Lets talk about making the theme review team easier to participate in for other languages

We already are lucky enough to have a wide range of countries represented as Theme Reviewers. This benefits us as a team and going forward helps us especially with opening up the language themes are in. It’s a win-win situation.

However, there are certain difficulties with someone not having English as their first language. As a team it would be great if we considered how to make it easier for reviewers to be involved.

@shinichin has taken a large step towards fixing by bringing this up 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/.. I’m going to summarise here so we can start the conversation:

His plan is in short:

• Google hangout/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. to get people started
• Have a slack channel to mentor and translate reviews
• Translate the review handbook into Japanese (maybe)
• Whatever is done also roll out to Thailand
• Documentation on how to get involved in that countries language

Here is the archive: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/themereview/p1415405755000051

I think this is a good idea, but personally I’m cautious about fragmenting into separate channels. I just love the united family we are, but I understand we unite using English to speak so that’s not always best for all. I love the idea though that we do something to enable more diversity and reviewers in other countries. I’m really excited that this was brought to us and we can start working out a template for other languages.

The way I see it the important areas are:

• Contribution days (or groups)
• Documentation translation

We have to also consider what happens with tickets and reviews posted. There are a lot of areas we need to think about so lets get thinking! Thank you so much @shinichin for bringing this up.

Lets try and meet on Wednesday 19th November at 16:00 UTC in #themereview on Slack. Edit: The time is changed to Wednesday 19th November at 22:00 UTC in #themereview on Slack. I know the time is a tiny bit awkward for some but it means we can get some others in. This will be a meeting specifically to work out a roadmap and what we can do.

I’m interested in people’s thoughts about this and excited about what we can start working on.