Contributor Day

Contributor Day is a day about the contributor—regardless of occupation and skills—you’re a contributor, and this day is about you! 

Whether you’re a developer, designer, writer, or enthusiast, your unique talents are valued and appreciated as we work together to shape the future of WordPress.

Contributor Day is a true celebration of the WordPress community spirit. It’s a day that kicks off WordCamp Europe, and this year, we’ll be celebrating it on 13 June 2024. 

Note: Registration for Contributor Day is separate from Event Registration. You’ll need a ticket to the event to register for Contributor Day.

Registration for Contributor Day has now closed as we’ve reached capacity.

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What is Contributor Day? 

Contributor Day is a whole day dedicated to creating an opportunity for WordPress users to come together and contribute to the open-source WordPress project. 

WordPress relies on people like you pitching in to exist (and thrive!) – and you can make a difference, even in just one day. Whether this is your first time contributing or are a veteran, we hope that you’ll continue to support the project as part of Contributor Day and beyond!

Contributor Day is a fun event giving you a chance to participate in activities such as translating, writing documentation, bug fixing, testing and so much more! 

If this is your first time contributing, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered – keep reading so you’re prepared to make the most of the day! 

Contributor Day offers you an opportunity to learn how to contribute to WordPress, sharpen your skills by collaborating with other members of the community, get to know us a little more, and just have an all around great time.

What is contributing? 

Contributing to an open-source project like WordPress means actively participating in its development, improvement, and maintenance. This can involve technical tasks and non-technical ones, such as: 

Technical tasks

  • Test and report bugs on the WordPress core software, themes, and plugins
  • Write and submit patches for bug fixes or new features to WordPress core or plugins
  • Design or develop a WordPress theme or plugin and share it on WordPress.org
  • Work on the WordPress mobile apps – contribute to the code, improve the UX and test 

Non-technical tasks 

  • Write or improve documentation for WordPress 
  • Help translate WordPress into your local language – you can translate documents, videos (and/or add subtitles), or your favourite plugin! 
  • Participate in the WordPress support forums and help other users solve problems
  • Help create or improve the WordPress lesson plans and related materials for instructors.
  • Contribute to promoting WordPress 
  • Take photos for the Openverse and/or help curate these 
  • Organise or participate in local WordPress meetups and WordCamps
  • Brainstorm around futureproofing the WordPress project by making it more sustainable 

Why should I consider signing up? 

The reasons are countless, but here are a few:  

If you use (and love!) WordPress, as we do, you know it literally relies on each and every contribution to be the awesome tool that powers over 43% of the web. 

So, the number one reason you’d want to sign up and bring your best is that without contributors like you, WordPress wouldn’t be what it is today.

But there’s more, of course! You also get to: 

  • Meet other contributors, make new friends and expand your professional network
  • Use your skills for good, and learn (or test out) new skills. 
  • Have an amazing time – get energised by the buzz of the contributor community! 
  • Have a direct impact on the WordPress project and software

What can I expect? 

Wondering what to expect at Contributor Day? Fear not, because experienced contributors are here to guide you every step of the way. Keep an eye out for friendly faces wearing green dot stickers – they’re your ticket to personalised assistance and support.

If you’re an experienced contributor yourself, consider “adopting” a newcomer! Your help will be highly appreciated. 

You can expect to have a great day while helping make your favourite open-source software even better. More specifically:

  • You can expect a lot of buzz in the room. Contributor Days are known to be dynamic events, with energy flowing in all directions! 
  • You can expect guidance to make sure you are able to give your best 
  • You can also expect a variety of options to contribute – and all the flexibility you need. If you want to contribute with your strengths – that’s great! If you’d rather pursue a new interest – also great – You can even switch during the event, if you find yourself at the wrong table!

How can I contribute?

There are two ways to connect. You can contribute in person, if you’re joining the event in Torino, or remotely, of course! 

Contributing in person 

If you’re joining us in person, thank you for stepping up to bring your best to the table, literally! We’re all committed to making sure you have a great event – here’s all you need to know: 

Please keep in mind that in order to attend and participate in our Contributor Day, you’ll need to have your (Conference) Day ticket. Please see the registration section for further information. (You need to register separately.) 

Schedule

  • 08.30 Registration
  • 09.15 Opening and welcome
  • 10.00 Contributing to WordPress
  • 12.15 Group photo
  • 12.30 Lunch
  • 14.00 Contributing to WordPress
  • 16.30 Teams summaries and wrap-up

Please plan to arrive an hour before the event so you can register and mingle. 

Contributing remotely

To know that you’re willing to join us even though you cannot make it to WordCamp is precious to us, thank you! 

  • Location: See you in Slack, in the #contributor-day channel. 
  • Date: 13 June 2024 

How can I prepare for Contributor Day? 

  1. First of all – sign up for Contributor Day! (The form is at the bottom of this page)
  2. Make sure to check your email inbox for pre-event information! Check your spam folder once in a while so you don’t miss out on any news from us
  3. Create a wordpress.org account if you don’t have one already. This account can be used for all contributing activities.
  4. Create a gravatar.com account. If you’d like to use an image/avatar on your WordPress Profile go to gravatar.com and create an account using the same email.
  5. Join the international Make WordPress Slack workspace.
  6. For this you need an invite so, while logged in with your wordpress.org account, visit the WordPress + Slack page and click the link to receive the invite via email.
  7. From the email login to the Slack team. For your email address, use {username}@chat.wordpress.org where {username} is the user name you picked for wordpress.org. If possible, pick the same username for Slack.
  8. Search for #contributor-day channel
  9. If you don’t already use Slack you can access it here.
  10. Get ready to plug in! 

Contributor Day Teams

When you register for the event, you’ll be able to pick your team. Or you can pick it later. You can even pick it on the day – and, if need be, you can also course correct on the day itself! 

You’ll have a choice among these teams: 

WordPress Coding Standards

Clean code is a guiding principle for good code. The WordPress Coding Standards help with that. Here is your chance to help the Coding Standards!

Core

The core team contributes to the background code for  WordPress.

Join this table to write new code, update existing code, or even fix bugs.

This is for you if you know PHP, HTML, JavaScript or CSS – there are tasks for all levels.

Design

The design group focuses on designing the user interface.

Join this table to work on mockups, design and user testing.  This is for you if you’re into design and UX. 

Mobile

The mobile team builds the iOS / Android apps.

Join this table to write code, fix bugs, or help with design, UX, and testing.

This is for you if you know Java, Objective-C, or Swift (any level) or design, UX, and testing.

Accessibility

The a11y group provides accessibility expertise across the project.

Join this table to help make WordPress and all our resources accessible.

This is for you if you’re passionate (or even just interested) in accessibility. 

Polyglots

WordPress is used all over the world and in many different languages.

Join this table to help translate WordPress into your own language.

This is for you if you know other languages and have an interest in translation. 

Support

Answering a question in the support forums or IRC is one of the easiest ways to start contributing. Everyone knows the answer to something!

Join this table to lend a hand in the forums.

Documentation

Good documentation lets people help themselves when they get stuck.

Join this group to help create or improve documentation.

This is for you if you have a knack for writing. 

Themes

The Theme Team creates, reviews, and approves every Theme submitted to the WordPress Theme repository.

Join this table to sharpen your own Theme development skills.

Plugins

Join this table to keep up with the latest updates, find resources, and learn about any issues around Plugin development.

This is for you if you are a Plugin developer.

Community

Join this table if you’re interested in organising a meetup or a WordCamp.

There are groups working to support events, to create outreach and training programs, and generally support the community.

Meta

The Meta team makes the WordPress.org site, provides support, and builds tools for use by all the contributor groups.

Join this table if you want to help make WordPress.org better.

Training

The WordPress training team helps people learn to use, extend, and contribute to downloadable lesson plans for instructors via learn.wordpress.org. 

This is for you if you enjoy teaching people how to use and build stuff for WordPress.

Test

The Test team patrols the flow across the entire WordPress ecosystem on every device.

Join this table to test, document, and report on the WordPress user experience.

TV

The TV team reviews and approves every video submitted to WordPress.tv.

Join this table to work on video and captioning and subtitling of published videos. 

Marketing

The Marketing team promotes WordPress to current and future users and contributors.

Join this table to help create and amplify campaigns to support the growth of the WordPress project.

CLI

WP-CLI is the official command line tool for interacting with and managing your WordPress sites.

Join this table to help with making the command line interact better with WordPress.

Hosting

The hosting team works to improve WordPress’ end-user experience across hosting environments.

Join this table if you’d like to help out making sure WordPress works well on the most diverse sets of hosting stacks.

Tide

Tide is a series of automated tests run against every plugin and theme in the directory and then displays PHP compatibility and test errors/warnings in the directory.

Join this team to help with making sure WordPress’ extra code base is tested better.

Openverse

Openverse is a search engine for openly-licensed media.

Join this table to help create new features and new media types and develop WordPress integrations to share Openverse with the entire WordPress community.

Photos

The Photo Directory team moderates every photo submitted to the WordPress Photo Directory.

Join this table to work on improving the directory itself, and provide resources and documentation to educate, encourage, and facilitate photo contributors.

Core Performance

The core performance team is dedicated to monitoring, enhancing, and promoting performance in WordPress core and its surrounding ecosystem.

Join this table to help with making WordPress core faster, more scalable.

Sustainability

The sustainability team is focused on future proofing the WordPress project by working on the 3 pillars of sustainability: 

  • Social: Finding ways to increase the diversity and well-being of the WordPress community.
  • Environmental: Reducing energy and waste consumption in the development, usage, and community activities of WordPress software.
  • Economical: Finding ways to economically support contributions to the WordPress Project, for those who need it.  

Register for Contributor Day

Registration for Contributor Day has now closed as we’ve reached capacity.