James Huff 4:35 pm on October 20, 2016

New Forum Descriptions Planning Master Post

The new forum theme now puts the forums and their descriptions front and center, so it’s about time we discussed which ones we want to keep, and what their descriptions should be (some of these were written over 10 years ago).

To save time on next week’s meeting, let’s use the comments below to start discussing how we should change this.

For reference, the forums and their descriptions in the new theme are displayed as follows:

sterndata (Steve Stern) 4:39 pm on October 20, 2016

1) Hacks — a bad/misused word Let’s get rid of it.
2) Meetups is unused; either somehow hook it up to meetup.com announcements or get rid of it.
3) Your WordPrss — remove it.
4) Installation — “If you can’t get it running.” (Too many “Having problems installing XYZ them” wind up here.)
Mark Uraine 4:50 pm on October 20, 2016

I’d recommend, because the titles of each forum are pretty short, that the descriptive text be in sentence structure with proper punctuation. Some of these have periods, some don’t… they should all be sentences with periods.
Marius L. J. (Clorith) 10:37 pm on October 20, 2016
First off:
- Re-hide “Your WordPress”
- Re-hide “Meetups” (Maybe check on the status of https://make.wordpress.org/support/2014/10/pre-emptive-october-23rd-agenda-item-can-we/ ?)
Now, some sections are of little to no use to actual users:
- Hide “Plugins and Hacks”, anything posted here will be lost in the stream of 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-specific-forum posts
- Hide “Reviews”, same as above this is the melting pot for all reviews
- “Themes and Templates” is to themes what “Plugins and Hacks” is to plugins, perhaps hiding this from the public list and introducing a new subforum in its place?
That nearly halves the amount of subforums, makes it much easier on the user to find what they are looking for.

I’d even make the case for merging “WP-Advanced” and “Localhost installs” as well actually, they’re essentially the same and the localhost section hasn’t seen activity for 6 months any way,. maybe even re-labeling it to “WP Developers” or similar at the same time to set the expectations as these are almost exclusively code related questions? (sounds like some good topics for next week)

I’ll avoid any text suggestions for the thoughts above just because it’d be silly to work on texts if they’re not to be shown 🙂

Now on to the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. of it all:
- Installation – If you encounter any problems while setting up WordPress.
- WP-Advanced – For those looking to do more advanced things with WordPress. (if we do re-label it, let’s look at something like “For the developer looking to do more with 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.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network. – Questions and discussions about running a network of WordPress sites.
- Miscellaneous – For questions and problems not covered in the other forums.
- Requests and feedback – User thoughts and ideas concerning WordPress and 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/.
- Alpha/BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. – Feedback and bug reports on development versions of WordPress.
- Jon (Kenshino) 5:24 am on October 23, 2016
  
  I’d say rename WP-Advanced to Developing with WordPress or Development using WordPress
Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 12:02 am on October 21, 2016
I like Clorith’s mostly…
- Installation – Installing WordPress
- Troubleshooting – Fixing WordPress
- Advanced – Developing 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.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network. – Networking WordPress
- Miscellaneous – Everything Else WordPress
- Alpha/BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. – Aortic WordPress
Yes, I’m saying drop “Requests and Feedback”

Why? Well… it really can be combined with Misc. can’t it?
Star Verte LLC 3:48 am on October 21, 2016

What about using haikus for the descriptions? Just a thought.
- James Huff 7:36 am on October 21, 2016
  
  Probably not in this case. While fun, they are notoriously difficult to translate, and it would be best to pursue something that could be deployedDeploy Launching code from a local development environment to the production web server, so that it's available to visitors. to all of the communities: https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/contributing-to-the-wordpress-forums/support-forums-in-your-language/
  - Jon (Kenshino) 9:02 am on October 21, 2016
    
    And they need to be easily understood by people who aren’t that good with English.
Jon (Kenshino) 9:02 am on October 21, 2016

Are we open to editing names?
- Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 3:31 pm on October 21, 2016
  
  Display names, perhaps not slugs 😉
bcworkz 9:48 pm on October 21, 2016

I agree plugins and hacks should be hidden, but let’s not forget the hacks sub-forum below it. While the “Hacks” name is well past it’s prime (and confusing for many), that forum’s place in support is still very valid. I can see the WP-Advanced taking it’s place as long as it’s clear that folks with custom coding questions should go there. I don’t think “Advanced” or “doing more with WP” really captures it. If nothing else, “Advanced” needs to go because it’s been long associated with an essentially dead forum. If people are to make use of this forum, it needs a new label. I don’t see a problem with the current slug as long as the label is new.

“Developing WP” is somewhat accurate but it’s jargon. It could deter folks who want to make some minor code adjustments but do not consider themselves developers. We need some nicely worded equivalent to the informal rule we’ve had where if code is involved it belongs in Hacks.

I hate criticizing things when I cannot offer a good alternative, but that’s the way it is right now. I’ll try to offer up some alternatives in the near future. More coffee first.
- bcworkz 1:36 am on October 24, 2016
  
  My suggestion for renaming WP-Advanced with the assumption that Plugins and Hacks is hidden and the Hacks sub-forum gets merged with WP-Advanced:
  Extending WordPress
  When available themes and plugins just won’t do.
  
  Just one thought, I’m certainly open to other ideas. Worth discussing at the next meeting?
Bet Hannon 4:14 pm on October 27, 2016

Bump A11yAccessibility 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) up higher and move 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.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network. lower. Accessiblity needs more visibility, and so many people post to Multisite in error (when they really mean more than one separate single site installs), so maybe having it lower would help with that?
Kathryn 3:37 pm on November 3, 2016

“Themes and Templates” is to themes what “Plugins and Hacks” is to plugins, perhaps hiding this from the public list and introducing a new subforum in its place?

I still think it would be ideal to somehow direct users to invididual theme forums from the main forum view, since newer users may not even realize there are theme-specific forums. I’d suggested some rough wording back at the mockups stage, for both plugins and themes:

Themes & Templates
Need help with a theme in the .org repository? Go to the theme’s directory page and then to the “Visit 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.” link. Post here for any other theme-related help.

Plugins & Hacks
Need help with 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 in the .org repository? Go to the plugin’s directory page and then to the “Visit support forum” link. Post here for any other other plugin-related help.

@otto42 had in turn suggested this:

I was thinking to just hide the plugins and themes forums entirely, and let them be only used for those specific forum views in the theme and plugin areas. So, they’d still be there, just hidden from the main view. Then add something to theme and plugin directories to redirect the user to specific theme/plugin support views.