Contributor stories: learn, discover and enjoy

Contributor events can be great learning opportunities and a time to discover much more about WordPress and its features.

For the contributors featured in this edition of the Contributor Stories series, the events had a dramatic and life-changing effect.

Lots of ways to learn and contribute

For Chetan Prajapati, finding a community that he could learn from was a moment which will stay in his memory. He started his WordPress learning journey helping people who spoke his own native language of Gujarati through translating at a WordPress Translation Day.

“I learned a lot by solving other people’s tickets and became more confident in my own skills by helping others.”
@iamchetanp (India)

Chetan’s curiosity grew as he found that there were more ways to help others with the platform. He said:

“I have loved WordPress since I came to know it. I saw that if anyone had any problem using it, someone was there to help.”

After the launch of WordPress version 4.9, he saw many of his friends were contributing to the Core Team. So he decided to learn more.

“I remember I got my first props [acknowledgement] on solving a ticket. That’s what initially got me excited about contributing and when I realised that the sky’s my limit moving forward, I became addicted to contributing in core and solving tickets. I also learned a lot by solving other people’s tickets and became more confident in my own skills by helping others.”

Chetan’s enthusiasm for learning within the WordPress environment and wanting to make a difference continued. He was selected as a ‘noteworthy contributor’ for WordPress releases 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3. He said:

“That moment was the perfect reason for me to be proud of myself.”

Collaborate and learn skills to make WordPress

Anyssa Ferreira travelled all the way from Brazil to Berlin to attend WordCamp Europe 2019. The experience she said would not have been complete without attending the Contributor Day too.

“Contributor Day was a good chance to meet people before the busier main event.”
@anyssaferreira (Brazil)

She was not sure which team to join at first, but picked the design team and their work on Figma as she had been recently experimenting with this tool.

She said:

“I met some really nice people like Sarah Semark, who helped me to understand how much work is put into designing a simple button for the interface of the most popular CMS in the world.”

She also collaborated on fixing a micro misplacement of a bezier curve at the ‘tide’ dashicon during the event.

“Although it was a very (very) small correction, it was cool to understand the process. Above all, the Contributor Day for me, was a chance to meet people better before the busier main event.”

It was a place for me and can be for you

Mitko Kochkovski’s first contributor event was WordCamp Europe 2016 in Vienna. It was also his first WordCamp.

“WordCamp Europe in Vienna was a life changer. Because of it, I started growing the local community and organised WordCamps.”
@m1tk00 (Macedonia)

He recalls:

“It was an amazing atmosphere and I was thrilled. Seeing most of the active contributors in one place. It felt like that’s the place for me, so I started sharing my experience through WordCamp talks.”

He has attended WordCamps across Europe and USA. His WordPress discovery journey reads like a travel promotion as he has visited Belgrade, Sofia, Brighton, Bucharest, Nish, Soltau, Bristol, Las Vegas and Sacramento.

“Even when I do personal travels, people think that I’m attending a WordCamp!”

He has learnt more about WordPress and been able to experience many different global cultures as his journey has progressed. But it has also given him an enthusiasm for growing his local community. He has now organised two local WordCamps in 2018 and 2019.

Mitko said:

“The WordCamp Europe in Vienna was a life changer for me.”

He hopes the experience of getting to know the community and the very many contributor events that take place will inspire others too.

How could you contribute to WordPress?

Here are just some of the teams that make WordPress which have featured in the journeys of our three contributors.

The full list of teams that together ‘make’ WordPress

Why contributing to WordPress benefits everyone

Online Contributor Day at WCEU

Join us at the Contributor Day on 4 June 2020. Find out more about what’s involved and how you can take part on our Contributor Day information page.

Try out the Contributor Orientation Tool and discover a team to start your very own #ContributorStory