WordPress Forum Volunteers Wanted
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If you are helping or interested in helping on the WordPress Forum here, we need you. As you know, this site is run entirely by volunteers who give of their time and expertise with WordPress to answer questions.
For information on what is involved in volunteering on the WordPress Forum, see http://codex.wordpress.org/Support_Forum_Volunteers
Sign up on the mailing list for WordPress Forum Volunteers. Remember, this is not a mailing list for support, but to support the supporters by providing information and help in answering questions on this forum.
Volunteers are needed throughout all the different aspects of WordPress. To find out more, see Contributing to WordPress.
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And to answer your question off-list, Lorelle, yes – all 8 are wordpress, I had never tried blogs before February. First one was a Fantastico install….
TG – I would hate to think it’s elitest.
From when Craig and myself lead with support, and now with Skippy, we did what we did largely by following what we thought were good guidelines. But we wrote those guidelines. And the forums have changed, so have a few issues. Rather than asking just a few by email about practices, I thought it was better it was done openly.
For instance:
– Should people who regularly answer stuff here get a different title to those that answer less. This was debated on the list, and the upshot is No. For me, the forums are about support, not titles.
– When should threads be closed ? We have no real answer on this.
– The rewriting of the forum stickies. We did have 4 in this forum and I think 2 is enough.
– the building of links to codex was discussed
– requests about forum software can go there.It’s a place where issues about here can be discussed because if we tried to open a thread about it there would be repeats of past threads – there are enough people who snipe about the forums here when they get the chance and a mailing list while it does not remove the chance to flame and bait, it does help to increase the signal/noise ratio. Also this is not a discussion forum.
It’s also not going to be ‘Just another list’ – if it gets no traffic, it will be killed off.
I still don’t get it…..
First line from the Codex: “The Support Forum Volunteers are the members of the WordPress Support Forum (http://codex.wordpress.org/support) providing answers to your WordPress problems and issues.”
What you are talking about Podz, sounds like people working to improve the forums, help clean things up… administrative/moderator type things in the forums…. but the Codex doesn’t mention anything like that. The Codex text reads like the mission statement for the Forums’s existence.
So which is it?
Tg
Most fora that are this busy for software that’s this good have an off-forum list for the folks who seem to spend a second life or so trying to help people.
It’s generally a good idea….
I used to work in the National Health Service – I cannot abide mission statements or anything resembling them.
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/37849 is what I originally posted, and how I see it and it’s role.
It is NOT a way to distinguish between people – and I will oppose anything that does so.
I signed up. I love helping.
*sigh*…. forget it…. just forget it…. I’m not seeing what you are saying and you aren’t seeing what I’m saying.
Tg
*not signing up*The mailing list exists to make the forums a better place by discussing how we can:
– improve the software
– provide feedback to those that want it who would like to help but may feel unsure
– to discuss how we should handle the ever increasing number of support requests that had nothing to do with code that was written by Matt & co. The fact that it has to do with a blog is immaterial to someone looking for help and all they see is Adsense here, there and everywhere.
– to generally have a more unified approach to help here. An example is the posting of a single url in response to a question. It’s something I have already said I think is very UNhelpful and almost rude.
What the list is NOT is a place to register for and ‘hang out’ in while contributing zip here. It’s not about looking cool, or being elitist, or trying to argue that you deserve an extra badge because you help more than someone else.
I was hoping it would turn into a positive thing, but I also knew that it would never have a huge range of appeal.
*graon* now I KNOW we are cross-talking here…..Ok…. let me see if I can break this down and hopefully you will then understand my POV: (I’ll take it one para at a time)
Up at the top of this thread is this post by Lorelle:
<blokquote>If you are helping or interested in helping on the WordPress Forum here, we need you. As you know, this site is run entirely by volunteers who give of their time and expertise with WordPress to answer questions.Sounds like a call to those interested in helping others out in the forums. More specificaly, for those with nitch knowledge.
For information on what is involved in volunteering on the WordPress Forum, see http://codex.wordpress.org/Support_Forum_Volunteers
This links to a Codex page which explains the layout of the forums, what each forums section is all about. Oooookaaay…. still kinda fall in line with the first para.
Sign up on the mailing list for WordPress Forum Volunteers. Remember, this is not a mailing list for support, but to support the supporters by providing information and help in answering questions on this forum.
Ok, so now we’re asked to sign up on a mailing list so we can share information with each other to aid in the helping of answering questions. So now we end up with all this back room chatter on how something works in particular…. and that info isn’t readily shared. I just don’t get it… I don’t see the point.
Volunteers are needed throughout all the different aspects of WordPress. To find out more, see Contributing to WordPress.
Contains another link to the codex with a comprehensive listing of the kinds of things people can do to help WP.
No where in ALL of this was it about making the forums a better place. At this point all I’m seeing is the beginings of a system where people might get “prefered” status because they’ve “officialy” signed up to help, leaving those of us, who come in here from time to time, offering what little help I can.
Now, what you’ve posted podz, makes more sense, but seems to be at odds to what lorelle posted…. one has to do with helping others while the other had to do with how to improve things on the forums.
I help out on the forums when I can as I can. I really do my best to provide what info I’ve got and share my experiences on various things. I have some ideas that I think would help alot in the forums. But I’m still not going to sign up and share them. It’s all stuff I’ve said before and was dismissed. The other problem with this is that it’s been made an open call…. something about too many cooks spoiling the broth comes to mind.
You want to come up with a unified way to respond to problems. Fine, but unless you can get EVERYONE who helps to sign off on it, then it’s useless.
As for the increasing number of requests for help for code not written my Matt & co…… 90% of the time it’s a plugin, which should be the responsibility of the plugin author. Sometimes that isn’t possible. People drop off the radar, life gets in the way, stuff happens. Ok, then it’s up to the rest of us to do our best to help these people out.
I may be out of line, but that’s how I see it. If history holds, then anything I say won’t make one ounce of difference. But at least I’ve had my say.
Tg
Lorelle showed me that page when she had written it.
For someone who is coming back here and wants to ‘give back’ I think that page is as good an attempt as any at pointing out where to start looking for information.
That page also serves – I hope – to making it clear that the bar to helping here is not something high. Talk here can sometimes get complex and that may put someone off – not what we need.The mailing list is absolutely not the place for any sort of enhanced status whatsoever – it just ain’t going to happen. The relevant parts of the debate about titles here can be followed from here:
Original start:
http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-forums/2005-July/000083.html
Last discussion:
http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-forums/2005-July/000123.htmlI said there and I’ll keep saying it that I think any sort of ‘Prefect’ badge type junk will be harmful.
I see the list PURELY to discuss improvements to the forums.
That will inevitably come about as a combination of software and people. Threads have been tried here before about making the forums better and they degenerate within 10 posts – not useful.And your point about code: I would rant in this forum about Adsense and I’d get flak in a surprising number of places about that (amazing what a technorati search finds). But who could I ask for feedback ? The people I needed to ask were here, not elsewhere. The forum mailing list is also somewhere that overall forum moderation can be guided from. This forum is no-one’s plaground and it’s got a whole lot bigger in the last year – maybe it needs something else – maybe it needs another forum ? Whatever it is, suggest it to the list, say why and then we’ll all debate it publicly.
That’s how I see it all anyway.
You know, the most important word being overlooked in ALL of this is the word “VOLUNTEER”.
If you want to help, help.
If you want to get more involved with your helping, then get involved. One way to get more involved is to get more information. To get more information, read the Codex information.
If you want to get even more involved, and particpate more and interact with the names behind the forum to help improve the Forum, and WordPress in general, then sign up for one of the many mailing lists provided for the different areas of WordPress.
Your level of involvement is up to you. You can help by answering questions here in the forum once in a while, or just donate some money to keep WordPress going. Or plunge into the code and risk life and limb as a WordPress hacker or beta tester.
Your level of involvement and contribution does not make anyone better or worse than anyone else. The mailing lists provide information and opportunity to exchange more information and get advice.
If you want to volunteer, volunteer by your choice and to whatever level of volunteer time and energy you want to contribute. It’s your choice. There are no “HAVE TOS” around here. Do what you can and your help is appreciated. That is why it is called “Volunteer”.
ive been spending the last couple of hours trying to figure out to respond to this in a responsible coherent way. In looking this thread over a few things I’ve come to the following conclusions:
* It’s a bad idea for me to try and express my opinions here. I need to learn to jsut stick to the facts and programming
* No one is truly interested in what I have to say or how I feel. That’s OK, it’s nothing new.
* No one is interested in helping me for what ever reason. I suspect I may have landed on everyone’s ignore list at some point.
* Podz – get off the damn badges for a sec. I never said anything of the sort, you did. You are the one who brought it up, not me. I called it elitset, I never said anything about badges (“Badges? We don’ need no stinkin’ badges! HAHAHAHA!”)
* Lorelle – I have done that, but now I feel like I’m being made to feel less of a gnome simply because I see no point in signing up for the mailing list. I STILL am not sure what it’s even for. I look at things in terms of ROI… is it going to add value to anything to sign up for this. I still have yet to have anyone tell me what advantage it would have over what already goes on in the forums. (see two bullets up). To me it’s yet just one more list. What’s my motivation? So far, the only thing that came close was this from Podz “Whatever it is, suggest it to the list, say why and then we’ll all debate it publicly.” What? It’s either on the list or it’s publicly. I can’t be both. At least not at the same time. It’s jsut one more opportunity for me to suggest things until I’m blue in the face (And being a gnome, that doesn’t take much) and have them ignored.
* I never once suggested anything was compulsory…. I’m simply reacting to way things are being “organized” and worded.Here’s what I see…. a mailing list being set up to facilitate back-room chatter on how things work, and to discuss how to improve things…. but isn’t THAT what the forums are about? You create a mailing list and eventualy you’ll get a dozen or so people who understand how things work, but the discussion isn’t propigated to the forums. There’s no information sharing. If you are looking at a thread where someone is having a problem with X, and you aren’t sure how (or why) X works the way it does, the don’t reply. Sit on your hands. Posting to the mailing list is only going to make it worse. You’d still have to wait for the person who does know about X to respond. And then you might have the info needed to reply. Then it comes back that it didn’t quite work, or this setting is off or, blah, bla, blad. Then the process repeats ad nauseum. That’s assuming you didn’t lose where the thread is.
But I’m sure this post is al lfor naught anyways. I’ve now decided what my level of voluntary participation is going to be from now on. I’ll proly toss some PP$ Matt’s way, but I think that’s going to about to it for me around here.
I don’t meen to seem ungrateful or snotty (a la “screw you guys I’m going home”) but it’s becoming increasingly obviouse I can’t help any more…. I find myself repsonding to less and less postings, limiting myself to just those that I can actualy answer. I can’t read through the codex, because parts of it are out of date. I can’t update the Codex because I don’t even know how something is supposed to work, which is how I come to be in the Codex in the first place. So I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s nothing left for me here.
There are things I know that would improve things around here, but I also know that they will never happen. To think otherwise would be insane. Because of that, there’s no point in sharing any of it. I don’t want to waste your time and I jsut assume not waste my time on something that’s jsut going to land in the bit bucket any ways.
Tg
“It’s either on the list or it’s publicly.”
It’s both.
If someone suggests here that users should have little avatars, then regardless of what path that discussion may take, the thread would be hijacked by those people who just want to grind axes against bbPress and these forums generally. TG – you’ve been around here longer than me and we’ve both seen threads go out of control on the subject of these forums.
But if someone DOES want little avatars, then suggest it to the mailing list which is easily subbed to, and the archives are public anyway. The people that sub to the list are those that want to take an active part in the forum development in all ways and will debate issues without dropping into ‘my phpBB is better than your InVision’ type junk.
The alternative to the list is for decisions about the forums to be made between a small cabal in private – and that wouldn’t go down well either. Rock / hard place.
“There are things I know that would improve things around here, but I also know that they will never happen. To think otherwise would be insane.”
Try us ? Seriously – make the case for what you think.I think part of the problem around here is that the forum is not really any more “how things work” as much as it is “how do I get someone to tell me how to fix my problem so I don’t have to look through the codex or use the search function”.
Yeah, it’s public here, TG. But it’s also an egocentric mess, and the minute someone brings up one of the “troll” or “flamewar” magnets, the discussion gets completely derailed….
I hope that even though you may not change your mind about the list, that you will continue to contribute….
I disagree about keeping strictly to WordPress. WordPress is a wonderful product, I’ll be the first to say it, and it is more than the sum of its parts. But it also wouldn’t be as popular as it is without the myriad toys (e.g., plugins and themes) that were created to work with it.
I agree that the theme designer or plugin developer should be the first line of defense when a theme or design blows up in your face. But the fact of the matter is this is a support forum for and by the USERS. If I have been fiddling with a plugin and have figured out how to get it to work or get it to work BETTER, then I’m definitely going to pipe up when a cry for help about that particular plugin is heard.
And yes, Podz, monosyllabic and one link responses are churlish and rude. Is this the picture we want to project of the WP community? Certainly not. However, people who come in here without having done a modicum of researh, but rather who sit, with their mouths open, like baby birds in a nest, waiting for the mother bird to drop a worm in, these people should not be countenanced.
Why should I google links for you when you are too lazy to do it yourself? On the other hand, if you come here with a problem and have attempted to solve it yourself without any luck, or just plain got in over your head, then there’s bound to be someone in this vast user base who can help you.
Thing is, they may not help you this minute, or this hour, or even this day. Patience is indeed a virtue.
I owe most of what I know about WP to what knowledge I’ve gleaned while here. And granted, I’ve had my toes stepped on and I’m sure I’ve done my share of stomping on toes as well. But I’ve met some really nice folks here and I sure would like to see it stay that way.
My take on the “reasoning” for the mailing list wasn’t so much to discuss “problems” and “issues” with WordPress, but rather to discuss HOW to address those problems and issues, how best to solve them when people come here asking for help. Maybe I’m wrong there, but that’s what I read.
And although I know a lot more about HTML and CSS and web design and WordPress than some others out there, something in me makes me reluctant to speak out unless I’m so darn sure about it that I’d be willing to bet my cat’s life on it. This is a throwback to hanging out in Usenet in groups like alt.html.critique where no one’s feelings are spared and your every word is torn apart by the wolverines hanging out there. Someday, maybe I’ll get over this shyness!
Peace out!
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