Proposal: Let’s actively promote the Learn WordPress platform in Learn WordPress content

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Summary

As a team, let’s find opportunities in our content where we can actively promote the Learn WordPress platform more.

Background

I was involved in multiple conversations recently where the Training Team’s Brand Usage Guidelines and Promotional Guidelines were being discussed. As the WordPress project evolves, and as the needs of contributors/learners change, it’s good practice to approach our guidelines with curiosity – Why are the guidelines set the way they are? Are they still applicable to us today? Are revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. needed to better reflect our mission?

A few concerns were being discussed in these recent conversations:

Should content on Learn WordPress link to individual/business websites or social media accounts?
Should content on Learn WordPress link to external educational websites about WordPress?
What extent (if any) of prior contributions should we seek in content creators for Learn WordPress?

I see the fact these questions were raised as a sign that the Training Team is growing! We’re seeing more contributors getting involved with content creation. And these content creators are coming from a more diverse background than we’ve historically seen in the team.

There were a few underlying trains of thought that led to the discussion points above:

What is a good balance between content creators giving “selfless contribution” and receiving “reasonable exposure” for their contributions?
What is a healthy relationship between Learn WordPress and other educational platforms that teach WordPress? What if these platforms require payment for their resources?
Is it important that content creators have a track record of making general contributions to WordPress before they make content for Learn WordPress? And if so, how can that be objectively assessed?

For each of these thoughts, there were a wide range of opinions. And since opinions varied, I tried to flip the questions around in my mind. Rather than focusing on what we don’t want to happen, is there any practice we are wanting to happen more?

Proposal

I propose that we, as a team, actively look for opportunities in our content to promote the Learn WordPress platform. For example, what about concluding every Tutorial and Online Workshop recording with an invitation for folks to come to Learn WordPress to learn more? This would be similar to what many YouTubers do at the end of a video, asking viewers to come to their channel to see more content.

Currently, the team guidelines allow presenters to make reasonable callouts to their social media accounts. How about we add, though, to always call out the Learn WordPress platform as the final call-to-action in a piece of content? I can see this being easily applied to video content (Tutorials and Online Workshops,) but we could probably do the same in Courses, too.

As a start to this discussion, a new section has been added to the team handbook on Promotional Guidelines titled Actively promote Learn WordPress and other official WordPress content. What are your thoughts of this proposal, and the new section in the handbook? Please leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

Thank you to @angelasjin for input when writing this post.

Margherita Pelonara 2:15 pm on June 24, 2023

I really appreciate your approach: “Instead of focusing on what we don’t want to happen, is there any practice we would like to see happen more?” Many times, doing our best to promote good behaviour and best practices is better and more productive than “repressing” behaviour we don’t like.
- Destiny Kanno 2:38 am on June 26, 2023
  
  I agree Margherita! Being open to collaborate positively is a good way to move forward together. 😀
Courtney Robertson 8:32 pm on June 26, 2023

+make.wordpress.org/docs/
+make.wordpress.org/marketing/

It’d be nice to hold a similar policy and discover any lessons learned from #Docs team since the days of Codex to now.
- Sancastiza 9:45 pm on June 26, 2023
  
  I support actively promoting the Learn WordPress platform and establishing standards for content creators. This will create consistency and enhance the brand, ensuring the quality and reliability of resources. Additionally, expanding promotion through various channels and implementing an objective evaluation system will elevate the influence and quality of the WordPress learning community.
- Milana Cap 11:11 am on June 29, 2023
  
  In the Docs, we have a lot of experience with self-promotions. Unfortunately, we were in a position to have to repress it because we inherited a lot of unwanted behaviour from Codex.
  
  However, I’ll keep it under “what we want to happen”. We want to promote official resources (learn, docs, dev blog etc.) throughout the wp.org platform. The platform is huge and intimidating for newcomers. The more crossposting, more collaboration, fewer frustrations, and less repeating the same work among teams, it’s better for everyone.
  
  We want contributors to Learn (and WordPress) to come as persons, not their products, companies or services. We want to learn from people who have knowledge and experience. Unless the video is about that specific 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, we can’t learn anything from a plugin (which is then promo material for that plugin). But we can learn a lot from someone who wrote the plugin. Any plugin.
  
  Once people see your knowledge and experience, they will naturally look up to discover what else you know. They will ask you where you work and what you do for a living. No self-promotion is better than this, and no self-promotion will get you faster to that state. It can prevent you from ever getting there.
  
  As for other educational platforms, in documentation, we blindly accept official PHPPHP 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. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. documentation, MDN docs.. any official docs dedicated to a specific topic. We don’t want to maintain something that already has official maintainers who will do a far better job of keeping it up to date. Anything beyond that needs to be reviewed and discussed because that’s a very grey area, and you really, really want to be sure you know what you’re getting in because once you’re in, there is no painless coming back.
  - Courtney Robertson 2:29 am on July 1, 2023
    
    Lessons from the Codex having a slew of broken and/or outdated links is not something we’d like to see happen on Learn. Inter-linking between teams would be ideal. We’ve got some folks working now on information architecture which should help settle the various content types and put Learn in shape for that inter-linking further.
  - Benjamin Evans 12:40 am on July 6, 2023
    
    I particularly loved two things you mentioned, Milana:
    
    We want contributors to Learn (and WordPress) to come as persons, not their products, companies or services.
    
    Also,
    
    We don’t want to maintain something that already has official maintainers who will do a far better job of keeping it up to date.
    
    These are great philosophies to hold in the Training Team, too!
Wes Theron 9:49 pm on June 26, 2023

Absolutely Margherita!

I also support this proposal, Ben. We want to promote the Learn platform more but also allow contributors or presenters to make a reasonable callout to their own social media accounts if they wish to. The emphasis is placed on Learn.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/, whilst contributors have an opportunity to be recognized for their involvement as well. I believe this is a very balanced and positive approach to the situation.
- Courtney Robertson 2:27 am on July 1, 2023
  
  I believe callouts to their social media can come off as an endorsement. I’ve been observing contributors engaging on social media in the past two days in utterly heartbreaking ways. We’re opening ourselves up for having to monitor ongoing if they use their personal social media in ways that, if they behaved the same way at in-person events, would violate the Code of Conduct.
  
  We wish to focus on what we want to see, but it’s a tad hard this week when many use their socials in hurtful ways.
Courtney P.K. 8:06 pm on July 5, 2023

Although we are already promoting Learn WordPress through the Community Team (see Event Formats and Suggestions for Meetup Content), I’d like to suggest that we expand this a bit. Could we include some more resources for 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 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. organizers, like some easy to run workshop topics, including slide decks and tips on how to run these workshops? And/or, including links to specific Lesson Plans that are easy for any organizer to run as Meetup events or WordCamp workshops?

(cc’ing Community Team Reps @nukaga @leogopal @mysweetcate to ask what they think!)
- Benjamin Evans 12:42 am on July 6, 2023
  
  I think working with the Community Team to understand how we can better present Learn resources for them to use would be great!

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