I was delighted to return my sabbatical to find that not only had the WordPress 5.6 release passed the initial planning phase but had kicked off in earnest! This release is coming at a historic time, and it feels fitting that the cohort behind the release should be historic, too. In the spirit of building a community within this cohort, twenty-three of us met on Zoom to meet one another and discuss the release process thus far. Below are notes from our time together.
P.S. – This isn’t on make.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//coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. only because the purpose of the call wasn’t about making decisions, planning parts of the release, or moving any tasks forward. This squad is a part of the Core team, though, and their updates normally happen on that site. ~Josepha
Participants:
@chanthaboune, @cbringmann, @angelasjin, @karmatosed, @azhiyadev, @thelmachido, @metalandcoffee, @annezazu, @daisyo, @sncoker, @melchoyce, @marybaum, @isabel_brison, @helen, @thewebprincess, @francina, @tray, @webcommsat, @meher, @yvettesonneveld, @amykamala, @cguntur, and @estelaris.
Agenda:
- Welcome and introduction
- Check-in on the release experience and areas requiring clarification
Notes and Action Items:
Because there are many first-time participants on this release squad, Josepha shared some clarification around roles.
- Team leads act as the primary point of contact for their focus, and help track and share tickets most in need of attention. They are not responsible for doing all the work; in fact, the cohort should actively participate as much as possible.
- Mentors are here as a resource to help their designated cohort by sharing their knowledge and offering feedback. Ideally, the cohorts will accomplish the hands-on and day-to-day work, and mentors will collaborate with them during this learning process.
- Although WordPress has had many successful releases, there is always room for iteration and improvement! If you see something that isn’t working for you, or you think could be done differently, let your team lead, mentor, or any of the Release LeadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release. cohort know.
Participants on the call then discussed the following items where additional guidance was needed:
- The default theme team raised the issue that the decision process per focus is unclear. I’ll document what I know and get it posted.
- Streamline call to action communication, especially for those who use 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/. sparingly.
- Publish public editor tech workflow documentation, especially as it relates to getting features from the 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 to Core.
- Provide clear steps to setting up a testing environment and demo how to test for non-devs.
- Offer tips for first-time participants of a bug scrub.
Next Steps:
Updates on these action items will be added as comments to this post. Please drop your questions here if you were not able to make the call or have questions about the release process!