What is Contributor Day?

This all-day hackathon and networking event is where new and existing contributors work together on various WordPress-specific projects. For folks new to contributing, it is a wonderful opportunity to visit with different teams, observe, and potentially begin contributing.

Contributor Day at WordCamp US 2022 will be on Sunday, September 11th, the final day of the conference. Beyond contributing to WordPress, this day allows you to make new connections and friends within the community. The workshops and sessions leading up to this day will inspire you to bring your skills to the table.

Attendees line a long stretch of tables talking WordPress with a person on lower left facing the screen smiling. — **Photo Credit:** Joan Rho

If you’re curious about contributing to WordPress, then Contributor Day is for you. Even if you just sit at the table, set up your WordPress.org account, join the Slack team, and read the contributor handbook for your team – that is a great way to get started! Think of it like the first day of a new job.

Learn about Contributor Day in the Community Team’s Organizer Handbook… which, like everything on WordPress.org, was written by contributors.

Why Contribute?

The success of WordPress relies on contributors who devote time and effort to the project’s future. These aren’t just developers; coders and non-coders alike can contribute. Like any project, it takes many skills to make it successful.

There are currently 21 contributor teams that shape the future of WordPress and many ways you can get involved in the project. A few less-obvious ways to contribute:

Testing features and upcoming releases
Organizing Meetups and WordCamps
Reading and/or editing documentation
Writing marketing copy
Translating documentation, themes, plugins, and WordPress itself
Photography

Whether you volunteer a few hours when you can, or contribute on behalf of your company as part of Five for the Future, every bit helps the project evolve.

You Belong at Contributor Day

No matter which teams or tables you visit, you will be welcomed by the WordPress community. In addition to the Code of Conduct, know that contributing teams embrace diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and cultures.

Two attendees discussing WordPress. Person on left is wearing a red bandana, a rainbow lanyard and precariously holding a laptop. The person on the right has deep purple hair and is wearing a light blue WordPress lanyard and t-shirt. — **Photo Credit:** Jen Hook

Contributor Teams

Core: The core team makes WordPress. Whether you’re a seasoned PHP, HTML, JavaScript or CSS developer or are just learning to code, we’d love to have you on board. You can write code, fix bugs, debate decisions, and help with development.
Design: The design group is focused on the designing and developing the user interface. It’s a home for designers and UXers alike. There are regular discussions about mockups, design, and user testing.
Mobile: The mobile team builds the iOS and Android apps. Lend them your Java, Objective-C, or Swift skills. The team also needs designers, UX experts, and testers to give users a smooth experience on every device.
Accessibility: The a11y group provides accessibility expertise across the project. They make sure that WordPress core and all of WordPress’ resources are accessible.
Polyglots: WordPress is used all over the world and in many different languages. If you’re a polyglot, help out by translating WordPress into your own language. You can also assist with creating the tools that make translations easier.
Support: Answering a question in the support forums or IRC is one of the easiest ways to start contributing.
Documentation: The docs team is responsible for creating documentation and is always on the look-out for writers. The blog has discussion around the team’s current projects.
Themes: The Theme Review Team reviews and approves every Theme submitted to the WordPress Theme repository. Reviewing Themes sharpens your own Theme development skills.
Plugins: If you are a Plugin developer, subscribe to the Plugin review team blog to keep up with the latest updates, find resources, and learn about any issues around Plugin development.
Community: If you’re interested in organizing a meetup or a WordCamp, the community blog is a great place to get started. There are groups working to support events, to create outreach and training programs, and generally support the community.
Meta: The Meta team makes WordPress.org, provides support, and builds tools for use by all the contributor groups. If you want to help make WordPress.org better, sign up for updates from the Meta blog.
Training: The WordPress training team helps people learn to use, extend, and contribute to WordPress through synchronous and asynchronous learning as well as downloadable lesson plans for instructors to use in live environments, via learn.wordpress.org.
Test: The Test team patrols flow across the entire WordPress ecosystem on every device we have at hand. They test, document, and report on the WordPress user experience.
TV: The TV team reviews and approves every video submitted to WordPress.tv. They also help WordCamps with video post-production and are responsible for the captioning and subtitling of published videos.
Marketing: The vision for the Marketing Team is to be the go-to resource for strategy and content for other WordPress teams.
CLI: WP-CLI is the official command line tool for interacting with and managing your WordPress sites.
Hosting: This team works to improve WordPress’ end-user experience across hosting environments through industry collaboration and user education.
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.
Openverse: Openverse is a search engine for openly-licensed media. The Openverse team implements new features and new media types; maintains the public API and front-end search engine; and develops WordPress integrations to share Openverse with the entire WordPress community.
Photos: The Photo Directory team moderates every photo submitted to the WordPress Photo Directory, maintains and improves the directory site itself, and provides 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.

Learn more about each team and find resources for contributors on Make WordPress.

Contributor Handbooks

If you are a first-time contributor, it’s a great idea to familiarize yourself with the Make WordPress handbook for the team you plan to participate with.

First, visit https://make.wordpress.org/ and look around to learn about the 21 teams that make WordPress happen.

You can read the Contributor Handbook to familiarize yourself with the expectations and best practices for contributing to WordPress.

If you’re interested in specific teams and tables, you can read their handbooks below:

Come be part of the WP action!

WordPress powers 43% of all websites. Wouldn’t it be neat to be part of the project when it hits 50%?

Join in on everything at WordCamp US 2022 Contributor Day!

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