How to get Involved in the WordPress Community

Chris Koerner@ckoerner

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Hello, I’m Chris and I use WordPress.

Start off tactical, get’s philosophical toward the end.talk about online ‘virtual’ resourcesthen in-person opportunities

WordPress.org

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Wordpress.org is the home of wordpress and is a great starting point.

Not just a place to download WordPress or grab a new plugin.

Many opportunities on this one site to get involved.

make.wordpress.org

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Learn about contributing to the code, UI, support, translation, everything that makes WordPress what it is today.(advance)http://make.wordpress.org/community/

Team Projects, IRC, wordcamps, meetup groups

wordpress.org/support

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http://wordpress.org/support/

forums

Support Support

make.wordpress.org/support/

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You can even make support better! So if you ever go “Ugh, I don’t like the support for WordPress” you can make it better. Maybe it’s better documentation, maybe it’s features of the forum. You don’t have to know a lick of WordPress to know how support could be improved.

“If you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter.”

http://make.wordpress.org/support/

Themes & Plugins

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Themes and Plugins on Wordpress.org have support forums. Look for the green “View support forum” button on every theme or plugin.

There is always someone starting out or asking for help figuring out how to do something - and you may have the answer to that question.

developers even often have their own support forums for their themes or extensions that offer even more opportunities to learn and share you own knowledge.

https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/contact-form-7

Ideas

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https://wordpress.org/ideas/

Kvetch

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Kvetch is great. Having some frustration with WP? Let off some steam here.

A few of my favorites.

http://wordpress.org/extend/kvetch/

WordPress.tv

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Make videos and share them with peoplebe a moderatorhelp subtitle a video or two into the language of your choice

http://wordpress.tv/get-involved/

Codex

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The codex is a giant repository of knowledge about WordPress. It’s an encyclopedia of everything.

(advance)From how to get started with WordPress to every function, class, template - you name it.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Codex:Community_Portal

(advance) A secret - this is powered not by WordPress, but by MediaWiki

IRC

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Chat rooms with people active from around the world at all times of day and nightAutomatticians, plugin developers, designers, people starting out.

http://codex.wordpress.org/IRC

WordPress Answers

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http://wordpress.stackexchange.com

build reputationinteract with other developers and usersget your questions answered and engage with a whole other group of people

GitHub

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open-source your creations. GitHub allows you to keep a copy of your code online and make it easy for people to find, use, and improve.

nearly 30,000 repositories related to WordPress

You’ll get feedback and ideas to help improve whatever you built or contributed and you’ll likely learn something along the way.”

r/Wordpress

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http://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/

reddit is surprisingly not all reaction gifs cat memes

(advance)I loved this quote from someone the other day. It’s a testament to the awesome community around WordPressOh, bam your cat gif of the day.

Blogs

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There is an abundance of great blogs that talk about WordPress.These blogs are a great opportunity to discover new opportunites to be engaged, even if it’s a simple comment or tweet to the blog author. Some even encourage ‘guest posts’ where you can write something

http://wptavern.com

http://wpforce.com - now run by Yoast of SEO WordPress fame

http://www.wpbeginner.com

http://wp.smashingmagazine.com - even Smashing Magazine has a section dedicated to wordpress

Meetup

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physical world

attend - we have two monthly meetings One is developer-focused, meets on the 1st monday of the month at Integrity in the Delmar LoopOne is general-wordpress-focused, meets on the 3rd wednesday of the month at goBrandgo! near Cherokee St.free to joinmonthly topicssuggest topics monthlypresentmet Howard kaldi’shost or organize

join a local one or start your own - wordpress.org can help

Our group is about 3 and a half years old

Meetup

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physical world

attend - we have two monthly meetings One is developer-focused, meets on the 1st monday of the month at Integrity in the Delmar LoopOne is general-wordpress-focused, meets on the 3rd wednesday of the month at goBrandgo! near Cherokee St.free to joinmonthly topicssuggest topics monthlypresentmet Howard kaldi’shost or organize

join a local one or start your own - wordpress.org can help

Our group is about 3 and a half years old

WordCamp

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WordCamp St. Louis is the best, naturally, but did you know these happen all over the country (and the world) throughout the year? It’s an amazingly diverse group of people and I’ve never heard about a bad WordCamp.

Great networking - the good kind where you make friends, not the sleezy kind where you get a bunch of random business cards and cold-calls the next day.

They are entirely funded and operated by volunteers. Goobers like me can get together with some smart people and put one together.The most amazing thing is that we get people like you to show up! Man, that’s crazy!

Upcoming WordCamps

Lancaster, PA

Dayton, OH

Atlanta, GA

Mumbai, India

Wellington, New Zeland

Nashville, TN

Kansas City, MO

Chicago, IL

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If you have a good time today (and I’m sure you will) then you should attend another one of the many WordCamps that are happening soon.(advance)central.wordcamp.org

That’s just March!(advance)Nashville in MayKansas City in JuneChicago in June

Write20

That’s a bunch of tactical, no problem Chris I can do it tomorrow stuff. Now the philosophical.

We need more people writing about WordPress.

Write/Blog - We’re talking about one of the most popular content management systems in the world, Use it! Write about wordpress, write about starting your small design business, write about ideas you have. Help other folks, talk about something you did or are doing. be critical, thinking of ways of improving Wordpress the software and community will improve yourself. This is how you do it. You reach out and say hello

We have deluge of developers working on all aspects, but there is never enough people talking and collaborating with ideas. We don’t want an echo chamber of people writing, we want a diverse group of people contributing.

This diversity will make the software better, the experience better, and ultimately what is a pretty awesome community to begin with, better.

Writing is scary. “Man, I don’t know what to write” or “I’m not a very good writer”. These are bad excuses. We live in a world where anyone can contribute their voice to the community and yet we don’t hear enough from people. How many people have watched a video on YouTube from someone not traditionally famous. How many people enjoyed it? They are people like you and me. We can do it.

Write21

Even my 8 year old daugther blogs! Here’s an article from her blog where she talks about a new idea for a website that sells recycled stuff.

There’s a great article I want to share with you on A List Apart called “Writing is Thinking” in it the author SALLY KERRIGAN does a much better job articulating how to get started.!(advance)

Writealistapart.com/article/writing-is-thinking

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To quote

“But you’re not a writer, so this isn’t your problem, right? Well, the thing is, writing is not some mystic art. It’s a practical skill—particularly since most of our online communication is text-based to begin with. When you write about your work, it makes all of us smarter for the effort, including you—because it forces you to go beyond the polite cocktail-party line you use to describe what you do and really think about the impact your work has.

Done well, it means you’re contributing signal, instead of noise.”

Be Brave23

Wether it’s writing or design, or talking at a Meetup or WordCamp, don’t be afraid. Be Brave.don’t be fearful of what people will think

we all have to start somewhere and I’d like to think that WordPress has one of the most accepting, generous, and open communities I have ever seen.

I have a friend who recently showed one of his first sites and a Meetup. One of his first sites. It was beautiful. People were impressed, he blushed. I joked that I wouldn’t want to show anyone my first site.

Be Brave24

So here it is, from the beautiful year of 2005. (advance)Its awesome. You can over of my body (why am I holding a Macbook like a waiter?) all drawn in Corel draw probablyMystery meat navigation and ITS ALL IN FLASH (advance)

And for those who consider themselves seasoned, open up your arms, invite those questions in - even if you’ve heard them a thousand times. We all have to start somewhere and the scariest thing is being vulnerable and putting yourself out there.

Helping people great way to network - talk to people who are new - they might lead to future collaborations. They might know more about a particular industry than you.

be bold, be empathetic.

Say Hello

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be excellent to each otherGreg Hoy puts is thusly:

We are in the business of facilitating communications. We stare at screens all day so we can make positive experiences for others who stare at their screens all day. We strive to make people feel comfortable, welcome, and wanted in an artificial reality. Yet, in real life, we dart to our computers, put on our headphones, and hide from each other. We input our conversations through keyboards, often when the person with which we are conversing is right next to us. When we get up because our legs are numb, we’ll pass by each other as if we said hello at some point, but never really did. We’re on coffee-fueled autopilot, blissfully unaware of our surroundings until we’re put into a situation where we need to be. Our perspective is skewed.

https://the-pastry-box-project.net/greg-hoy/2014-February-17#

thank the devleoper of a plugin, answer questions, say hello

Collaboration happens when the whole is greater than the sum.

-Kevin M. Hoffman

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https://twitter.com/briangraves/status/435776936347185152

Kevin M. Hoffman

How to get Involved in the WordPress Community

Chris Koerner@ckoerner

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That’s a little about how to get involved in the WordPress Community.

My name is Chris. Thank you for your time.

References WordCamp Ranger & Automattic Happiness Engineer by Naoko Takano

WordCamp Tokyo - Toru making pre-announcement for tentative WordCamp Tokyo date by Naoko Takano

WordCamp Vancouver by Phillip Jeffrey

WordCamp Europe 2013 by Florian Ziegler

WordCamp SF 2011

Jeff Veen on How the Web Works by Naoko Takano

WordCamp Europe 2013 - Matt Mullenweg by Patrick Andriessen

WordCamp Sevilla 2012 by Rafael Poveda

Double Hemisphere Map by George Louis Le Rouge

Grease still image by Paramount Pictures

Bill and Ted by Interscope Communications

HD Typing Stock Video from shawn via http://www.videezy.com

http://wp.smashingmagazine.com/2013/02/01/wordpress-community-offers-advice-beginners/

https://twitter.com/briangraves/status/435776936347185152

http://alistapart.com/article/writing-is-thinking

https://the-pastry-box-project.net/greg-hoy/2014-February-17#

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