Promote WordPress Slack community on website

[adamwoodnz]

We're always looking for more engagement with the community; more feedback on features and tools from end users. Slack is the place where these discussions can happen, but we have no call to action to attract end users on the home page, or even the Make home page.

From personal experience I can say that some users do not know that WordPress Slack exists, or how to get onto the platform.

https://make.wordpress.org/chat/ is not linked anywhere as far as I can see.

Some places we could consider adding links:

• Header, under Community
• Footer link
• Footer social icon link
• Home page community section
• Make home page

[jasmussen]

As part of this, the instructions page could be vastly improved. In terms of appealing to participation, this is a wall of text to read in order to participate. If all of that material needs to be there we could potentially collapse some sections. I also wonder if there are any alternatives to Slack 😱 that might affect this.

[courtneyr-dev]

Noting that after the Contribute survey, there's a link to Join This is a helpful guide containing resources from LearnWP in many languages to help overcome the common barriers to using the Chat page to join (alias email).

[sereedmedia]

Hi @adamwoodnz! yes to all this!

we just made the join page that @courtneyr-dev linked on wednesday!!

check out WordPress/Marketing-Team#290

would LOVE to link this up from the main site and/or the front page of the make site.

[sereedmedia]

additional related Marketing team github tickets:

WordPress/Marketing-Team#292

WordPress/Marketing-Team#280

[adamwoodnz]

Thoughts on linking to this new Join page from a design perspective @jasmussen?

[jasmussen]

That seems a great instinct 👍 👍

Do you need any design for this? I would think this page can get fairly far with just an editorial lead, but I'm always happy to help if you need better logos or screenshots or things like that.

One nitpick, the last paragraph on that page would look better if not centered.

[adamwoodnz]

Do you need any design for this?

Maybe not design as such. Guidance on which place(s) would be best to add links or CTAs is really what's required if we're happy with the destination I think. Not sure who is best to advise, @ndiego?

Some places we could consider adding links:

• Header, under Community
• Footer link
• Footer social icon link
• Home page community section
• Make home page

[ndiego]

Any thoughts on this one @dorsvenabili?

[sereedmedia]

Note: The first page in the Contributor flow is this one: https://make.wordpress.org/contribute/ and it has the editorial content @jasmussen mentions.

The "Join" page is currently second in that flow. A Slack directory would be the third (i.e. now that you're got your WP accounts, here is where to find the conversation for your team.)

As a side note: While I greatly value the contributor access that is preserved by having this page on make.wordpress.org, it would actually benefit from a translation standpoint from being on the main site.

[sereedmedia]

One nitpick, the last paragraph on that page would look better if not centered.

@jasmussen the last paragraph is now left-aligned.

[StevenDufresne]

I think one of the simplest things we can do is call it out in the footer. I don't think it undermines any of our other support/onboarding flows.

Option A

Option B

[sereedmedia]

@StevenDufresne In my mind Joining the Slack doesn't seem like a strong primary call to action. Joining the Slack without any other context is a very confusing process that marketing and the Contributor Mentorship program managers are are actively working to make easier!

I feel like the "Get Involved" call to action should be sufficient. (I think it should also go to the Contribute page not the Make homepage)

Is there a specific reason that you or @adamwoodnz are wanting to call people to join Slack as the first step?

[adamwoodnz]

a very confusing process that marketing and the Contributor Mentorship program managers are are actively working to make easier

When I opened this issue I wasn't really aware of these efforts, if this seems related or conflicted I'm sorry, it's pure coincidence.

a specific reason that you or @adamwoodnz are wanting to call people to join Slack as the first step?

Our observation was that we don't get a lot of community feedback on the things we're launching, and we're trying to think of ways to get people more engaged. When I returned to the WordPress community after 10+ years away I wasn't aware of WordPress Slack, and when we looked around we found there were no mentions of it in any of the places mentioned in the description.

I feel like the "Get Involved" call to action should be sufficient. (I think it should also go to the Contribute page not the Make homepage)

This makes sense to me if it's the primary way we want people to get involved.

I also like the idea of the footer social icon as a visual cue to raise awareness.

[StevenDufresne]

Our observation was that we don't get a lot of community feedback on the things we're launching, and we're trying to think of ways to get people more engaged. When I returned to the WordPress community after 10+ years away I wasn't aware of WordPress Slack, and when we looked around we found there were no mentions of it in any of the places mentioned in the description.

Adding to this, at least from the #meta channels point of view (which is only one perspective... I know), the Slack chat feels a bit like an echo chamber where sponsored contributors come to talk to sponsored contributors and once in a while someone comes to alert us of something that is broken.

That isn't a problem in itself, but it would be much more beneficial to diversify that audience and be able to talk more directly with people using WordPress. We should be able to chat with people who just like to use WordPress and talk about it and have no interest in contributing. Other modern frameworks push people relatively quickly into discord because that's where the people are. Again, this may be the result of my narrowed world view. These users probably don't stumble into the meta chat, but I also can't seem to find a channel where they do hang out (maybe core is better?)

I'm also not very familiar with the ongoing effort to update these flows via the contributor mentorship program, so this isn't a criticism of anything and I support all updates to those flows!

[dorsvenabili]

I agree with @StevenDufresne that Slack is used by Contributors and there is no a space there right now to welcome normal users. In any case, giving visibility to Slack is a good thing.

I'd suggest adding the links suggested in this ticket to Slack and to Matrix, so we promote the two chat spaces we have for our community to communicate and hang out. The links would be:

Chat:

• Slack: https://make.wordpress.org/chat/
• Matrix: https://make.wordpress.org/chat/matrix/

[jasmussen]

Let's not add a link to these columns:

If we need to give prominence to joining the community Slack, we can potentially integrate it as CTAs either on the homepage, or linked in various footers across the site, like in the dedicated footer CTAs:

The main reason to avoid is that those links are carefully curated and intentionally balanced to have exactly 4 items in each column on the desktop breakpoint. This is a delicate balance not just for the appearance, but to ensure the links that are present work as intended; the more we add, the lower value each link will get, and it's already a lot.

[ndiego]

Let's not add a link to these columns:

I agree here.

If we need to give prominence to joining the community Slack, we can potentially integrate it as CTAs either on the homepage, or linked in various footers across the site, like in the dedicated footer CTAs

+1 on this. On the new Developer Resource redesign, we also have sections where additional content can be easily added. This area on the homepage jumps out at me a perhaps a good spot to add cards for Slack and Matrix.

[akirk]

I'd like to highlight that for certain audiences maybe the chat technology is not so important and they can make use of the Make P2 chat pages that are linked at https://make.wordpress.org/ (and we need to link from the P2 sites themselves):

An example of such a flow: https://make.wordpress.org/design/chat/

I'm suggesting that there is a strong relationship between Make P2s and chat channels.

These P2 Chat pages that we created are just "normal" WordPress pages that can be edited. Today mostly consist of a meeting_time shortcode to display the next meeting time and a Chatrix block that is linked to the respective Matrix room which itself is currently bridged to the equivalent Slack channel so that you can use Matrix to join a meeting or ask questions the Make room.

The pages can be edited and thus customized to the teams likening. On some P2s multiple exist, e.g. https://make.wordpress.org/core/chat-editor/

I personally believe it is quite powerful to be able to point people to just a WordPress.org page to start chatting so that they don't have to go through the Slack signup flow and find the channel that they originally intended to join.

[sereedmedia]

WOW, I didn't realize we had onsite chat embeds now.

A few things:

Please, please, PLEASE do not link directly to Slack. If the make.wordpress.org Contributor Flow we are developing isn't enough and we need to put an contributor information page on the main site, let's do that. Linking people directly to Slack, or even just to a chat page, is not at all helpful. At the minimum it is difficult for the people trying to engage and difficult for the people in the channels being asked the same questions all the time. It is altogether a difficult process.

Also #marketing and the Contributor Mentorship program are in discussion with Slack admins about creating a new "welcome" type channel for people who land into Slack. It would make a lot of sense to get that in place before we highlight joining the Slack.

[adamwoodnz]

Thanks for all the discussion folks. Let's pause this and revisit once all the other in progress initiatives conclude.