Vetting Topic Ideas

The first step to getting new quality content on Learn WordPress is to vet the various content topic ideas shared by the WordPress community. These ideas can stem from personal interest to crowdsourced consensus, but no matter how it comes to the Training Team, it will require vetting before it is greenlit for content creation and publication on the Learn WordPress website. 

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are Faculty Members who utilize their expertise to vet submitted content topic ideas. In general, SMEs look to assess these ideas for accuracy, relevance, and priority.

Outlined below are the guiding processes for vetting content topic ideas for Learn WordPress.

Requirements

The following access is required to vet content topic ideas for Learn WordPress:

  • Learn Content Triage membership on 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/
  • Editor access to the Learn WordPress website for checking unpublished content
  • Subject Matter Expert (Either Faculty or a vetted Training Team member)

Please contact a Training Team Representative or Faculty Member in the #training Slack channel if you lack the appropriate access to perform this work.

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Vetting Content Topic Ideas

All new Topic Ideas are created as a GitHub issue on the Learn GitHub repository using the Topic Ideas GitHub issue Template. These issues include details such as the topic title, description, objective, content type to help guide their assessment. 

Further outlined in this section are the processes for vetting all content topic ideas and specific content types.

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Assessment criteria

All new Topic Ideas that require vetting have the Awaiting Triage label applied and can be reviewed in this Topic Ideas GitHub project board view. When assessing whether or not to move a topic idea into the Ready to Create column on the LearnWP Content Development project board, we must consider the following for all content types:

  • Topic relevance (Ex. Is it timely with the latest releases and/or up to date with the latest practices? Does it follow our Promotional Guidelines or GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples. best practices?)
  • Priority (Low – Med – High); this is assessed by whether or not the topic is critical to something in the latest release, hits on a needs analysis trend, or fixes a gap in previously published foundational content
  • Feedback on what could be added / removed / edited about the topic
  • Appropriateness of objectives set for the topic
  • Timeline for completion (Ex. If the issue is release related, it should be prioritized by a Training Team Release Coordinator. If it is misc, it can be prioritized by others.)

It can sometimes be difficult to assess topic ideas on an individual level, so don’t hesitate to reach out to other Subject Matter Experts or the Training Team reps as you work through it for a second opinion.

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Responding to Topic Ideas

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Check for duplicate content

Tutorials: Check if a tutorial with the same topic already exists in the dashboard’s Tutorials section either with a published or to be published status– vetters must check in the dashboard, rather than the frontend in case a similar tutorial is awaiting publication.

Lesson Plans: Check if a lesson plan with the same topic already exists in the dashboard’s Lesson Plans section either with a published or to be published status.

Courses: Check if a course with the same topic already exists in the dashboard’s Courses section either with a published or to be published status.

Next, check if there is a similar topic idea already in GitHub by searching through the Topic Ideas column on the project board; additionally, look for any cross-linked GitHub issues that may have affiliated content but be of a different content type (Ex. Lesson Plan vs. Tutorial) for collaboration suggestions.

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Ensure the issue is properly filled in

  • Ensure the Details section is filled in
  • Add Related Resources that may help the Content Creator
  • Fill in all taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. by labels:
    • Content type
    • Audience
    • Experience Level
    • Product type (theme, 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)
    • Version (milestone 5.9)
    • Content CategoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. (Ex. 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., GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/, BlockBlock Block 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. Theme)
  • Assign the Content Creator if it’s the noted in the ticket, otherwise assign it to a Faculty Administrator or Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. for assignment and apply the “Needs Content Creator” label

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Respond to the issue reporter in GitHub and manage the issue

  • If you find a published content on the Learn WordPress website that is similar in content to the new topic idea, then “close with comment” on the GitHub issue with a link to the existing one and let the topic submitter know that the content already exists. 
  • If you find a similar topic idea in GitHub, then comment on the GitHub issue with a link to the existing topic idea issue and add any updates as needed from the new submission. Once this is done ”close with comment” with a link to the similar topic idea issue.
  • If the topic idea submitter has indicated that they would like to create the approved content:
  • If the topic submitter does not want to create the approved content, move the issue to the `Ready to Create` column and add the `Needs Content Creator` label
  • The `Triage Checklist` must be completed before the issue is closed or moved to the `Ready to Create` column.

Note that some Topic Ideas may require multiple content types to be created, in this case a GitHub issue should be created for each content type and a link back to the related content issues should be provided in the body of the issue to allow for cross-collaboration or reference.

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