EP462 – Summiting WordCamp US 2023  ## Metadata - Author: [[WPwatercooler - Weekly WordPress Talk Show]] - Full Title: EP462 – Summiting WordCamp US 2023 - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/4d8dabf1-43f7-42ee-acd1-dee219741cc0 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - Episode AI notes 1. The WordPress community experiences cultural differences between sponsored and non-sponsored contributors, leading to differences in consensus and communication. 2. Creating metrics and dashboards to measure burnout and project progress is important for teams and volunteers. 3. Including summit information in show notes can encourage feedback and address community problems. 4. Relying on external websites and plugins instead of finding community-based solutions should be minimized. 5. The WordPress community tends to rely heavily on creating websites as a solution to all problems, highlighting the need for a more well-rounded approach. ([Time 0:00:00](https://share.snipd.com/episode-takeaways/9f18c9cc-1e79-4cda-b272-fbc95edeb7a6)) - Discussion on Internal Matters and Cultural Differences in WordPress Community The discussion revolves around the differences in culture between sponsored and volunteer contributors within the WordPress community. People often confuse communication with consensus, and there is a dual culture present. The conversation also touches on the market share of WordPress facilitated by Bluehost. Transcript: Speaker 3 That sounds like a calm problem. Not a word problem. Was just absolutely about to say this. Speaker 2 This sounds like an internal discussion that should be happening at automatic, even though automatic is not WordPress and WordPress is not automatic. Speaker 1 I mean, look at the description. It's not even like, sorry. Speaker 2 Right. Speaker 1 I didn't even look at the description because I was like, I don't want to be there. I don't want to, I do not want I had friends that went to that one. Speaker 2 The internets best kept secret at 43% market share bull shit. Speaker 3 Yeah, it's, um, it facilitated by Bluehost and I wasn't there so I can say it, but yeah, facilitated by Bluehost guy. Speaker 1 Oh, I didn't, I missed all that. What? Speaker 3 Um, I mean, Devin is the one that was facilitating. Speaker 1 So yeah, it's a, it was very much sponsored contributors facilitating. I don't know if that is because many automaticians, I don't know if that's because they were just like, we know that person will be there and consistent. And, you know, cause they're there cause their job. I don't know. Uh, there's definitely a dual culture. I talked about this a lot too of sponsored contributors and non sponsored contributors and, um, or volunteer contributors. And the culture differences, especially within the sponsored contributor community is basically some, it's not quite contempt, but it is definitely a community and people consensus Takes so long and all this stuff. And it's like, where does it say anywhere that we work by consensus? Like it doesn't even say that. Like it's like somehow folks seem to think that if they bring things or tell people that stuff is happening in the community, that that somehow means they have to wait for everyone to Agree with them. But I'm like, that's, there's a difference between communication and consensus. Like those are not, they're not. ([Time 0:27:53](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a9205e07-31a8-40eb-af43-f03d5af57714)) - Measuring Burnout and Creating Dashboards for Team Project Management There's a cool conversation happening about creating dashboards to measure and manage burnout and project progress for teams. The current lack of metrics and communication channels is a problem. The idea is to turn updates and information into data for making better choices and providing assistance. Transcript: Speaker 3 So did they talk? I'm like a fire over here. Yeah. Did they talk anything about the idea of a, like a thermometer or a way of, um, of, uh, putting a number, putting a value to one's burnout. Was there anything like that? Speaker 1 Uh, there is actually a really cool conversation happening, not, it was very prevalent at the summit, but it wasn't, it didn't come out of that. There's a really interesting conversation about dashboards that are happening. So dashboards for teams that would, and there's no metrics for this. This is a problem. There's no metrics. There's no data. There's no way to measure this stuff currently, but this is also a problem. It's not just a problem for volunteers or certain teams getting like having so much work to do. And, you know, needing more assistance. It's also that sponsors who may want to contribute employee time or whatever, or even just regular people who are like, Oh, I can do this or this or this, but I don't know where I'm needed. Um, there's no way to communicate that right now. There's no way, you know, there's, there are things that are in place, like the updates page, which is supposed to be updated, but there's no consistency. There's no consistency in time of publishing. There's no consistency in format. There's no data to make any choices off of. So, um, there is a conversation about how we can turn those things into metrics. And then each team would in theory have like their own little dashboard that would show projects that are happening, you know, amount of work that's happening deadlines and like, you Know, basically be, I don't know, project management. ([Time 0:35:29](https://share.snipd.com/snip/497acaf6-031d-4087-b51f-746f5af968d2)) - Importance of Clear Show Notes and Community Solutions In a discussion, the speaker emphasizes the importance of including summit information in the show notes to encourage feedback. They also express concerns about relying too much on external websites and plugins instead of finding community-based solutions. They highlight the need to address problems within the community and avoid outsourcing solutions. The speaker humorously compares the community's reliance on WordPress to having a hammer for every problem, emphasizing the need for a more well-rounded approach. Transcript: Speaker 2 I'm going to make sure that Tucker puts the summit stuff in the show notes, like go to the summit, leave feedback. If there is something in the notes that you don't understand, if the notes seem a little obtuse, ask for clarification. Because the people who were there at the very least, the people who took the notes will get pinged. Hey, someone left a comment and they'll be like, oh, and maybe possibly it might go nowhere, but it might also, you know, in the back channel, because there's no attribution. Someone might get pinged like, Hey, you should weigh in on this. Yeah. And I don't know where the non-antibution starts. Speaker 1 Like, so can we say, you know, can we tag just stuff up in our comments? Be like, what are your thoughts on this? Like, that's not in the summer. We can. Speaker 2 We can. The people who took the notes can't. Right. Speaker 3 So I didn't go. So right. Speaker 1 So that gives you both an objectivity and an ability to to to, you know, we we have no plan. We have the thing that's happening, like, right after I just, I feel like that seems sort of essential. Like everyone's like, yes, we're posting them on the blog. And I was just never able to get anyone to get past that. Cause I always ask my question at the end, like a session. So it's like, what's happening again? And no plan. So and again, no action, intentionally no action taken at no decision made at the summit, which I totally think is fine. It's open source and we don't want closed decisions being made. I just, I also see a lot of these problems that are recurrent problems, long time problems. The solution that the community is coming up with is to make external websites. Cause you know, we make websites is what we do, right? We make websites with WordPress. So everyone's like, well, I'll make a website to deal with this issue. I'll make a website to deal with this issue. But the big problem with that is, first of all, then we're not dealing with the issue in make. We're not dealing with the issue in the community. We're dealing with the issue in the ecosystem and outside of the community, which is its own problem. But the other problem with that is as, you know, the marketing team, for example, we cannot or we should not. It is and I agree with this, start linking to third party sites. Like even if they are, you know, just a nonprofit and supported to think that there's a million gazillion nonprofits, right? Speaker 3 Like that is. Speaker 1 And so it's just without when we don't solve the solutions here, they are being so it's the same thing with plugins, right? If you don't solve the solution and the problem in core, the solutions exist in a plugin. And that same thing is happening with the problems in the community. If the problems in the community aren't getting solved by the community, they're now going to be solved by third party people outside of the community. And I am I am drained by this because that just means that person is now focusing outside the community, not solving the problem in the community. And we can't even link to it as a resource. So I it's like, it's like if we don't fill the gap with community solutions, then they will be filled with external community solutions and then we have nothing. And then it's solved, but it's not actually solved at all. Speaker 2 Right. This this this predilection to build a site to go off and build a plugin, a site, some sort of like it's really prevalent in this community. Yeah, it's really. Yeah. Well, I mean, it falls. I I know that I love to to speak in cliches. So please take a drink if you're if you're watching and have something in hand. But I mean, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, right? Right. It, you know, so the WordPress community solution to every problem that is presented to them is WordPress. We've got a hammer. We've got a hammer that's. Speaker 1 I can feel the website for that. Speaker 2 Do you need a website? Yeah. I can feel the website. ([Time 0:45:45](https://share.snipd.com/snip/bc62171f-187f-4b0d-b3e1-d9bcd7be8530))