Six members of the Support team attended the 2015 Community Summit, converging on Philadelphia from Singapore, the Netherlands, Norway, Canada, and the US. We covered the following agenda:
Upgrading the Forum Software
The current support forums are powered by a very outdated bbPress Free, open source software built on top of WordPress for easily creating forums on sites. https://bbpress.org. 1.x install. We’d like to upgrade to bbPress 2.x — which came out in 2011 — to take advantage of its greater flexibility and ease of plugin 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 creation. Upgrading isn’t a simple process, and requires us to update old bbPress plugins to be compatible with bbPress 2.x.
We’ve compiled a list of old bbPress plugins and functionality and have labeled plugins that must be converted before bbPress 2.0 is feasible.
If you decide to help, follow the instructions below and we’ll send you a file — likely just a bunch of PHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/preface.php. functions — which need to be rewritten into an updated WordPress plugin.
If you can help:
- Inform @Clorith you want to work on the specific file
- Setup a WordPress site (latest)
- Install the bbPress plugin (latest)
- Rewrite the code as a WordPress plugin
The plugins needs to be:
- Open 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. (GPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples. 2+ or compatible), and
- Rewritten to today’s coding standards
Each of these plugins will be open sourced once they are successfully ported.
HelpHub Participation
Part of the support team’s contribution to HelpHub is to define the Frequently Asked Questions in the forums. We categorized the main groups of users, and came up with the following questions.
The four categories of users who post new topics are as follows:
- I am new to WordPress and probably installed WordPress via my host’s one-click install
- I can edit my files and likely have had some experience with WordPress
- I am comfortable with directly editing the database via phpMyAdmin
- I have setup my own server
1. New to WordPress, installed WordPress via one-click install — approx. 70% of users posting new topics in the forums.
Categories of Frequently Asked Questions
- Locked out of their account (password resets)
- My web site was hacked
- Plugin and theme conflicts (how to disable plugins and themes manually and in the dashboard)
- Incomplete updates i.e. .maintenance file or re-installing WordPress
- Modify style, text, colors in your theme
- PHP memory issues
- Max upload size
- File permission problems — cannot upload theme or plugin (WordPress asking for FTP FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol which is a way of moving computer files from one computer to another via the Internet. You can use software, known as a FTP client, to upload files to a server for a WordPress website. https://codex.wordpress.org/FTP_Clients. credentials)
- My site does not look like the theme demo
- Windows server questions/problems
- I am not receiving mail from my WordPress install
- Mail is from wordpress@mydomain.com — how do I change it?
2. I can edit my files. Installed manually or one-click but leveled up — 15% of new topics.
Categories of Frequently Asked Questions
- Modifying plugins
- Display excerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox. instead of full post or vice versa
- Modifying theme layout, fonts, and functions (dequeue fonts)
- Featured images (adding or subtracting)
- Caching problems, changes not showing up live
- .htaccess issues
- Permalink issues
- wp-config.php constants WP_DEBUG
3. I am comfortable editing my database via phpMyAdmin or MySQL MySQL is a relational database management system. A database is a structured collection of data where content, configuration and other options are stored. https://www.mysql.com/. CLI Command Line Interface. Terminal (Bash) in Mac, Command Prompt in Windows, or WP-CLI for WordPress. — 10% of new topics.
Categories of Frequently Asked Questions
- DB query questions
- Search and replace in the database
- Repair tables
- Character sets
4. I have set up my own server — 5% of new topics.
Categories of Frequently Asked Questions
- DNS DNS is an acronym for Domain Name System - how you assign a human readable address to a website’s exact numeric coded location (ie. wordpress.org uses the actual IP address 198.143.164.252). questions
- Apache Apache is the most widely used web server software. Developed and maintained by Apache Software Foundation. Apache is an Open Source software available for free., Nginx NGINX is open source software for web serving, reverse proxying, caching, load balancing, media streaming, and more. It started out as a web server designed for maximum performance and stability. In addition to its HTTP server capabilities, NGINX can also function as a proxy server for email (IMAP, POP3, and SMTP) and a reverse proxy and load balancer for HTTP, TCP, and UDP servers. https://www.nginx.com/., PHP upgrade/config questions
- nginx reverse proxy or Varnish question.
The support team will provide FAQs and answers for each of these categories and topic ideas.
Annual Support Handbook Audit
The Support Handbook was reviewed by @Clorith and @MacManX and minor adjustments were made. The handbook is frequently looked at throughout the year and there weren’t many changes needed.
Clearing Out Admin and Moderator Accounts
As part of the annual account entitlement review the admin and moderator accounts were audited. If an admin or moderator had not posted in the forums for one year, their account was downgraded one level. So, an inactive admin was made moderator and a moderator went to member.
If there was an account that was downgraded by mistake, please inform the moderators in #forums Slack 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.
How to Invite and Support Volunteers — aka Volunteer Wrangling
Helping out in support can often sound unappealing when it’s perceived as just repetitive replying to questions in the support forums. It can seem tedious and draining, constantly facing the challenges of dealing with unhappy people. The role can also be prone to burnout.
We feel it’s important to reframe the support role to counter these stereotypes and bring in fresh volunteers.
Sharing Support Experience with Developers
We need to remember that support people are often the first ones users deal with in their WordPress journeys. Asking a question in the forums is the beginning of that user’s relationship with WordPress and sets the tone for what’s to come.
WordPress developers need feedback from users. As the front-line crew, the support team has a unique opportunity to not only help people, but also to spot trends and consolidate issues that core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., theme, and plugin developers, or other contributor teams may need to address.
Being a part of the support team isn’t just about support. We also have a responsibility to be users’ advocate and represent their interests in the wider WordPress community. Bringing new focus to this key collaborative role is something the support team needs to work on.
We discussed the following ways we can accomplish this:
Document how the support team can create good Trac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. tickets
One complaint from users is that they feel that their suggestions and requests are ignored. One way we can address this is by documenting their issues in Trac.
Not every user request should be made into a Trac ticket. For example, requests that are too narrow in focus and don’t serve the wider WordPress community. But if a user identifies a bug or potential enhancement in the admin interface, that could be made into a Trac ticket, and we can provide the user with a link to the ticket so they can follow its progress.
Keep an eye out for trends in the user experience that should be brought to the core team’s attention
When we notice a trend, a support rep should attend the #core team meetup 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., bring it to their attention, and represent the concern to that team.
Don’t Just Solve the Problem, Help People Solve Problems
For example, it’s tempting to just give the forum member the exact CSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. needed to solve their problem. Instead, it’s better to also provide the method and resources you used to arrive at the solution, which gives them the opportunity to become more self-sufficient.
While a more in-depth reply can take longer to formulate, spending that extra time not only helps the user solve their own problems in the future, it also helps other users searching the forums down the road.
Get the Word Out There About Support
Document your experience in support through public channels like blog posts. Emphasize the positives, like how being a part of the support team has improved your skills and performance in your day job.
The support team is friendly and welcomes new people to give it a try. We have a make.wordpress.org site and Slack channel (#forums) where conversations about support take place.
The support team has a low barrier to entry and is a great way to learn about using and developing for WordPress. Approach people and invite them to join the support team. Recruit them into the team; if they’ve ever helped a WordPress user, then they are already part of the support team.
Once they realize and feel that they’re part of a team, it’s likely we’ll see more of them in the future.
Wrap-Up
At the Community Summit the support team was able to address our agenda and determine things to work on in 2016. By working on the bbPress plugins, providing feedback regarding HelpHub, and recruiting new volunteers, we will achieve our goal: to help users and continue to promote the growth of WordPress.
#community-summit, #wcus