[wp-docs] Joining Forces: Support

Tue May 15 19:57:10 UTC 2012

Ideally a team of three. One is too few (what if they get busy? then it
stalls), and two can disagree (another stall) while a third can be a
tiebreaker if needed. Or a sane person, depending. :P

I'm just tossing out ideas here.

a.

On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 4:28 PM, Doug Sparling <doug.sparling at gmail.com>wrote:

> I like the idea as well.
>
>
> On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 2:22 PM, Lorelle on WordPress <
> lorelleonwordpress at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> This is so exciting. The Docs team has been walking on egg shells for
>> years over the confusion of the WordPress Handbook, and I'm eager to see
>> new energy being sent in this direction.
>>
>> The close ties between the Forum and Codex have been there since the
>> beginning. However, time and skills serving the Forum and the time and
>> skills serving documentation are distinctive, as several people mentioned.
>> I agree that there needs to be one or two people overseeing the
>> organizational structure, management, and maintenance of the Codex.
>>
>> Having a site of our own has been essential and lacking, which is why we
>> created the unofficial docs task list not long ago. It was critical that we
>> find a better way of communicating and keeping our community connected than
>> the mailing list. As it was "unofficial," we haven't done much to promote
>> it or work with it, but it was a start. We need to have a place to support
>> and educate each other on how to write for the Codex and offer task lists
>> beyond those we've had in the past on the Codex, so I'm excited about
>> having our own space or making the current blog on WordPress.com official.
>>
>> The mailing list has not been the sole line of communication either. As
>> many do, I work with many people one on one to help them write and edit for
>> the Codex and assign tasks, communicating with the mailing list when
>> necessary for edits and such.
>>
>> As we struggled to understand the role the WordPress Handbook and
>> WordPress Lessons played in the role of documentation in the WordPress
>> Community, we've come to realize the Codex best serves the WordPress
>> Community by providing support for issues found within the Forums,
>> expanding upon Learn WordPress instructions for the WordPress Lessons
>> section, and developing more extensive documentation and guides beyond the
>> basics found within the help files, especially servicing developers and
>> programmers.
>>
>> While melding together Forum and Codex sounds great on the surface, I
>> agree with Andrea and others that we need to have one or more people
>> focused on the bigger picture overseeing the Codex, thus supporting the
>> overall WordPress Community better.
>>
>> Thanks for the survey, Jane, and for helping with all of this.
>>
>> Lorelle
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 8:28 AM, Andrea Rennick <andrea at ronandandrea.com>wrote:
>>
>>> It makes totally sense, because Support & Docs are two sides of the same
>>> coin. :) If users can't understanding docs or can't find them, they post in
>>> the forums. ;P
>>>
>>> Better docs mean less support issues, because people don't scale. And
>>> the people answering questions are the first ones who see the need for new
>>> docs. Because they answer the same questions over and over (and over) again.
>>>
>>> Getting people to read docs is a separate issue, but having support and
>>> docs work hand in hand in tandem is a big first step.
>>>
>>> I think half the people overlap anyway, yes?
>>>
>>> a.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 11:51 AM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>wrote:
>>>
>>>> Personally, I love the idea. Speaking as a contributor group member who
>>>> tries to keep in the loop regarding support and/or Codex issues that impact
>>>> our group (or issues where our contributor group can be helpful), such
>>>> consolidation is welcome.
>>>>
>>>> Chip
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 7:09 AM, Jane Wells <jane at automattic.com>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi everyone. The results of the recent surveys to identify active
>>>>> contributors and elect team reps made it pretty clear that the docs team is
>>>>> in a bit of a slump, organizationally speaking. Only 5 people from the
>>>>> wp-docs post responded, and of those, 2 were new or not yet contributing,
>>>>> and there was no consensus re reps among the remaining 3 respondents. It
>>>>> got me thinking about how we organize contributors, what has worked well
>>>>> elsewhere in the WP ecosystem and in other free software projects, and
>>>>> leads me to this proposal: what if we combined forums and docs into one
>>>>> Support team?
>>>>>
>>>>> Looking back at the Codex activity from the past six months or year,
>>>>> chunks of it have been tied to forum mods (like Ipstenu and Andrea_r),
>>>>> other contributor groups (like Chip on the Theme Review Team), and new
>>>>> releases. Not that how Automattic/WordPress.com organizes itself should
>>>>> decide anything, but their support team manages forums, email support, and
>>>>> docs, and it seems to work pretty well. They have a schedule for reviewing
>>>>> existing documentation so it never gets too far out of date, and the people
>>>>> on the front lines with users in the forums and via email can see very
>>>>> clearly where they need to beef up documentation. I'm thinking this could
>>>>> work well for .org, too. Those who are strong writers and just want to
>>>>> contribute to documentation could still do so, but within a context of what
>>>>> our user support needs are at any given time based on the actual support
>>>>> requests.
>>>>>
>>>>> What I'm envisioning is less siloing of contributor personnel, with
>>>>> one group blog at make.wordpress.org/support that uses tags like
>>>>> forums and codex to organize posts, and has pages to help orient new
>>>>> contributors and get them started. These mailing lists could fade away in
>>>>> favor of email subscriptions from the blog, which are more easily
>>>>> searchable and would be more visible to potential contributors. Within the
>>>>> uber-group, some people would naturally gravitate toward specific tasks
>>>>> while others would multi-task as they have been doing.
>>>>>
>>>>> Over time we could expand the purview of the group to include things
>>>>> like moderating instructional videos and comments at wordpress.tv(and start embedding appropriate videos into codex), possibly helping to
>>>>> staff in-person help desks in local communities and/or at events like
>>>>> WordCamps and Meetups, etc. I think the prospects are pretty exciting, and
>>>>> I could see this becoming the biggest and most active of all the
>>>>> contributor groups, which would be awesome.
>>>>>
>>>>> If there are any strong objections to this approach, please reply to
>>>>> this thread today so we can discuss. If not, and everyone is willing to
>>>>> give this a shot and all work together (at least as an experiment for, say,
>>>>> the next release cycle or two), I'll go ahead and set up the group blog
>>>>> tomorrow.
>>>>>
>>>>> Jane
>>>>> ______________________________**_________________
>>>>> wp-docs mailing list
>>>>> wp-docs at lists.automattic.com
>>>>> http://lists.automattic.com/**mailman/listinfo/wp-docs<http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-docs>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> --
>>> Andrea Rennick, http://wpebooks.com and http://ronandandrea.com
>>> Co-author of WordPress All-In-One For Dummies http://rml.me/aio
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
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-- 
-- 
Andrea Rennick, http://wpebooks.com and http://ronandandrea.com
Co-author of WordPress All-In-One For Dummies http://rml.me/aio
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