[wp-docs] August Update on Codex

[Lorelle VanFossen]

With so much going on lately, and a lot happening in the meetup and via 
the IRC chats on documentation, we've decided to release a monthly 
"update" on what is going on with the Codex and to point out specific 
tasks and issues that need to be known and discussed.

About 136 new articles have been added since June 4 and more are on the 
way. A lot of work has gone into expanding the Codex by many volunteers 
and new volunteers are coming in all the time. Volunteers are watching 
the Recent Changes pages 24 hours a day, monitoring the Codex for spam 
and link vandals, usually catching the vandals within minutes of the 
attack. Thanks to all!

The connection between the Forum and the Codex is now very strong, 
creating a solid base of information and resources. With the release of 
the Jalenack's plugin (with great help from Ringmaster)  
http://blog.jalenack.com/archives/codex-search-plugin/ which allows the 
addition of a search bar to the WordPress admin panels for searching the 
Codex and Forum while using WordPress, users can get access to the 
information they need to solve their problems and help them build and 
maintain their WordPress site easier. We need to promote the plugin to 
help users "Search First". If you have been monitoring the Forum, you 
may have noticed that the redundant simple questions are declining and 
the more intermediate and advanced questions are rising. So they are 
searching first, which is great.

With the development of the Support Forum volunteer mailing list 
http://codex.wordpress.org/Support_Forum_Volunteers, volunteers will be 
able to work together and learn from each other about how to better 
provide ongoing support. Many of us also help on the forum, so we can 
help volunteers learn more about the documentation available and learn 
from them about what documentation is needed.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference is slowly being expanded 
and worked on to include all the functions in the core programming, 
similar to Template Tags. Help is needed to add more subpages, 
identifying functions and their features.

Keywords are slowly being added to the 
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes/Theme_List so if you are a theme 
author or you would like to volunteer to add keywords to various themes, 
please pitch in.  A lot of theme authors list their themes and then 
don't return for months, if ever, so all help is appreciated to get 
keyword descriptions on these themes.

We are still having problems with new images displaying right on the 
Codex, so hopefully that will be fixed soon, now that the database has 
been moved to the new server.

There are many tasks on the task list that need doing, so please check 
to see if there is something you can do. 
http://codex.wordpress.org/Codex:Tasks If you signed up for a task and 
are now unable to follow through on it, please remove your name so 
someone else can take it on. If you see holes in the documentation that 
are not listed on the Task List, please add them in their appropriate 
category so we can encourage "filling of holes".

If you have an article on your user page, you will be contacted in the 
next few weeks with a request to ready the article for moving out into 
the main documentation. If you are unable to complete the article, 
please let us know so we can have others pitch in to finish it.

The http://codex.wordpress.org/Codex:State_of_Codex lists administrative 
issues and tasks that need to be discussed and dealt with.  Some of 
these have been waiting for a decision or action. While no decision has 
been officially made, it appears that the issue of dealing with version 
1.5 and 1.6 will include the use of the version in the title and the use 
of a template banner that states this applies to which version where 
necessary. Other than user levels and administration panels, and updates 
and inclusion of new template tags and functions, very little change to 
the "how to" documentation is expected to occur.

Work is underway to "combine" the Codex and WordPress site so that when 
a user clicks on "DOCS" they will be taken to the Codex. 
http://codex.wordpress.org/User:RobLa/AuthPress_for_MediaWiki is part of 
the process.  Basically, bbpress and mediawiki will be "intercombined". 
User registration information will be shared between the two so your 
user name and password will work on both systems. There are some bugs 
and details that still need to be worked out. The "look" of the Codex 
will take on the look of the Forum, with modifications on both ends. In 
general, the merger and changes will "spruce the place up".

Thanks to everyone for all your hard work!