A contributor day is a special kind of day where existing and new contributors to WordPress work together to make WordPress better. Tickets are free and anyone is welcome to attend.
Why attend?
Attending a contributor day and getting involved is a great way of giving back to WordPress and getting more involved in the community. After all, WordPress is open source code that has been created and maintained by volunteers and is given away freely for others to use.
Aside from the warm fuzzy feelings of giving back, there are a few other reasons to come along:
- Learning – you will find that you learn a great deal about how WordPress works, especially in the area you get involved in contributing to.
- Meeting others – it’s a great way to get to know others who work with WordPress, you never know who you will end up sitting next to.
- Broadening your horizons – the WordPress community is vast and complex, undoubtedly you will learn things you never knew you wanted to know!
- You will be welcome – whoever you are, whatever your background or skills, you will be welcome and your efforts valued. We have a code of conduct to ensure the WordCamp Bristol 2019 Contributor Day will be a safe and positive event for everyone.
There a great article on wordpress.org called Why contributing to WordPress benefits everyone, that’s a really good read.
“I volunteered to help at my first WordCamp in Soltau, Germany, when I was still very new to the community and to contributing. It gave me the chance to meet people who had been contributing for years. It was great! The amount of value, knowledge and great tips that you can learn during a WordCamp and a Contributor Event, has no parallel.”
Maria Aragón, from ACOCO Web
Who can come?
Our WordPress contributor day is open to everyone whatever your skills and experience levels. Our aim is to provide a range of opportunities to contribute to that literally anyone can get involved in even if you are new to using WordPress.
Many people wonder if a contribution day is just for coders – definitely not! There are lots of ways to contribute, many of which require little to no technical coding knowledge. Only a willingness to try, ask questions and a laptop!
What happens?
WordPress contributor days come in all shapes and sizes, from a handful of people huddled around a table to packed out conference halls. We aim for WordCamp Bristol’s contributor day to be somewhere in the middle, a more intimate affair focusing on quality over quantity.
Most smaller contributor days, such as ours, keep their contributor days focused on three or four tracks (the name for each team). We will be doing just that, more info on the tracks you can expect below.
Generally contributor days follow a similar format:
- Welcome session at the beginning to explain how the day will work and what tracks leads are available
- Contributors self-organise into tracks, depending on their skills and interests.
- Each track will have a team leader, familiar with the subject who will assist others in getting set-up and give you help throughout the day.
- The teams will then work on specific aspects of WordPress, for instance design, support, core development, theme reviews etc.
What do I need?
There are a few things you need to bring and do first:
- Bring your laptop & charger
- Sign-up for a WordPress.org account
- Join the WordPress team on Slack (we can give you a hand with this on the day too)
- A willingness to learn, ask questions and help others
Slack is the main communication tool used by contributors and the various WordPress teams. It is a free tool with a desktop, mobile and browser version.
Will food and drinks be provided?
Yes! Your time is really valued, as such we will be making sure you are well watered and fed – drinks, snacks and lunch are provided free of charge.
What tracks (topics) will I be able to contribute to?
“I thought for a long time that I would have little to contribute to WordPress, until I stepped up at WordCamp US and realized I could make a difference. To top it off, I got to meet some amazing people and make some great new friends.”
Scott Jones, from Illustrate Digital
Whilst there are a huge variety of tracks you can contribute to, we believe for a smaller event like ours it is best to focus our efforts on a smaller number of tracks so that new contributors will have the best experience possible. As such we have arranged table leads for the following:
- Design – provide input to mockups, design, and user testing – suitable for complete beginners.
- WordPress.tv – help caption or even edit videos from other WordCamps – suitable for complete beginners.
- Support forums – answer questions in the wordpress.org support forums – suitable for more experienced users of WordPress.
- Theme reviews – review themes that are submitted to the wordpress.org theme repository – suitable for more experienced developers.
NB: Unless you are already an existing contributor who’s contributed to the other available tracks (see below), it’s unlikely we will have team leads to be able to support new contributors in the other track topics.
Already an experienced Contributor?
Come join us! We would love to have you on board.
If you feel comfortable with it, we would also appreciate more table leads. If you know the ins and outs of contributing to any of the above or other tracks we have not yet mentioned (e.g. Core, Accessibility, Polygots), please get in touch. We definitely couldn’t have too many mentors for the people starting out, and your experience would be a great asset for the day. We’d all love to learn from you!
Want to come along? Great!
Tickets are FREE!
The day will take place at The Pavilion, No1 Hannover Quay, Bristol BS1 5JE between 10am and 3pm.
To keep our day intimate there are only a limited number of tickets. We please ask that if you find you can no longer attend you let us know and we’ll release your ticket for somebody else. Whilst tickets are free, it certainly doesn’t mean this event is free for us to put on and we want to ensure that all the available places are taken on the day.
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