Participants: Andrea_R, Siobhan, Kailey, Dougla, Syed, Erica
Nobody loves the codex.
The codex is not useful if it doesn’t have good documentation
There are people in charge of the codex?
People are afraid or don’t feel competent enough to contribute? We need to reduce fear?
Some people are working independently and reverting changes. It’s hard to know what people are doing. Some changes are reverted, which is a bit strange and worrisome.
The codex was put in place but simply exploded and lost it’s usefulness.
It would be great to split it from user to developer.
Things are wrong with the codex:
- New users get freaked out by code
- The structure of the pages needs to re-done.
- Examples are needed. Functions, and code snippets.
- Examples are sometimes wrong and poorly documented.
- Notes in code would make it easier for people to understand.
Documentation can be quite varied, It tries to teach and also documents.
The search needs to be done all the time because of lack of organization.
the way the codex is indexed in Google, it’s loaded as secured and often breaks in Chrome. Can we look into fixing the canonical links so there’s no SSLSSL Secure Socket Layer - Encryption from the server to the browser and back. Prevents prying eyes from seeing what you are sending between your browser and the server. Link.
We should have a user manual for beginners.
The front page needs to be re-organized. User vs Dev.
The front page could be mocked-up quite easily.
Who are the people who are responsible for the Codex. Who are these independent people.
Some stuff is not documented and need more work.
Every release, there should be new pages that get set up for them.
Perhaps a mentorship program could be put in place, so that more people contribute.
The Codex is huge. Right now, we’re just doing damage control.
People are paid to work in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., but why not have fundraising for finding a way to take responsibility for that?
A reward or recognition function should be put in place so that people are rewarded for contributing.
If there’s a person paid to edit, then who is in charge, and can others still contribute?
The multilingual stuff is very spotty and translation is very difficult.
One suggestion is how to tackle this. A suggestion is to just start from scratch and present it a better way,
The relationship between the writers and developer needs to be improved.
Core developers need to check the box “needs codex”.
Should we allow video in the codex? The videos need to be stripped down and can not be branded.
@Rarst has come up with Query post — which could work for the Codex.
Separating the documentation and removing the function. Better search.
Visualization for loops and all sorts of diagrams could be brought in.
Glossary – The codex has one but it’s not done right. We would then need 2 glossaries, one for users, one for devs.
Users, learners, developers
Sorting using taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. and alphabetized.
Media Wiki for developer docs
WordPress could be used for developers.
It would be nice if you could check a box, user and only see the user stuff. Vice versa.
The user guides and theme handbook could be phased out for users.
The user guides are web based only from now. If it’s turned into a pdf, it should be timestamped and updated on a regular basis.
The user manual could be added to the dashboard.
A roadmap for the codex should be put in place.
The codex is lacking in best practice information. security, apis, themes, etc…
The codex needs to be inter-inked to all the various handbooks.
Action Item:
Road map for the Codex.