Alvaro Gómez 7:42 pm on February 1, 2023  

Block Editor Live in Most Forums 

As discussed in early December of last year, the MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. and Support teams have implemented the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor in all international support forums, as well as in all pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party and theme forums/reviews.

The overall feedback has been positive. Specifically, a number of people have highlighted how adding images has become considerably easier.

In addition, some Rosetta (non-English) forums are already successfully using the block editor, including Russian, Swedish, and Dutch. Before rolling out the block editor in the remaining Rosetta forums, we will first test it in a single RTL (right-to-left) language forum.

Documentation

A new documentation page has been created, which explains how to use the block editor in the forums, and other references throughout the existing documentation have been updated. 

Known issues, reporting bugs, and suggesting enhancements

There are a couple of remaining known issues we are currently working on. As always, any help would be most welcome!

  • To paste most types of code, you must use a code block; otherwise, it’s stripped out. An upstream issue to resolve this is still under discussion, and it would not only solve the issue in the forums, but for all sites using the block editor.  
  • Emojis sometimes display an </img> tag 
  • There is an issue with the underline option outputting inline code.
  • This Meta Trac issue outlines other known issues.

To report bugs or suggest enhancements, follow this guide. If you are unsure and need help reporting any issues, you can add a comment here or swing by the #forums channel in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.

Opting out of blocks

You can opt-out of the block editor completely in your forum profile settings, by checking the “Disable the Block Editor for new topics and replies” box, as seen below:

Screenshot of the WordPress.org forum profile settings, highlighting the "Disable he Block Editor for new topics and replies" checkbox.
Marius L. J. 12:32 am on February 1, 2023  

Agenda for February 2nd Support Meeting

The weekly support meeting will be held on Thursday, February 2nd, 2023, 17:00 UTC in #forums on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. (a Slack account is required)

Headlines / Community updates

This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.

Last weeks items

A summary of activity that’s happened as a result of last weeks meeting, on the topics of;

Updates to support references

The Support FAQ has been updated to account for the new editor in use, and other little tidbits here and there, give it a read and familiarize your self with what might be new, or even just to get reacquainted with what’s there from before 🎉

Using the block editor in the forums
Frequently Asked Questions

Mobile Apps forums launch

We’ve seen the soft-launch of the support forums for the WordPress Mobile Apps, the hard launch, which will start referencing users within the apps should happen this week (unless something comes up), make sure to give our mobile users a warm welcome!

Checking in with international liaisons

This is the section where we reach out to the non-English speaking parts of our community, to see how they are doing, if there’s anything we can help each other with, or just interesting things going on that it would be nice to share with others.

There’s no requirements for previous participation or “fame” to share here, anyone is welcome, and we encourage newcomers to participate!

Unable to make the meeting, or maybe meetings just aren’t your thing? We would still love to hear how things are going in other non-English speaking parts of our community. Please feel free to let us know via the comment section below, in your own time, if there is anything you’d like to share, any questions or concerns you have, or just to let us know you’re doing OK!

We will make a habit of putting this callout with every agenda post going forward, so that everyone has a chance to join in.

Open floor

This part of the meeting only happens if there is time, the team aims to cover the pre-planned topics first in any given meeting.

When open floor starts, any topic posted either as a comment to this agenda post will be looked at, or as many as there is time for. If there is still time left after this, then meeting attendees may step forward with questions, comments, remarks, anything relating to the support team that they’d like to handle.

It is also important to note that not everyone is comfortable posting things publicly, there is complete understanding of this, and users are welcome to contact the team representative (@clorith) via direct messages on Slack with whatever they wish the team to look at together.

For any other items to discuss, please add them to the comments below, or bring them up in the meeting.

Marius L. J. 12:23 am on February 1, 2023
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Summary for January 26th Support Meeting

The weekly support meeting was held on Thursday, January 26th, 2023, 17:00 UTC in #forums on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Read the transcript in at your own pace (a Slack account is required)

Community headlines and updates

This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.

Docs team is looking for feedback on classification of some terminology

The documentation team is looking to implement some consistency in the terminology used around elements such as support forums, training, and documentation.

The support representative has left a comment with them for clarification on what problem is to be solved, and also noting some concerns.

Blocks Everywhere (in the forums)

The rollout of blocks within a forum context is coming along nicely, there are some lingering issues with the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor that are still being investigated, namely;

  • Pasting code
  • Twemijo
  • List indentations

These are actively being looked into, and some rosetta sites have already opted into trying out the new editor as well (which others may also do if they so chose by reaching out), while a “on by default” approach won’t be taken until the lingering issues have been resolved.

Checking in with international liaisons

Some of our wonderful international friends were able to participate this week (and we’ve also reached out to everyone individually to check how things are going. The team understands that timezones do not always allow for everyone ot participate, so this may become more of a recurring thing).

Open floor

A few headlight items for the team were brought forth during open floor;

Yumi Kimura – Always with Me

#weekly-chat

Marius L. J. 6:41 pm on January 25, 2023  

Agenda for the January 26th Support Meeting

The weekly support meeting will be held on Thursday, January 26th, 2023, 17:00 UTC in #forums on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. (a Slack account is required)

Headlines / Community updates

This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.

Last weeks items

A summary of activity that’s happened as a result of last weeks meeting, on the topics of;

  • The Support Handbook
  • Blocks Everywhere (in the forums)

Checking in with international liaisons

This is the section where we reach out to the non-English speaking parts of our community, to see how they are doing, if there’s anything we can help each other with, or just interesting things going on that it would be nice to share with others.

There’s no requirements for previous participation or “fame” to share here, anyone is welcome, and we encourage newcomers to participate!

Unable to make the meeting, or maybe meetings just aren’t your thing? We would still love to hear how things are going in other non-English speaking parts of our community. Please feel free to let us know via the comment section below, in your own time, if there is anything you’d like to share, any questions or concerns you have, or just to let us know you’re doing OK!

We will make a habit of putting this callout with every agenda post going forward, so that everyone has a chance to join in.

Open floor

This part of the meeting only happens if there is time, the team aims to cover the pre-planned topics first in any given meeting.

When open floor starts, any topic posted either as a comment to this agenda post will be looked at, or as many as there is time for. If there is still time left after this, then meeting attendees may step forward with questions, comments, remarks, anything relating to the support team that they’d like to handle.

It is also important to note that not everyone is comfortable posting things publicly, there is complete understanding of this, and users are welcome to contact the team representative (@clorith) via direct messages on Slack with whatever they wish the team to look at together.

For any other items to discuss, please add them to the comments below, or bring them up in the meeting.

Marius L. J. 9:58 am on January 20, 2023
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Summary for January 19th Support Meeting

The weekly support meeting was held on Thursday, January 19th, 2023, 17:00 UTC in #forums on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Read the transcript in at your own pace (a Slack account is required)

Community headlines and updates

This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.

HelpHub is being split out from support

The HelpHub platform is currently being migrated to its own home, alongside its redesign. This means that the codebase, and content, will no longer live under wordpress.org/support as it has until now. Giving space for more flexibility in the content they can create.

WordPress 6.2

The release squad for WordPress 6.2 has been set, and a tentative launch date has been decided on (this may change if anything comes up), and is currently set to March 28th.

Support Training

Having support-related training over on learn.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ was brought up as a good way to share knowledge outside of the support community to others who may be offering support, for example for plugins or themes, and also as a possible avenue for more formalized onboarding procedures.

This is an area where collaboration with the make/training team would be beneficial, and if someone would like to get a head start on contributing, joining them in #training on Slack is a good first step, as any need for formalized onboarding for the support team specifically needs to be planned out, if there is a good response to this suggestion, so leave your thoughts below!

The Support Handbook

The Support Team Handbook has been more or less in the same state since it was finalized, all the way back in 2014, and is definitely due for a review, and update, as some information may be outdated, and other important information is likely missing.

If someone would like to join in a collaborative effort to revamp this, please reach out and we’ll organize some collaboration there.

Open floor

Unfortunately @clorith dropped the ball a little, and takes responsibility for forgetting to check in with our amazing international liaisons this week, and we instead jumped into open floor, where a few items were brought up.

BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editing in the forums

A request to enable the block-editor in the remaining global forums was put forth, more information will be posted about this in its own update post, but for now, the editor has been enabled on all forums, except the AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) ones (due to some reports of some accessibility concerns, so it was purposefully not enabled there, to not make posting more difficult at this time).

The WordPress Mobile Apps

The Mobile apps are currently being decoupled from other assets that have previously kept them tied in with Jetpack or WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ assets. In this same move, they’ll be moving support back to WordPress.org (this has previously been tied to locked support systems).

The request was made to have a Mobile forum created, which shortly after the meeting was enabled (as it had preemptively been prepared already by the MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. Team).

MIKEY C, Lila McKenna – May I Have This Dance

#weekly-chat

Marius L. J. 10:44 am on January 19, 2023  

Agenda for the January 19th Support Meeting

The weekly support meeting will be held on Thursday, January 19th, 2023, 17:00 UTC in #forums on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. (a Slack account is required)

Headlines / Community updates

This is where news that are relevant or good to know for the team from across the community are brought up and shared.

WordPress 6.2

The release squad for 6.2 has been assembled, and the current expected release date has been set to March 28th.

Support Training

The Learn platform on WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ has made huge strides, should we be expanding our team efforts to helping create content that can teach folks about giving or receiving good support, and the aspects that fall under this?

For starters I recommend everyone check out the Basic Principles of Conflict Resolution, both as it’s an important topic, but also a great way to get familiar with the concept of a LMS.

Further more, perhaps having a set of courses that anyone with an “elevated public persona” (I made up that term just now), be required to complete certain training sessions like this? That would mean anyone who may represent the project publicly, moderators being a great example, step through certain training on things like conflict resolution, deescalation, and similar? Using a LMS for this would also allow for followup when desired, and making this kind of learnings available to a wider audience of pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party and theme support providers as well!

The Support Handbook Status

The support handbook could need with an audit, who would like to take part in taht effort, and what content do you feel is superficial, and what do you feel is missing?

Checking in with international liaisons

This is the section where we reach out to the non-English speaking parts of our community, to see how they are doing, if there’s anything we can help each other with, or just interesting things going on that it would be nice to share with others.

There’s no requirements for previous participation or “fame” to share here, anyone is welcome, and we encourage newcomers to participate!

Unable to make the meeting, or maybe meetings just aren’t your thing? We would still love to hear how things are going in other non-English speaking parts of our community. Please feel free to let us know via the comment section below, in your own time, if there is anything you’d like to share, any questions or concerns you have, or just to let us know you’re doing OK!

We will make a habit of putting this callout with every agenda post going forward, so that everyone has a chance to join in.

Open floor

This part of the meeting only happens if there is time, the team aims to cover the pre-planned topics first in any given meeting.

When open floor starts, any topic posted either as a comment to this agenda post will be looked at, or as many as there is time for. If there is still time left after this, then meeting attendees may step forward with questions, comments, remarks, anything relating to the support team that they’d like to handle.

It is also important to note that not everyone is comfortable posting things publicly, there is complete understanding of this, and users are welcome to contact the team representative (@clorith) via direct messages on Slack with whatever they wish the team to look at together.

For any other items to discuss, please add them to the comments below, or bring them up in the meeting.

Julia Golomb 3:41 pm on December 8, 2022
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X-post: Suggest Topics for the 2023 WordPress Community Summit

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Alvaro Gómez 1:37 pm on December 6, 2022  

Introducing the Block Editor in the Support Forums

During last week’s support chat, the Support and MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. teams agreed on introducing blocks to the support forums. 

The support forums have a long history in WordPress. So much so that the current forum editor predates TinyMCE. By introducing blocks, the support forumSupport Forum WordPress Support Forums is a place to go for help and conversations around using WordPress. Also the place to go to report issues that are caused by errors with the WordPress code and implementations. will make use of the modern WordPress editor to improve user experience. Users will be able to easily insert links, share code or embed screenshots. Using Blocks will also enable new possibilities, such as using patterns for common responses to allow for faster answers. 

Due to how old the current editor is and how the forums work, enabling the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor on a per-user, per-language, or per-forum basis is very challenging. The most likely scenario is that once the new forum block editor experience is ready to launch, it will be rolled out to all users on all forums.

The details

Initially, the Meta and Support teams identified four blocks to be added to the support forums: paragraph, list, quote, and code. These four blocks would most quickly modernize the support forum experience while gently introducing support forum users to using blocks. 

Animation of the block editor showcasing the paragraph, quote, code and list blocks

The next one on the list is an “add via URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org” image block, as well as a few embed blocks, to make adding images easier. 

Animation of how to add an URL to an image block.

Inline support links will also be included to help new users. 

Screenshot of the "Help & Support" link inside the block editor

Next steps: test and share feedback!

Want to see these new blocks in action? Great! A live version of these blocks can be tested at https://test.wordpress.org/support/ If you would like to try it, please leave a comment and we will add you to the testing site.

A meta Trac ticket has been created to track known issues and tasks that need to be completed before support forum blocks are deemed fully functional. There are still a few things to iron out before the blocks can be made available to all users, but we are making quick progress and aim to enable blocks for all users as soon as possible. 

You can help by taking time to test, flagging issues, and sharing feedback! Please make sure you review the meta Trac ticket for known issues but do not be afraid to suggest ideas outside the box. Let’s think big!

Please share your feedback before Monday, December 12th.

Who

Kudos to @clorith, @jdembowski, @jcastaneda, @macmanx, @sterndata, @yui for planning and testing these new blocks and to @dd32 for Meta support. Proposed block additions to the support forum leverage the Blocks Everywhere plugin, a standalone version of the block editor created by @johnny5.

estelaris 6:04 pm on November 22, 2022
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X-post: DevHub getting a new look

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Jan Dembowski 6:14 pm on November 19, 2022  

November 17th Support Team Meeting Summary

Items discussed.

  • Nominations for Support Team Representative
  • Using a Discord server for live support akin to IRC
  • “I have this issue too” replies and how to handle those in the forums

The SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. log of the meeting starts at this Slack link.

Nominations for Support Team Representative

The details are here in @sterndata‘s make/support post.

Call for Support Team Representative(s)
Any active Support Person can be a team representative and anyone can nominate a Support Person. Self-nominations will also be accepted.

If you know someone you wish to nominate or nominate yourself then please leave a comment in that post. As a matter of politeness if you do nominate someone, please consider asking them first. We don’t want to put anyone on the spot.

Using a Discord Server for live support akin to IRC

On the official WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ site, support is limited to the support forums and the #WordPress IRC channel. The WordPress Slack is meant for administrivia and collaboration. It is not meant as a venue for live support.

Alan Fuller raised the idea about using a Discord server and that was discussed. This was actively discussed and pointed out that anyone can use IRC without an account. Discord requires an account to be used; that may not be a bar as Slack does too.

Many opensource projects use Discord as a way to provide live support to users and other contributors. The discussion left off with perhaps someone can try it and report back to the Support Team how that went.

“I have this issue too” replies and how to handle those in the forums

This was a follow up to an earlier conversation about this topic.

The consensus of those attending the Slack meeting was that for pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party/theme topics if the developer is alright with it then let people pile on to those topics as much as they want.

The developers may inform the Support Team when they want the guideline enforced prohibiting that behavior enforced for a forum topic.

There was also some talk about making a determination if someone is interleaving support, meaning they have their problem and are taking over someone else’s topic.

The exception for that is if the “I have the problem too” replies become abusive. Then those may be moderated as any other abuse is currently handled.