Getting Started

Welcome to the Training Team!

Hi there! We’re so glad you’ve joined the WordPress Training Team.

Please take a moment to watch the video below. This will introduce the Training Team’s mission, and how we operate as a team. It is also the first step in onboarding to the team and making your first contribution.

Note: If you are already familiar with the Training Team, you already own a 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/, 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/., and GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ account, and you just want to jump right into making some quick contributions, then checkout our handbook page – Quick contributions you can make now.

Click here to expand the video transcript.

Hi there, and welcome to the Training Team. If you’re watching this video, then you must be starting your onboarding journey into the team. We’re so happy that you’re here!

The Training Team creates educational resources that help people learn how to use, develop or contribute to WordPress. We do this through synchronous and asynchronous learning. We host our content on the website learn.wordpress.org. We refer to this website as “Learn WordPress,” or even sometimes just simply “Learn.”

The Training Team has five areas of contribution that you can get involved with, too. These are Content Creators, Content Translators, Editors, Subject-Matter Experts, and Administrators. Let me briefly explain each for you. Content Creators focus on creating excellent content to host on Learn WordPress. Content Translators take the published English content and translate that into different locales. Editors review content before it is published. They also review published content and make updates as needed. Subject-Matter Experts vet topic ideas before the content is created. They also work alongside Content Creators, acting as sounding boards, helping them get the most recent and updated information in their content. And finally, Administrators work behind the scenes to make sure the team works smoothly. Administrators focus on providing the other four roles with the tools they need to be successful and effective towards the Training Team goals.

Out of these five areas of contribution, which were you most interested in? Below, we’ve linked five different onboarding pages for each of these areas. Choose one that you are most interested in first, and get started with the onboarding there. You’ll learn about how the Training Team communicates with each other, what your first contribution could be, and also gives you an idea of further areas of contribution you can contribute to beyond onboarding. If you have questions at any time, feel free to reach out in the #training channel in Slack. We’re more than happy to help you.

Once again, welcome to the Training Team, and we’re so happy that you are here willing to contribute with us. We look forward to seeing you around!

Top ↑

Where we communicate

The Training Team has three main places where discussions take place.

  1. Team blog https://make.wordpress.org/training/
    • This is the team’s public facing discussion place. All decisions should be discussed and announced in blog posts to allow the widest audience to participate. These are also indexed by search engines and leave a public record of what the Training Team has worked on through its history.
  2. Slack
    • This is where you can connect with other contributors in the team in real-time. It’s where you can ask Faculty members and other experienced teammates for help while working through team tasks.
    • Training team meetings are conducted in Slack. But decisions are not made in Slack. If an item needs a discussion/decision, then it should be published as a post on the team blog so that the general public can see the discussion and join in on the decision making, too.
  3. GitHub https://github.com/WordPress/Learn
    • This is where individual tasks are tracked. These include content creation, content translation, website management, etc. GitHub issues are organized into at least 6 project boards. You can read more about the Training Team’s GitHub boards in our handbook: How we use GitHub

Did you know you can subscribe to the Training Team blog and get updates as soon as they’re published? All you need to do is visit https://make.wordpress.org/training/ and sign-up from the Email Updates section in the top of the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme..

Top ↑

Get set up

Now that you have an idea of the overall structure of the Training Team, let’s make sure you’re set up to contribute to the team. Training Team members are most successful when they have all three accounts listed below.

Top ↑

WordPress.org account

The most important account you’ll use is a WordPress.org account. This account is used to comment on the Training Team blog, and publish/review content on Learn WordPress. It is also needed to make a Slack account below.

If you don’t have a WordPress.org account yet, then you can create one by following this video: Set up a WordPress.org account.

As you contribute to the WordPress project, your contributions will get recorded on your public profile page. These contributions include:

  • Comments on Make WordPress team blog posts
  • GitHub issues created or closed
  • Translations accepted on GlotPress
  • Published blog posts
  • Edits to handbook pages
  • Completed Learn WordPress courses

Your “Contribution History” section will get populated with badges for the teams you contribute to. For more information about how to earn Training Team badges, visit https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/about/team-profile-badges/.

Top ↑

“Making WordPress” Slack account

The second account you’ll want to have is a WordPress Slack account. The Training Team (and the whole WordPress project) use Slack to communicate in real time.

If you don’t have a WordPress Slack account yet, then you can create one by following this guide: Joining the WordPress Slack.

Top ↑

GitHub account

The third account you’ll want to create is a GitHub account. GitHub is often used by developers to collaborate on code. However, in the Training Team, we use GitHub to track the content we create. We also use it to review content before it is published, and to track feedback people submit about Learn WordPress. (If you’re interested, you can also read How we use GitHub.)

If you don’t have a GitHub account yet, you can sign up for one here: Join GitHub

💡The Training Team has a virtual Handbook that lists information about the team’s history, values, goals, and processes. You can access the Handbook from https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/.

On a desktop device, you’ll see a table of contents in the left sidebar. On a mobile device, this is inside the blue hamburger menu (three-line menu) at the top left. There’s no need to read through the whole handbook right now! But it’s a good idea to bookmark this now so that you can come back to it later when you need it 😊

Top ↑

Find your interest, and make your first contribution

Now that you’re set up, it’s time to figure out what area you’d like to contribute to first!

In the table below, which of the tasks in the left column are you most interested in? The link on the right will take you to the onboarding page for that area of contribution.

Remember, you don’t have to choose just one area of contribution. Some team members help out in multiple areas! After you make your first contribution in one area, you are always welcome to come back and onboard to an additional area, too!

Contribution detailsArea of contribution
Are you interested in creating new educational content?Go to Content Creator onboarding
Are you interested in translating existing content into languages other than English?Go to Content Translator onboarding
Are you interested in reviewing/editing content?Go to Editor onboarding
Are you interested in vetting content ideas and being a sounding board to people creating new content?Go to Subject-Matter Expert onboarding
Are you interested in the administration that keeps the Training Team running smoothly?Go to Administrator onboarding

Finally, if you have any question about your onboarding to the team, feel free to 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 the #training channel in Slack at any time. You can also send a message to just say “Hi!” and let us know you’re starting onboarding. We’d be happy to hear from you! Here’s an example message you could send:

Hi team 👋🏼 I am new to the team, and I’m am just about to start the Content Creator/Editor/etc. onboarding course. I’m looking forward to getting involved!

Last updated: