Dealing with Angry Users – Workshop on March 16, 2018

We’re pleased to announce the next workshop aimed at sharing best practices in support. The series aims to boost support skills among all those who support coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., plugins, themes, or anything else in the WordPress ecosphere. (Check out the previous workshops here.) We welcome your ideas for other workshop topics or speakers; feel free to comment here, or find us in 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/..

The workshop

Dealing with Angry Users

No matter what product or service you sell and/or support, problems sometimes arise and your users will be quick to tell you about them. These issues can escalate in a heartbeat, and suddenly you’re getting yelled at. In this session, we’ll look at how to help irate users and restore their trust in the product and/or your company.

Presenter

Mindy Postoff is a Happiness Engineer at Automattic, supporting users of WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ as they work on their websites. She’s worked on the front lines in the service/support industry her entire life, leaving an ever-growing list of happy customers in her wake.

When is it?

Friday, March 16, 2018, 16:00 UTC, (noon EDT) it will run for about an hour and includes Q&A. When adding the event to your calendar, keep in mind that Daylight Savings Time begins in certain parts of the world on March 11.

A link to the Zoom teleconference will be provided in the #forums Slack channel about 10 minutes before the session begins.

How do I join?

The session will be run via videoconference via Zoom, which runs on most desktop and mobile devices. Can’t make it? The session will be recorded and the video posted later – keep your eye on this P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/..

Support Volunteers Orientation, Tues, Feb 6, 17UTC

Following up on our experiment with a Support Volunteers Orientation back in December, our next Orientation session will be on Tuesday, February 6, 2018, 17:00 UTC

We will “meet” in the #forums 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, and walk through the basics of helping out on the 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/ support forums, and give some pointers for getting started. Experienced volunteers are welcomed as a refresher.

If you know someone who would like to start helping in the forums, please do encourage them to come and start contributing to WordPress!

To participate, new volunteers will need to create a wordpress.org user account if they don’t already have one, then create an account on Slack and join the #forums channel. If you already have a wordpress.org user account (perhaps you have posted a question in the forums before), then you can use that account.

Update: Here’s a link to the Slack transcript of the orientation: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQC6RW/p1517936476000193

January 25th Support Team Meeting Summary

General announcements

We updated the Health Check 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 to v0.9 last night, primarily focusing on user experience, translation fixes bug-squatting.

WordPress 4.9.3-beta1 is out, please test if you can!

A reminder to avoid name-dropping in the #forums 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/. room. We are in many ways the public face of WordPress, and perception is a fickle beast. It’s hard to properly convey intentions via text on the internet, and what we say can lose context or be misinterpreted. Let’s help each other to remember not to drop names/usernames in the channel moving forward.

WordPress 4.9.2

No new issues have arisen for 4.9.2 (thankfully, with 4.9.3 on the horizon).

Checking in with international liaisons

The Italian, Greek, Swedish, Portuguese, Russian, German and Hindi communities had representatives present providing feedback and input during this weeks meeting.

Open floor

Our January workshop was this week, check out the recap if you’re interested!

Next workshop will be in March, and our new Contributor Orientation is set for February, announcements for both to follow shortly!

Attendance

@abletec, @alichani, @alichani, @anevins, @bcworkz, @bemdesign, @clorith, @contentiskey, @cristianozanca, @fierevere, @firoz2456, @geoffreyshilling, @hardeepasrani, @macmanx, @numeeja, @pjoannasaurus, @pmfonseca, @stephencottontail, @sterndata, @t-p, @tobifjellner, @vitormadeira, @xkon, @zodiac1978 and @zoonini attended.

 

Read the meeting transcript in the Slack archives. (A Slack account is required)

 

Contributor tip
If you ever find yourself in need of guidance when answering a support request, stop by #forums on Slack, we’d love to help!

#weekly-chat

Scaling Support: Dip the Data Bucket Every Day – Workshop on January 22, 2018

We’re pleased to announce the third workshop in a series aimed at sharing best practices in support. The workshops are geared to boosting support skills among all those who support coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., plugins, themes, or anything else in the WordPress ecosphere. (Check out the two previous workshops here.) The support team welcomes your ideas for other workshop topics or speakers; feel free to comment here, or give us a 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.” in 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/..

The workshop

Scaling Support: Dip the Data Bucket Every Day

The best way to provide high-quality support is to have enough well trained and skilled technicians to provide that support. That’s only possible if you know how heavy your support load is and how rapidly its increasing — if at all. The presentation will walk you through my personal strategy of understanding my support team’s support load and how data influences our week-to-week decisions for hiring new support.

Host

Matt Cromwell is Head of Support and Community Outreach at GiveWP.com and WordImpress.com. He is the author of several popular free plugins, and the Lead Organizer of the Advanced WordPress San Diego 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. and AWP Facebook group, which boasts over 29K members. He’s a popular blogger at his personal site mattcromwell.com, wordimpress.com, givewp.com, and mediatemple.net.

When is it?

Monday, January 22, 2018, 18:00 UTC, it will last for about an hour and includes Q&A.

A link to the Zoom teleconference will be provided in the #forums Slack channel about 10 minutes before the session begins.

How do I join?

The session will be run via videoconference. Please download the free Zoom app ahead of time. You can run Zoom on most desktop and mobile devices. Can’t make it? The session will be recorded and the video posted later – keep your eye on this P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/..

November 16th Support Team Meeting Summary

WordPress 4.9

WordPress 4.9 is out, and as is customary a new Master List has been put up on the forums.

As new bugs, gotcha’s and 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/theme conflicts are discovered we’ll be updating the thread, so keep an eye on it for any new items.

Remember to keep general chatter in #forums on 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/. to a minimum for the first 48 hours after a release, this is done to avoid missing information when it’s being shared at a critical point right after a new release.

Checking in with international liaisons

The Russian, Hindi, Italian, German and Spanish communities are having a good time.

Other topics

The next workshop is scheduled for January, more details to follow, but December is a very busy time for a lot of people so it makes sense for this to right over the new years hump.

Attendance

@anevins, @bcworkz, @bdbrown, @bethannon1, @clorith, @cristianozanca, @fierevere, @firoz2456, @geoffreyshilling, @hardeepasrani, @ipstenu, @jcastaneda, @josearcos, @lasacco, @macmanx, @numeeja, @pmfonseca, @stephencottontail, @sterndata, @t-p, @wido, @zodiac1978 and @zoonini attended.

Read the meeting transcript in the Slack archives. (A Slack account is required)

 

Contributor tips
Bring that knowledge of yours to a local meetup, it’s a great way to share and learn among like-minded individuals!

#weekly-chat

September 28th Support Team Meeting Summary

WordPress 4.8.2

No major new incidents, a few issues with the numbered arguments early on but they appear to have been sorted out petty quickly as plugins have been updated to fix their code.

General Announcements

A quick reminder that we’ll shortly be promoting the Health Check plugin as a means of getting debug data, as well as automating some system checks for users seeking assistance (once it’s been updated, the plan is to get it up to date within this week).

BBQ Post (Also known as the Master List)

The WordPress 4.9 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. is fast approaching, that means it’s time to start working on the BBQ Post. For those unfamiliar, this is where we preemptively create a support resource for what we suspect will be pain points for users in the next major releaseMajor Release A set of releases or versions having the same major version number may be collectively referred to as “X.Y” -- for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, and all other versions in the 5.2. (five dot two dot) branch of that software. Major Releases often are the introduction of new major features and functionality. of WordPress. We then fill it up with the issues that arise throughout the release cycle until the next major version is released, as a reference you can view the 4.8 Master List.

Support workshops

If you have suggestions for upcoming workshops, please do leave a comment, or drop by the #forums 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, we welcome input here as we’re certain we’ll miss out on great input if it’s just the same people cherry picking each time.

Our next support workshop is rapidly approaching as well, just as a reminder this time it will be from 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 representative and not a theme one.

Why solving the problem isn’t enough – A Support Workshop

Checking in with international liaisons

Things are looking good in the Swedish, Hindi, Russian, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Greek communities.

The Spanish team are keeping a tight ship, maintaining a consistent response rate so far, kudos to them!

Attendance

@bcworkz, @bethannon1, @clorith, @cristianozanca, @fierevere, @hardeepasrani, @jcastaneda, @jdembowski, @josearcos, @lasacco, @macmanx, @numeeja, @sergeybiryukov, @stephencottontail, @sterndata, @t-p, @tacoverdo, @tobifjellner, @voldemortensen, @xkon and @zoonini attended.

Read the meeting transcript in the Slack archives. (A Slack account is required)

#weekly-chat

Why solving the problem isn’t enough – A Support Workshop

The workshop

When working in customer service, you’re supposed to always give the (technically) correct answer. While working in customer service for a Dutch internet provider I learned that the right answer often isn’t enough. This has influenced every conversation I’ve had since.

In this session, I’ll share the insights my team lead gave me, and help you use them.

When is it

Tuesday, October 3, 2017, 17:00 UTC, it will last for an hour and includes Q&A.

A link to the Zoom teleconference will be provided in the #forums 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 about 10 minutes before the session begins.

How do I join

The session will be run via videoconference and will be recorded. Please download the free Zoom app ahead of time. You can run Zoom on most desktop and mobile devices.

Who will be hosting it

Taco Verdonschot quickly switched from being a developer to doing customer support after joining Yoast and is now responsible for a team of 10 Support Engineers. He’s active in the WordPress community both as a polyglot, and as a 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. organizer.

The Developers Guide to Supporting Your Themes – A Support Workshop

After 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, the attending support team members were brainstorming how to improve support within the WordPress community, one of those plans were to conduct workshops, hosted by community members with themes or plugins on 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/, and let them present how they approach the support aspect of providing a service to the 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. community.

As such, our first workshop is now scheduled!

The workshop

Providing support for your themes offers tremendous opportunities to educate WordPress users, from explaining how to make a child themeChild theme A Child Theme is a customized theme based upon a Parent Theme. It’s considered best practice to create a child theme if you want to modify the CSS of your theme. https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/advanced-topics/child-themes/. to offering simple CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. customisations. It also presents challenges, like figuring out how to help people who aren’t tech-savvy or need support beyond the scope of what you can provide. While many developers dread doing support, with some concrete strategies and techniques in hand, helping users doesn’t have to be a chore – and can even be fun! This session looks at how to make your themes’ users happy while feeling a sense of satisfaction from your own support efforts – a winning combination in the world of theme development.

When is it

Wednesday, August 23, 2017, 16:00 UTC, it will last for an hour and includes Q&A.

A link to the Zoom teleconference will be provided in the #forums 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 about 10 minutes before the session begins.

How do I join

The session will be run via videoconference and will be recorded. Please download the free Zoom app ahead of time. You can run Zoom on most desktop and mobile devices.

Who will be hosting it

In her role as Theme Whisperer at Automattic, Kathryn Presner provides support for hundreds of themes. She began helping people as a volunteer in the WordPress.org forums back in 2011 and was immediately hooked.

July 13th Support Team Meeting Summary

General announcements

The WordPress 4.8.1 release is tentatively scheduled for August 1st.

User notes

This weeks main event, user notes are finally live!

User notes allows a moderator to attach a note to any user, allowing us to keep tabs on why actions were taken, and historical data if we have repeat offenders and similar.

This information is also shared with the rosetta sites, so they can add notes for behavior we may not observe on the international forums (or vice versa), giving us more control than our previous approach with emails and P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. posts.

The handbook now has a new section about how and when to use user notes, moderators should familiarize them selves with the document, and keep in mind that the handbook is a living document, so remember to check back now and then for any changes.

Forum Welcome and Forum Guidelines

The new forum welcome is now live on the forums, and can freely be adopted by the rosetta sites as well. When translating it keep in mind that you don’t need to make it an exact copy of the international welcome, all languages and countries are different and what works for us might not be a perfect fit for your own locale.

In light of the much better experience a short welcome provides as part of the forums, we’ve migrated the forum guidelines into the forums as well, this ensures a consistent experience for regular forum users who may be put off by the sheer amount of information in the handbook (where the guidelines currently live).

Checkin With International Support Liaisons

The Portugese, Spanish, Italian and Swedish communities are doing well.

They’re looking into an odd issue with a specific Portugese forum being locked, metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. is on the case.

Other stuff

It was also brought up that the #forums channel might appear a bit off-putting when you join and you have to go through 13 pages of backscroll with nothing but emoji (my own over-statement for emphasis), which we can understand is less than ideal, so an effort will be made to keep the random outbursts of emoji down. This is not to say we’re going to kill any conversations between volunteers, as we recognize the value in blowing out in a friendly manner now and then, given the nature of support in general. So if you enjoy #forums emoji, don’t be too put off by this, we’ll say if it’s becoming too much.

Attendance

@abletec, @anevins, @bcworkz, @bdbrown, @bethannon1, @clorith, @contentiskey, @denzel_chia, @erricgunawan, @fierevere, @glorialchemica, @hardeepasrani, @jcastaneda, @jdembowski, @josearcos, @keesiemeijer, @kenshino, @kidsguide, @lasacco, @macmanx, @numeeja, @pmfonseca, @stephencottontail, @sterndata, @t-p, @tobifjellner, @vishalmukadam, @vitormadeira, @voldemortensen, @zodiac1978 and @zoonini attended.

Read the meeting transcript in the Slack archives. (A Slack account is required)

#weekly-chat

Hello again support team The meta team posted some…

Hello again support team!

The metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. team posted some mockups of the 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. redesign. Check them and let us know what you think!

#bbpress-2, #design, #forums