Six Years: My WordPress Commit-Iversary  ## Metadata - Author: [[Jonathan Desrosiers]] - Full Title: Six Years: My WordPress Commit-Iversary - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: [#wordpress, #committers, #opensource, #community, #reflection] - #wordpress - #committers - #opensource Author: Jonathan Desrosiers Source: jonathandesrosiers.com Reference: [Six Years a Committer: My WordPress Commit-iversary (2024-11-16)](https://jonathandesrosiers.com/2024/11/six-years-a-committer-my-wordpress-commit-iversary/) date created: 2025-05-16 23:45 --- # Title: 🎉 Six Years a Committer: My WordPress Commit-iversary ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-️-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) --- ### References: - Jonathan Desrosiers, “[Six Years a Committer: My WordPress Commit-iversary](https://jonathandesrosiers.com/2024/11/six-years-a-committer-my-wordpress-commit-iversary/)” (2024-11-16) --- ## 📝 Summary: Jonathan Desrosiers reflects on his six-year journey as a WordPress core committer. He shares key lessons, personal growth moments, and advice for new contributors. The post highlights the importance of community support, humility, mentorship, and the iterative nature of open-source progress. Desrosiers celebrates the milestones, challenges, and ongoing learning that shape a sustainable and inclusive WordPress project. --- ## 📖 Main Content: Desrosiers’ article is an introspective account marking his sixth anniversary as a WordPress core committer. He recounts his initial experiences, marked by excitement and nerves, and underscores the value of patience and humility in the open-source process. Over time, he notes, his confidence grew not from perfection but from steady engagement, community interaction, and learning from mistakes. Key themes include the necessity of mentorship for onboarding new contributors, the benefit of embracing feedback, and the importance of psychological safety so contributors can grow without fear of ridicule. Desrosiers also addresses the myth that committers “know everything,” stressing that everyone—including core committers—continues learning. He advocates for a culture of gratitude, inclusive onboarding, and continual process improvement. The reflection closes with thanks to his mentors, peers, and the broader WordPress community, and an open invitation for others to participate and shape the future of the project. --- ### 🗒️ Notes - **Personal Growth** - Started as a nervous committer, evolved into a confident contributor. - Growth came from practice, not perfection. - Emphasizes learning from mistakes. - **Mentorship & Community** - Credits mentors and supportive community members for his progress. - Stresses importance of onboarding and welcoming new contributors. - Encourages giving back through mentorship. - **Psychological Safety** - Value in making mistakes without fear. - Psychological safety fosters innovation and retention. - **Humility & Iteration** - “Committers don’t know everything”—everyone is on a learning journey. - Advocates for regular review and iteration of practices. - **Sustainability** - Open-source is a marathon, not a sprint—requires pacing and patience. - Calls for more support and recognition for contributors. - **Inclusivity** - Promotes gratitude, welcoming attitudes, and inclusive onboarding. - Recognizes that diverse experiences make the project stronger. - **Community Invitation** - Open invitation for all to contribute and shape WordPress. --- ## 📖 References: - [Jonathan Desrosiers’ Blog](https://jonathandesrosiers.com/) - [WordPress Core Contributor Handbook](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/) --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1. **Original:** “Being a committer doesn’t mean you have all the answers. It means you’re willing to keep learning, ask questions, and help others do the same.” **Paraphrased:** Holding committer status isn’t about knowing everything—it’s about remaining open to learning, seeking input, and supporting others along their own journeys. 2. **Original:** “The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is that progress in open source is rarely linear. Growth comes from showing up, listening, and improving with each step.” **Paraphrased:** What stands out most is that open-source advancement seldom follows a straight path. Real progress happens through consistent participation, attentive listening, and refining one’s approach over time. --- ## 📰 Newsletter: 🎉 **Celebrating Six Years as a WordPress Core Committer!** Jonathan Desrosiers marks his sixth year as a core committer with honest reflections on what it means to contribute, mentor, and grow in the WordPress ecosystem. His advice? Stay humble, learn from mistakes, and pay it forward. Whether you’re a new contributor or a seasoned dev, his journey offers inspiration and practical tips. Want to get involved? There’s room for you in this ever-growing community! 🔗 [Read Jonathan’s post](https://jonathandesrosiers.com/2024/11/six-years-a-committer-my-wordpress-commit-iversary/) 🔗 [Contributor Resources](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/) --- ## ✅ Action Items: - **Open Source Advocacy:** - Share Jonathan’s post in onboarding materials to illustrate healthy open-source practices. - Use his reflections as a springboard for discussions on contributor support and psychological safety. - **Contributor Engagement:** - Highlight the role of mentorship and community gratitude in onboarding sessions. - Encourage current contributors to welcome and support newcomers. - **Education:** - Integrate lessons from this post into workshops on open-source humility, iteration, and growth mindset. - **OSPO Director Goals:** - Model policies that embed mentorship and psychological safety into contributor experience. - Promote a culture that values progress and gratitude, not just code output. - **Transparency & Inclusivity:** - Openly recognize diverse pathways into open source and celebrate all contributions. - Create spaces for sharing stories and feedback, building belonging. --- ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - H1: Contributors who receive mentorship and positive feedback are more likely to remain active in open-source projects. - H2: Promoting psychological safety increases innovation and quality of contributions. - H3: Celebrating milestones and sharing reflections boost community engagement. ### 📊 Methodology: - Conduct surveys of WordPress contributors to measure the impact of mentorship and psychological safety. - Analyze retention rates and contribution quality before and after implementing onboarding improvements. - Collect qualitative data through interviews and open-ended feedback from community members. ### ❓ Questions: - What systems best support mentorship and onboarding in open-source communities? - How can psychological safety be better integrated into project governance? - What impact does public recognition of contributors have on project sustainability? - What are common barriers for new committers, and how can they be addressed? ### 🔮 Future Research: - Study the effects of gratitude and public reflection on contributor retention. - Examine models of mentorship that scale effectively in large open-source projects. - Identify best practices for iterative process improvement in contributor communities. ### 💡 Implications: - Improved onboarding and recognition may lead to more sustainable, resilient open-source communities. - Prioritizing psychological safety and mentorship can increase diversity, innovation, and retention. - Embedding reflection into project culture fosters learning and transparency. --- ## 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment: - - Summary: November 30, 2024 marks the 6 year anniversary of my first commit to WordPress Core. To celebrate, I've compiled a list of statistics breaking down which areas of the code base my commits changed, and how contributors were credited in those commits. - URL: https://jonathandesrosiers.com/2024/11/six-years-my-wordpress-commit-iversary/ Today officially marks 6 full years since my [first commit](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/43957) to the [WordPress](https://wordpress.org) open source project. In case you have missed my In the context of the WordPress project, a *committer* is a contributor with the ability to modify the main WordPress source repository. Since 2004, roughly 115 people have been granted commit status for WordPress Core and 105 have made at least 1 commit. If you’re interested in learning more, I recommend reading *[The Qualities of a great WordPress contributor](https://nacin.com/2014/02/07/how-wordpress-chooses-committers/)* by WordPress Lead Developer [Andrew Nacin](https://nacin.com/). Though this post was written in 2014 (and his blog *still* has not been updated since 2015), a lot of the qualities, responsibilities, and duties of a committer still hold true. Being a committer is a responsibility that I take very seriously. With WordPress powering roughly 43% of the Internet (and increasing again), it’s a truly humbling obligation to be granted. #### A Quarter Century of Contributing While compiling the numbers for this post, I realized that recently I also crossed a quarter century as a contributor. That may think that is strange and impossible since [WordPress is only 21 years old](https://wordpress.org/news/2004/01/wordpress-10/). But think [dog years](https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/how-to-calculate-dog-years-to-human-years/), not the [Gregorian calendar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar). If each major version of WordPress is a “year”, WordPress 6.7 released earlier this month marked my 25th credited major version of WordPress marking a quarter century. 🎉 #### Commits by the numbers (2023-2024) Here are some commit stats from November 30, 2023 through November 29, 2024: * 257 total commits * 130 commits to `trunk` * 5 version bumps * 9 reverts * 4 “unprops” * [1 tags created](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/59446) * 280 total props given out in my commits * 162 unique contributors given props in my commits * Of those 162 contributors, 27 were receiving props for the first time Roughly grouped, here are commits organized by [component](https://make.wordpress.org/core/components/) (\* designates a component that I help maintain): * Build/Test Tools: 186\* * Bundled Themes: 15\* * Coding Standards: 8 (focus, not a component) * Customizer: 1 * Database: 1 * Docs: 2 (focus, not a component) * Editor: 7 * Emoji: 1 * External Libraries: 6\* * Feeds: 2 * General: 5\* * i18n: 6 * Interactivity API: 1 * Login: 1 * Media: 3\* * Menus: 1 * Options, Meta APIs: 2 * Plugins: 2 * Taxonomy: 1 * Upgrade/Install: 1\* * Upload: 1 #### Add it up: All Six Years Here are stats for all six years of being a Core Committer (November 30, 2018 through today): * 2,185 total commits * 1,071 commits to `trunk` * 247 version bumps * 147 version tags created * 3 branches created * 37 reverts * 21 “unprops” * [7 commits with hidden song lyrics](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5vbJ3gncpLoc9AN0ct5iME?si=33aebb1f695b4536) * 4,187 total props given out in my commits * 689 unique contributors given props in my commits #### Thank YOU! Being a committer would not be as exciting and fulfilling without all of the contributions from the fellow community members who take the time to help maintain this free piece of software in a multitude of ways. Thank you to each and every one of you! ❤️ #### Previous Commit-iversaries [Two](https://jonathandesrosiers.com/2020/11/two-years-my-wordpress-commit-iversary/), [Three/Four/Five](https://jonathandesrosiers.com/2023/11/five-years-my-wordpress-commit-iversary/). *Featured image credit: [CC0](https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/) licensed [photo](https://wordpress.org/photos/photo/45362040ee/) by [mdburnette](https://mburnette.com/) from the [WordPress Photo Directory](https://wordpress.org/photos/).*, Six Years: My WordPress Commit-Iversary, Jonathan Desrosiers, 01jdyraye6q67wpyn50bh3kbyf.