We arrived in Taipei by sky. Greeted by lush hills, then swallowed up by its intense urbanism. It’s a city, a massive city. From a distance, all you see is its brutalist architecture skyscrapers, with dated futurism, up close, you feel in a millennium village. The miracle of large Asian cities, for a European, we are out of time as the future and the past intermingle.
I am here to meet part of my history. I have been using WordPress since 2005, version 1.5, but it was in 2024 that I met the community for the first time.
The words here are community, Empower, inclusive, accessibility, share, contribute, etc. You can feel the will to commune, you are encouraged to contribute, to ask questions and participate in what WordPress will be tomorrow.
Socially, for a first time, I, who am usually very social, it was intense. Obviously, all the people I introduced myself to were benevolent and even warm. You feel that everything is possible. But, I did not, however, have the energy to meet as many people as I would have liked.
As for the community, it was stranger. Although able to code more or less correctly, my idea, my skill and my desires were on the design side of the community.
Design is more complicated in collaborative, it’s not too much of a democratic thing. The expression “too many cooks spoil the broth” has never been more accurate for graphics. So I was looking forward to understanding how the community was organized.
Well, actually, design is not too much a part of the community. There was no lead table for design on the contributor’s day, the community’s Slack is relatively quiet, and the pending tickets are numerous and unclear for a novice.
Moreover, none of the multiple conferences dared to even touch on the subject. Rich Tabor, who was, it seems to me, the closest to the subject, made a very inspiring introduction to design, but nothing on the subject.
Noel Tock in his opening words of the conference speaks brilliantly and openly about the past, the present and the future. He suggests that we do not rest on the impressive market share of WP, but that we move, use the strength of the community to make it the platform of tomorrow.
The latest advances of WP in terms of ergonomics (Gutenberg) and technology (more and more JS) are impressive. The pace is sustained, the objective ambitious, however it will not be done without UI/UX.
I understand that we cannot all participate and give our opinion on such a subjective subject, however is that a reason not to talk about it or at least open the discussion?
For my part, I will try to better understand the current situation. Evaluate the issues and find where I can give back.