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Weekly Meetings
As well as discussing support issues here on the blog, we use Slack for group communication.
Our weekly meeting is held every Thursday 17:00 UTC, with the first meeting of the month being office hours, and the next will be at Thursday, 17:00 UTC(your time zone) in #forums on SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..
Tag Archives: weekly chat
Marius L. J.
9:55 am on April 28, 2023 Tags: weekly chat
This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.
Facilitating for sponsored volunteers
This weeks chat was primarily focused towards how the team can facilitate for sponsored volunteers, with the expectations this provides both from a team perspective, but also from the sponsoring side.
There’s definitely a place here for a followup post dedicated to gathering input from folks asynchronously, that were unable to attend the weekly meeting, and we will do just that. That gives time to also prepare suggestions for on-boarding and off-boarding routines, and document these.
Having a known schedule for volunteers would help with repeated tasks performed throughout the day on the international forums. It would also help leverage moderation on rosetta forums that may otherwise not have the same level of active volunteers already.
Another important element to keep in mind that we need to ensure that those who are sponsored have the access needed to carry out the tasks that are expected of them.
Some other elements that were brought up (and will be more thoroughly covered in the followup post) were the forum-password-resets email inbox, which is used to help users who are unable to reset their passwords, but is also where banned users are asked to reach out. This is an area where de-escalation experience is worth a lot, and the added benefit of support network sponsored volunteers often have that an individual might not have, would play in.
We recommend reading the discussion in its entirety during the meeting for those who wish to get a full picture of the current suggestions, as a prelude to the dedicated discussion on the topic.
This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.
Private Forum Moderators Channel
Support moderators have been given a new channel for private discussions. These are for topics that should not be discussed in public for various reasons, such as privacy concerns for users involved, or just to ensure that the team provides a unified response to an ongoing highly opinionated discussion.
The team is slowly rolling this out to include our volunteers on rosetta forums as well, and hope to start sending out invited in the next 1-2 weeks, reaching out first to only invite those who have an interest in it.
Request for input: Support Status
Data and statistics can help guide a lot of decisions, and also give insights into how things are going as a whole.
There is a call for input on what kind of information people would find interesting at https://make.wordpress.org/support/2023/04/request-for-input-support-stats/
When collecting information though, it is important to see it as a whole, and as chance would have it, a great article was shared at https://www.commsor.com/post/how-to-be-a-good-community-data-analyst about this on the same day as our meeting, giving some good thoughts and insights into just that.
This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.
WordPress 6.2 Release CandidateRelease CandidateA beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. 2
There appears to be some interest in having statistics as part of the teams weekly update, so a new post to gather asynchronous input will be created to move this forward.
Some of the fields mentioned (but no guarantees are made as to what will be in the first implementation) were:
Post comparison between themes, plugins, and general global forums
Amount of users blocked in a given time frame
Amount of reported topics handled
Amount of resolved thread within the given time frame
Checking in with international liaisons
International liaisons are reporting on a lot of exciting new WordCamps planned, including the inaugural WordCamp Sylhet, and WordCamp Torino!
This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.
Support ForumSupport ForumWordPress 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. Bug Scrub
CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Media Modal Input
The team was asked if we had identified any recurring usability issues or confusion regarding the media modal, in relation to core ticket #24567, but no issues had been discovered.
Requiring a reason when flagging users
The call for feedback on, and resulting discussion, relating to requiring a reason when flagging users, which could then be exposed to the end user to ensure they had access to the reason for their account status being changed, took up the majority of our meeting this week.
Additional impressions and feedback is added to the ticket (meta #6834), which is still open for feedback and opinions, but it is also a good discussion from the meeting transcript that is worth reading over.
Checking in with international liaisons
Unfortunately, due to the passionate discussions taking place, our weekly meeting ran out of time, and we did not have time to directly reach out to our international liaisons during the chat this week, but the previously referenced plan of doing direct outreach on a quarterly basis is still planned to happen, and direct contact has been had during Q1.
This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.
Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication is available for testing on WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/, the path to it is kind of hidden, as it is still being tested.
BetaBetaA 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. testing of the upcoming WordPress 6.2 continues at full speed. Do you run a unique kind of site, or fresh and modern PHPPHPPHP (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. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. versions? Help us test if you can!
Support ForumSupport ForumWordPress 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. Bug Scrub
A scrub of support forum component tickets is scheduled for March 1st.
WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. Asia
The first WordCamp Asia was held over the last weekend, and we’ll get some updates on how contributor dayContributor DayContributor 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/. went form a support perspective when the attendees have had a chance to settle in, kudos to the volunteers who helped by giving back during the event (and before/after, of course)!
Volunteers interested in taking on more responsibilities
In an effort to facilitate for more volunteers taking on new roles and responsibilities, there’s a proposal to have others take part in running weekly meetings. To lower the barrier, agendas will be prepared and the groundwork handled if desired, to make it easier to jump in and participate in more ways.
If this sounds interesting, please feel free to reach out to @clorith!
Checking in with international liaisons
No major issues being reported form the international liaisons this week.
Our friends in the Russian community are currently experimenting with Telegram as a community platform, and are seeing new faces, which is an exciting development!
Open floor
Open floor is a segment of our chat that is used if there is time left of the allotted meeting time, where items not initially on the agenda can be brought up, such as feedback or ideas, anything really (so long as it relates to the support team).
This improves on the reporting flow, and ensures that more initial information is available to those who respond to reports, so that the reporters may retain their anonymity moving forward by not needing ot be called upon to explain their report.
Merry-Go-Round of Life from Howl’s Moving Castle, performed by Joe Hisaishi
This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.
Topics reported by users
When a user reports a topic or review, they are now required to provide an explanation of why they are reporting the topic.
This should improve understanding among moderators when looking at a report, and remove the need to call out a user in public to get an explanation. This is doubly important, as the report feature maintains the reporters anonymity, by only revealing their identity, and the reason for the report, to a moderator, and that trust should not be broken.
Support component bug scrub
@vladytimy has graciously offered to host one (or more?) bug scrubs for the support component on metaMetaMeta 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., look forward to updates from them on times and dates!
WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. Asia
More communities bring back feedback that they are looking for solutions to replace Slack as a community platform due to various limitations form the platform in terms of who may use it, and what data is available to the communities to help retain members and grow.
This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.
WordPress 6.2 BetaBetaA 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.
Details of the Community Summit have been posted, and the invitation process is slightly different this year. If you believe you have something of value to add to the discussions, you’ll be able to submit an application to be considered for an invitation.
Evolving how we do international liaison check-ins
Moving forward the team will be doing quarterly check-ins with our international liaisons directly, to give them their own unique way of providing feedback and letting us know of any wins or struggles that the overall team can help each other on.
The exact format of these direct check-ins isn’t fully set yet, but will take learning from other teams doing similar approaches into account when putting together the exact format.
The support representative has left a comment with them for clarification on what problem is to be solved, and also noting some concerns.
Blocks Everywhere (in the forums)
The rollout of blocks within a forum context is coming along nicely, there are some lingering issues with the blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor that are still being investigated, namely;
Pasting code
Twemijo
List indentations
These are actively being looked into, and some rosetta sites have already opted into trying out the new editor as well (which others may also do if they so chose by reaching out), while a “on by default” approach won’t be taken until the lingering issues have been resolved.
Checking in with international liaisons
Some of our wonderful international friends were able to participate this week (and we’ve also reached out to everyone individually to check how things are going. The team understands that timezones do not always allow for everyone ot participate, so this may become more of a recurring thing).
Open floor
A few headlight items for the team were brought forth during open floor;
This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.
HelpHub is being split out from support
The HelpHub platform is currently being migrated to its own home, alongside its redesign. This means that the codebase, and content, will no longer live under wordpress.org/support as it has until now. Giving space for more flexibility in the content they can create.
WordPress 6.2
The release squad for WordPress 6.2 has been set, and a tentative launch date has been decided on (this may change if anything comes up), and is currently set to March 28th.
Support Training
Having support-related training over on learn.wordpress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/ was brought up as a good way to share knowledge outside of the support community to others who may be offering support, for example for plugins or themes, and also as a possible avenue for more formalized onboarding procedures.
This is an area where collaboration with the make/training team would be beneficial, and if someone would like to get a head start on contributing, joining them in #training on Slack is a good first step, as any need for formalized onboarding for the support team specifically needs to be planned out, if there is a good response to this suggestion, so leave your thoughts below!
The Support Handbook
The Support Team Handbook has been more or less in the same state since it was finalized, all the way back in 2014, and is definitely due for a review, and update, as some information may be outdated, and other important information is likely missing.
If someone would like to join in a collaborative effort to revamp this, please reach out and we’ll organize some collaboration there.
Open floor
Unfortunately @clorith dropped the ball a little, and takes responsibility for forgetting to check in with our amazing international liaisons this week, and we instead jumped into open floor, where a few items were brought up.
BlockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editing in the forums
A request to enable the block-editor in the remaining global forums was put forth, more information will be posted about this in its own update post, but for now, the editor has been enabled on all forums, except the AccessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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) ones (due to some reports of some accessibility concerns, so it was purposefully not enabled there, to not make posting more difficult at this time).
The WordPress Mobile Apps
The Mobile apps are currently being decoupled from other assets that have previously kept them tied in with Jetpack or WordPress.comWordPress.comAn 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/ assets. In this same move, they’ll be moving support back to WordPress.org (this has previously been tied to locked support systems).
The request was made to have a Mobile forum created, which shortly after the meeting was enabled (as it had preemptively been prepared already by the MetaMetaMeta 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).
There has been no negative fallout from our relaxed policies on pluginPluginA 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 vulnerability discussion and premium product support established during the September 29th meeting.
PHPPHPPHP (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. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. 8.x
WordPress 6.x is tested with PHP 8 and offers preliminary support, but we cannot guarantee compatibility for third-party plugins and themes since that is the responsibility of the plugin/theme developer.
We, along with Drupal and Symfony, are asking the PHP group to extend support of PHP 7.4.x, but we have no firm answers yet.
No More Flagging for Premium Support
We are no longer flagging users for requesting premium support on the forums, as that hurts their ability to post across allWordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/ forums.
Support requests for premium products will continue to be encouraged towards the proper support venue (without closing the thread), and as always, flags (or bans as necessary) will continue to be applied for other Guideline violations.
Become Flag-Neutral if not Flag-Negative
The Pending queue has become excessive lately and is a drain on Moderator time (your experience may vary depending on timezone).
As you rescue items from the Pending queue, please check the reason for the flag and un-flag as necessary. If you’re not un-flagging at least one person daily, please reconsider how strict you are on that end of enforcement.
Weekend Assignment
Please test the latest WordPress 6.1 RCRelease CandidateA beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. and the Twenty Twenty-Three theme, and report any bugs you find!
