At the start of the new year, I set myself one of my goals: to contribute to the WordPress community.
I talked about this desire in my last essay on heropress.com: Be useful to others, with WordPress. To make the CMS accessible to all those who need it to create, express themselves, communicate…
Indeed, the philosophy of the WordPress project, carried by and for its users, accessible and inclusive for all, is an idea that I find exciting: these are great values that feel good! Then it’s been eight years (already! 🥳) since I discovered and started working with WordPress. Since then, it’s been my tool of work and expression that follows me every day, and I really want to participate as I can in its improvement and democratization. Finally, although I’m familiar with the concepts of open source and free software, I don’t know how contributors to projects of this type organize themselves and work together. I’m very curious to discover these macrocosms that I only know from the outside.
Contribute to Translate WordPress
At the beginning of the year, while browsing the WordPress.org website, I came across this publication by Naoko Takano: Call for Mentees & Mentors: Contributor Mentorship Program Cohort #2 (2024 Q1). I learn that there’s a program to integrate new contributors, with an organization of mentors and interns. It aims to connect WordPress experts with newcomers to learn and contribute. Novices can apply even without experience, with the prerequisite of having a WordPress.org account and at least one activity on their profile. Mentors must have experience in WordPress development or related fields. I’m submitting my application to contribute to the French translation, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
On February 16, I’m pleased to receive an e-mail welcoming me to the program, with all the details: I get to know my mentor Jenny Dupuy, the teams I’m part of(Translation Fr, Documentation Fr, Learn Fr) and information about the next kick-off.
We kick off with two program presentation meetings led by Hari Shanker R: I learn about the community’s operating methods and resources on WordPress.org’s Learn platform, which offers courses to get me started. The people are extremely welcoming and open, and the atmosphere is very pleasant, even if I have to brush up on my spoken English!
We schedule two videoconferences with Jenny to get to know each other and review all the useful information and little rules to keep in mind to get off to a good start. I learn about the organization of the French translation, documentation and Learn teams, and about translation tools:
Honestly, I’m impressed by the range of tools available and the hard work put in by the volunteers, and yet this is only a small part of the WordPress project! I was particularly impressed by theintegration of WordPress Playground with the theme and plugin translation tool.
I’m starting with the translation of my first article on Learn WordPress: Creating a home page using a block-based theme. The translation includes the article itself and the subtitles for the video on WordPress TV. I propose a first version and after a few, back and forths with Jenny, we propose a translation ready on Github. It’s my first contribution, and even if it’s a tiny stone in the edifice, I’m still pretty proud of it.
To keep the momentum going, Jenny asked me to translate an article from the official WordPress.org documentation: Publication Visibility (Block Editor). The working methods are a little different, but I’ve been able to make faster progress and after a few days, we’ve published a translation!
For this first step, I was able to translate two different resources and had the pleasure of joining volunteer teams for the WordPress project. I really enjoyed the experience and plan to invest one or two hours a week, starting by helping to translate the documentation. Due to scheduling problems, I wasn’t able to attend the monthly meeting of the French translation team, but I’m hoping to attend the one on May 6!
About the contribution program
This mentoring program lasted six weeks and ended on March 29, 2024, with 52 interns for 28 mentors and 44 interns making significant contributions to the project. Interns’ contributions included translating thousands of strings, contributing to documentation, as well as actively participating in WordPress 6.5 beta and RC releases. The program also supported six interns with an LGBTQ+ empowerment grant. Eight new contributors to the main project and a significant contribution to WordPress 6.5, demonstrate a real impact of the mentoring program for the WordPress community.
Now that it has come to an end, many trainees plan to continue contributing to WordPress and participate in version 6.6.
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