Term Strategy for the DEIB Team:

Over the next 3-5 years, the DEIB team will focus on several key strategic initiatives to achieve its mission and vision:

  1. Develop DEIB Guidelines: We will develop comprehensive DEIB guidelines for the WordPress community. These guidelines will provide clear expectations and best practices for promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within the community.
  2. Implement DEIB Training: We will implement and enhance existing DEIB training for all members of the WordPress community. This training will educate community members about the importance of DEIB and provide them with the tools and knowledge they need to promote these principles in their work and interactions.
  3. Establish DEIB Metrics: We will establish clear metrics for measuring the success of our DEIB efforts. These metrics will help us track our progress, identify areas for improvement, and ensure that we are effectively promote DEIB within the community.
  4. Promote Diverse Leadership: We will launch initiatives to promote diverse leadership within the WordPress community. This could include mentorship programs, leadership training for underrepresented groups, and efforts to ensure diverse representation in decision-making processes.
  5. Enhance Community Engagement: We will enhance community engagement by creating opportunities for all community members to contribute to DEIB efforts. This could include community forums, DEIB working groups, and opportunities for feedback and input on DEIB initiatives.
  6. Collaborate with Existing Teams: We will work closely with existing teams within the WordPress project to coordinate and enhance DEIB efforts. This will help to ensure that DEIB is integrated into all aspects and that our efforts are aligned and complementary.

By focusing on these initiatives, the DEIB team can help to ensure that the WordPress community is a place where everyone feels valued, included, and able to contribute to their full potential.

Please refer to the whitepaper for a more comprehensive understanding of these objectives and tangible outcomes.

Your turn: share your thoughts!

By establishing a formal DEIB team, the WordPress community can enhance its commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, ensuring that all community members feel valued, included, and able to contribute to their full potential within the safety of our community code of conduct.

I invite all community members to provide feedback, thoughts, and suggestions on this proposal. Your input is invaluable as we work together towards a more inclusive and diverse WordPress community. Together, we can achieve more. Please leave your thoughts and feedback as a comment on the proposal below. 

Proposal from: Birgit Olzem (@coachbirgit) 

Reviewed and supported by (in no particular order): @martatorre, @jillbinder @courane01, @angelasjin @harishanker @bph @francina @annebovelett @kau-boy @devinmaeztri @evelina87

#5ftf, #deib, #wpdiversity

Hari Shanker R 4:08 am on July 12, 2023
Tags: ,   

X-post: Announcing the Inaugural Cohort of the WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program!

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Hari Shanker R 5:30 pm on June 23, 2023
Tags: , , , ,   

Launch your WordPress Contributor Journey through the Mentorship Program Pilot

Update: The Contributor Mentorship Program Pilot is no longer accepting new applications, since we are past our June 30th deadline. We received an overwhelming response for our pilot, and the contributor working group is extremely thankful to all our contributors for this response. We will be reaching out to all applicants over the course of the next few days!

Interested in contributing to WordPress, and want to start your contributor journey with the help of veteran contributors? Join the brand new WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program to gain the necessary skills and guidance that will help you become a successful contributor in the WordPress open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project! 

What is the Contributor Mentorship Program?

Organized by the Contributor Working Group of the WordPress Community Team, the mentorship program pilot is a four-week event between July 12th and August 9th, 2023.

Participants (mentees) will asynchronously work together in a cohort with a group of mentors to build a strong foundation in the WordPress project and make initial contributions to the contributor team of their choice. This will be made possible through cohort-based and personalized 1:1 mentorship, guided courses, and live online workshops. The program aims to: 

  1. Inspire you to contribute your talents to WordPress.
  2. Help you navigate the ins and outs of the WordPress project.
  3. Provide you with the necessary guidance to thrive in your contributions and careers.
  4. Ensure you are aware of opportunities, limitations, and tasks within the various WordPress contributor teams.
  5. Upskill you through hands-on experience with open source contributions.
  6. Enhance your career prospects by fostering networking, mentorship, and open source contributions.
  7. Connect you with a global network of talented contributors, fostering friendships and professional relationships.
  8. Provide you a chance to directly support more than 40% of the web. 😊

Here is a flowchart that briefly explains how the program looks like:

Flowchart showing the steps involved for mentees as they go through mentorship and graduate from the program.

Sign up now!

This program is open to everyone, irrespective of your skill-level, knowledge, experience, or any other socially identifying criteria!

Want to participate in this mentorship program? Fill out this form to express interest in joining our first cohort which starts on July 12th, 2023 (Wednesday)! Application Deadline: June 30th 2023 (Friday), 23:59 UTC. Sign-ups for the pilot program are now closed, since we are well past the deadline. Selected participants will be informed over email by July 5th, 2023. 

But wait, there is more! Read on to get all the details about the program and find out how you can participate along with other details about the program!

Continue reading →

#5ftf, #contributor-working-group, #five-for-the-future, #mentorship-program, #wpcontributors

Angela Jin 1:00 pm on June 20, 2023
Tags: ,   

X-post: Make Team Dashboards

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Nora Ferreirós 6:35 am on May 30, 2023
Tags:   

Proposal: establishment of a formal WordPress Sustainability Team

The 20th anniversary of WordPress and its role as a dominant CMS mark the moment to act on sustainability now. We (the undersigned) are convinced that WordPress needs an official Sustainability team with the aim of making WordPress and its community lead on sustainability. 

Making WordPress leading on sustainability asks for:

  • Awareness about the impact of carbon emissions by the web and understanding how to build and work in a more eco-friendly way.
  • Guidance for WordPress event organizers to organize events in a more sustainable way.
  • Creation and promotion of eco-friendly themes and plugins.

This post contains our vision on sustainability with WordPress, actions of our initiative so far, its focus points, and an explanation of how we see the Sustainability Team functioning in the WordPress community.

Why a Sustainability Team?

Since its inception, WordPress has been a project developed with a mission to build a better web for everyone. The community has enabled the WordPress project to meet the challenges that have arisen during the past 20 years in pursuit of its mission. Now a new challenge is coming up, and we can’t afford to miss it.

Runaway climate change is a fact, and scientifically proven (IPCC Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis). Every industry and sector of society has a role to play in mitigating the consequences. We can no longer look away from climate change, due to carbon emissions. At the same time, the importance of the web is undeniable. The WordPress community has an opportunity to show leadership and set an example on this topic.

We believe that the efforts of a Sustainability team will positively impact other WordPress teams, such as 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), performance and community, and should work in partnership with them. Digital and event sustainability requires collaboration with the rest of the WordPress teams to achieve effective change.

Establishing and building an official team will significantly raise visibility of the efforts to make the WordPress project more sustainable. It will also show the importance of sustainability inside the project and the support of the leadership. As the team would approach sustainability in a holistic way, this could also appeal to contributors with a non-technical background.

Open SourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. projects, such as Drupal or Wagtail, are starting to show a commitment to sustainability. A W3CW3C The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards.https://www.w3.org/. working group is producing recommendations to encourage those making websites to follow sustainability guidelines. This would be similar to what has been done with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. 

By creating a Sustainability team, WordPress shows its leadership and willingness to proactively work on a solution for the sustainability challenge.

Team definition

The main objective is to embed sustainable practices into WordPress processes and its community. The WordPress Sustainability team would aim to promote awareness and actions that lead to carbon footprint reduction throughout the WordPress ecosystem.

What has the sustainability initiative done so far?

  • A first “Now we have a sustainability channel in Making WordPress Slack, what should we do?” blog post has been published on Make WordPress Project Updates. This has built on sustainability efforts and research with WordCamps and Meetups in previous years.
  • The Make WordPress #sustainability channel has grown towards almost 200 members in less than a year.
  • There are weekly #sustainability Slack meetings on Friday, 11:00 UTC. Meetings are announced at https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/. Notes are taken from every meeting.
  • Multiple contributors are working on a Google document about Making WordCamp more sustainable, bringing together the previous efforts by contributors in the community for raising awareness and sharing resources through the community and marketing teams. The document focuses on suggestions and tips for how events can be more environmentally sustainable and raise awareness. This is a great example of how a Sustainability team can support and work together with other teams. Once the document is finished, the latest version will be shared with the Community Team to add it to the 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. and 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. organizers handbook. Materials will also be shared with the Marketing, Community and Training teams, and explore opportunities for further awareness raising and case studies.
  • The WP Sustainable plugin, published by the WordPress Hosting team, has been discussed regularly during the weekly meetings in the Sustainability 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/. channel. Contributors have provided suggestions for how the evolving 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 can improve. The group has had talks with the WordPress Hosting team, the WordPress Hosting team feels it makes more sense to let the plugin be a canonical plugin for the Sustainability team.
  • Some of the channel contributors had led a sustainability table at WordCamp Barcelona 2023 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/.. You can check the summary published at the #sustainability Slack channel.
  • There will be a sustainability table during WordCamp Europe 2023 on Contributor Day. 
  • The group is presenting a sustainability workshop at WordCamp Europe 2023.

The WordPress Sustainability team’s goals

To make the WordPress ecosystem lead on sustainability, we have formulated three goals to work on: 

  1. Creating and spreading awareness about digital sustainability.
    As the most used CMS in the world, WordPress has a significant influence on the impact websites can have on the environment. Often we don’t know how this impact is generated, and what we can do as individuals to reduce the impact. Creating awareness about the impact on the environment is essential to make WordPress a more sustainable ecosystem.
  2. Increasing sustainability during WordPress events.
    WordPress events are increasingly thinking about sustainability and need encouragement, support and further development. By producing and maintaining a section on sustainability for the Community handbook, the team will help organizers with a growing reference guide on how they can be as sustainable as possible.
  3. Building an ecosystem that leads on sustainability.
    WordPress is a leader in terms of its user base, in influencing website trends, and the size of its community. It’s also a project that stands out in its values. We believe WordPress, as an ecosystem, can lead on sustainability by acknowledging the necessity to act.

If you are interested, you can read more about the vision shared in the first post in 2022 on the Make WordPress Project blog.

The WordPress Sustainability team would acknowledge that a more sustainable world cannot be achieved individually. The team would need to partner with WordPress users, WordPress teams and the WordPress Community and wider in order to move WordPress towards a more sustainable environmental model.

We invite you!

Together, we can achieve more. We invite you to leave your thoughts and feedback as a comment on the proposal below. Please leave a message of support to identify your support for our proposal and to join #sustainability Slack channel and the weekly Slack meetings on Fridays, 11:00 UTC.

—

Proposal from: @littlebigthing, @nahuai, @noradriana, @yellowlime.

Reviewed and supported by (in no particular order): @javiercasares, @estelaris, @hanopcan, @webcommsat

#sustainability

Hari Shanker R 8:10 pm on May 17, 2023
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WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program: Pilot Program Proposal

In February 2023, I proposed a project-wide WordPress mentorship program. Positive feedback and support from our community led to the revitalization of the WordPress contributor working group in March 2023, which has since been working on building a mentorship program for our project. Based on feedback from our chats thus far, our group decided to test this idea of project-wide mentorship by running a pilot program. 

I’m excited to announce that the contributor working group has now prepared a first draft for a project-wide mentorship program! Read on to find out more.

What is the Contributor Mentorship Program?

The Contributor Mentorship Program aims to provide cohort-based and 1:1 mentorship to new and aspiring contributors. The program is intended as a pathway to help new contributors find their way into WordPress contributions.

It aims to set new contributors up for success by providing them the necessary guidance, skills, and knowledge around the project and helping them make their first contributions.

In its ideal form, the program will:

  • Help and inspire its participants to make ongoing contributions to the WordPress project
  • Explain the different areas of contribution in the WordPress project to participants
  • Help participants to successfully select their area of participation in the WordPress project
  • Provide necessary guidance and community connections that will help participants be successful with their contributions
  • Help participants find success in their career through successful open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. contributions

A Brief Overview of the Program Plan

The flowchart below offers a high-level pictorial representation of the program flow, which I have tried to explain in brief through this post. A detailed description of the program can also be found in its white paper prepared jointly by the working group.

A flowchart depicting the contribution flow of the proposed mentorship program
  • A call for mentees (participants) goes out and from the pool of applicants, 10 mentees are selected (primarily new contributors). Mentors are handpicked from a pool of experienced contributors and working group members. Selected mentees and mentors answer a pre-event survey to gauge their knowledge, interest in contribution areas, and confidence-levels. Mentors will receive specific guidance on guiding mentees through the program. 
  • We invite all Make/Teams to take active part in this initiative to bring contributors to their respective teams. Interested teams can propose their team members as mentors to the program.
  • A short cohort of new contributors (not more than 10 mentees) and experienced contributors (not less than five mentors) are to be brought together in a dedicated space (potentially a 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/. channel in Make/WordPress) to work together for a certain period (about four weeks or one month)
  • During this time, mentees will learn pre-prepared training material (existing contributor courses in Learn WordPress).
  • Each mentee will be assigned a mentor depending on multiple factors such as their locale, time zones, contribution interest, etc. Mentors and mentees will have at least two 1:1 mentoring sessions (over text chat and/or video) throughout the course of the mentorship. 
  • Additionally, the group will have at least three group mentoring sessions on broad contribution topics (over text or video). Each week, mentees will also report their progress in the Slack channel and will have the space to interact with each other too. 
  • Once mentees are done with the broad contributor training courses in Learn WordPress (ideally in the first two weeks of the mentorship program), they work with mentors to identify contributor teams of their choice (if not clear already before joining the program) and go on to make a certain number of contributions (depending on the team they select). They will have completed these contributions by the end of the mentorship program. Optionally, should they wish to, mentees will create a three-month contribution and learning plan with their chosen mentor. 
  • Once all the courses and training sessions are complete, and once mentees have made their initial contributions, they graduate from the program, and the mentorship program wraps up. Mentees will be recognized for their contributions in public on an official WordPress space. 
  • Once the program concludes, Mentees will continue working with the Make/Team(s) of their choice, and will be connected to multiple team members from their chosen team for ongoing guidance as they continue their contributor journey. 
  • Post-wrap-up, mentees can continue to reach out to their cohort and mentors for ongoing guidance and support.

To find out about the proposed mentorship program in detail, please check out its white paper by clicking the button below:

Read the white paper on the Proposed Contributor Mentorship Program

How do we measure the success of this program?

The program will be considered extremely successful if:

  • At least 80% of the participants of the initial cohort graduate from the program (they complete the course, required lessons, make their initial contributions, and create their three-month plan)
  • At least 50% of the participants make ongoing contributions to WordPress as per their contribution plan, three months after completing the mentorship program

Other areas to measure impact:

  • Improved confidence after the mentorship program (measured through surveys)
  • Improved knowledge after the mentorship program (measured through surveys)
  • Feeling of belonging and commitment to WordPress (measured through surveys)

Action Items and Request for Feedback

Request to Make/Teams: The contributor working group invites Make/WordPress Teams to join our pilot program as mentors. If you contribute to a Make/Team and wish to be involved in building this program, please express your interest in the comments.

  • First of all, what do you think about this program in its current form? Please share your feedback in the comments of this post. 
  • You will notice that this post only explains the program in brief. The working group has prepared a white paper that explains the program in detail. Please review it and share your feedback – either as comments in the document or as comments on this blog post.
  • Does this program excite you? Would you like to be a part of building a mentorship program for WordPress? We could use your help – Join the WordPress Contributor Working Group –  participate in one of our mentorship chats, comment on this post expressing your interest, or pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” me in Make/WordPress Slack (I‘m @harishanker over there).

Big thanks to all members of the contributor working group in helping draft this proposal!

This post was jointly-written by members of the contributor working group: @adityakane @nao @oglekler @yoga1103 @kirasong @st810amaze @onealtr @carl-alberto @tobifjellner @javiercasares @sz786 @meher @courane01 @jeffpaul @sereedmedia @cbringmann @angelasjin @juliarosia @askdesign @nomadskateboarding @harishanker @javiercasares @gounder @unintended8 @webtechpooja @thewebprincess @unintended8 @desrosj @askdesign @webtechpooja @webcommsat @kcristiano @leonnugraha and @evarlese

#5ftf, #five-for-the-future, #proposal #contributor-working-group #wpcontributors #mentorship-program

Jonathan Pantani 9:06 pm on April 19, 2023
Tags: Showcase   

Revitalizing the Showcase

Showcase Content Moderation Efforts

The Showcase aims to show the world what can be done with WordPress and help demonstrate the capabilities of WordPress as a publishing platform with a vast array of use cases of sites for personal bloggers and small businesses to enterprise companies and national governments.

With efforts made throughout 2022 to highlight the incredible capabilities of the WordPress platform, solidifying its values and identity, many eyes have been drawn to the opportunity that it presents. 

WordPress is a brand that many people are unaware of, but interact with daily. Within the WordPress ecosystem, it’s known for its flexibility, popularity, and freedom to own one’s content. From personal blogs to enterprise websites, millions of sites are powered by WordPress. To highlight the power and breadth of the CMS, the project ought to showcase stunning and unique sites from all across the open web. What better way for WordPress to become a household name than to share and celebrate some of those stories? 

The showcase represents the best of what’s possible with WordPress. Infinite possibilities of what you can create on the platform. Millions of sites could make it. Great, right? There are already some guidelines in place for submissions. A little more polish through a few updates could have added benefits to the collection. There are lessons from the guidelines for Moderating Photos that can serve as a beneficial example. First, remember that keeping the guidelines flexible and short can encourage people to submit. Second, it would be overly prescriptive to say things ought to be from specific categories or regions. By design, the Showcase should be diverse in every sense. 

Knowing what’s worked well for the Project in the past, like the WP Photo Directory, while aligning it to WordPress brand values will make the Showcase one of WordPress’s most valuable marketing and communications assets.

History

Despite this goal, the existing WordPress.org Showcase has faced long-standing technical and moderation hurdles which made it difficult to keep updated. A variety of discussions about the Showcase’s purpose, design, and moderation are cataloged in Github.

The moderation process is cumbersome, relying heavily on a fragile automation process that has had issues over the years. Editing has been very manual, and elevated editor privileges have created bottlenecks over the years. Revisiting the showcase now should help alleviate some of the issues. 

The Showcase receives hundreds of new submissions every year, about a third of which are spam/broken, and many more which do not meet the submission guidelines. Note too that current submission guidelines are open to a lot of interpretation, thus making the entire process of moderating Showcase far more complex than it needs to be. 

The Showcase is a valuable asset for the WordPress project and re-starting efforts to keep it current and fresh will surely inspire others of the infinite possibilities of a WordPress-powered website.

Coming up

A companion post outlining the proposed guidelines for the WordPress Showcase has been posted to the Make Marketing blog. If you want to weigh in and get more involved in revitalizing the showcase, the Make Marketing team looks forward to hearing community voices!

#showcase

Jonathan Pantani 10:51 pm on April 13, 2023
Tags: marketing, wp20   

Building Blocks: The Evolution of WordPress 2013-2023

Provide feedback via GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ with first-look access to the upcoming WP20 Book.

20 years — a new milestone

On May 27, 2023, WordPress celebrates a significant milestone in its journey as the project reaches its 20th anniversary. As part of the planned activities to mark this achievement, project leadership commissioned a book last year to document the years since its first commissioned work, Milestones – The Story of WordPress (2003-2013.)

The next volume, Building Blocks: The Evolution of WordPress, spans the history of WordPress from 2013-2023 and catalogs its wins, learnings, and everything in between. From changes to how users engage with the platform to confronting a worldwide pandemic, the book reflects on the most impactful moments over the last decade.

As the book gets ready for general release on the anniversary of WordPress, you, the community, have a role to play in ensuring that the story comes to life.

How you can help

You’re invited to play the role of editor by reviewing one or all of the 16 chapters. The book’s chapters are available on GitHub; each chapter has its own markdown file and is immediately available for download.

As you get started, a very important resource that can prove helpful is The WordPress Writing Style Guide. 

Please focus on the content in your review rather than syntax, for instance. Here are some tips for what helpful feedback will look like providing additional source materials, including helpful links, offering potential images, spotting potential grammatical issues or typos, as well as any contextual documentation. Unhelpful feedback looks like offering a total rewrite or critique of the writing style.

To log a suggested edit, please create a new GitHub issue (one issue per ticket, please) and assign it to jpantani, who is assisting with this project’s wrangling.

Quick steps to take action

Please share your feedback by April 30, 2023.

#wp20

Hari Shanker R 6:14 pm on March 10, 2023
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X-post: Launching the Contributor Working Group: Call for Volunteers

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Josepha 3:47 pm on February 8, 2023
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X-post: Apply to Attend the 2023 Community Summit

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