Growing open source communities on GitHub around your WordPress plugin or theme

A talk presented at WordCamp DC.

Transcript

1. Growing open source communities on GitHub
   @benbalter
   ben.balter.com
   around your WordPress theme or plugin
   

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2. • CamelCase domain name
   • Lots of WordPress users
   • Famous one-click installs™
   • Support forums
   • Marketing material
   WordPress.org GitHub.com
   • CamelCase domain name
   • Lots of WordPress developers
   • Famous three-click contributions™
   • Bug/project tracker
   • Technical documentation
   

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3. The promise of open source
   Publish code People contribute
   

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4. Online communities are offline
   communities, just online
   

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5. Opensource.guide
   

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6. The open source contributor funnel
   @mikemcquaid 

   http://bit.ly/contributor-funnel
   

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7. 10-ish ways to grow communities
   around your Wordpress theme or plugin
   

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8. Import the code (and history)
   https://import.github.com
   

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9. Community Profile
   

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10. 0. Solve a shared problem
    

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11. 1. Choose an open source license
    

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12. chosealicense.com
    

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13. 2. Link to the repository from WordPress.org
    

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14. 3. Publish technical documentation
    

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15. Five minute documentation
    1. Add Markdown files to your
    repository's docs/ folder
    2. Activate GitHub Pages
    3. (Optional) choose a theme
    

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16. Collaborative documentation
    

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17. 4. Document how to contribute
    

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18. Ask (all) users to contribute
    

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19. 5. Clarify support versus development
    

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20. 6. Welcome new contributors
    

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21. 7. Set up automated tests
    

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22. How to set up automated tests
    1. Install WP-CLI and PHP Unit
    2. wp scaffold plugin-tests [your-plugin-name]
    3. Write tests
    4. Login to travis-ci.org and enable your project
    5. Push
    https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/plugin-unit-tests/
    

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23. 8. Enforce WordPress code standards
    https://github.com/WordPress-Coding-Standards/WordPress-Coding-Standards
    

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24. 9. Deploy to WordPress.org
    • Convert GitHub-flavored Markdown to WordPress readme.txt format
    • Push Git master to SVN trunk
    • Create a Git tag
    • Create a SVN tag
    • Create a GitHub release (optional)
    

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25. https://github.com/GaryJones/wordpress-plugin-git-flow-svn-deploy
    

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26. https://github.com/wpreadme2markdown/wp-readme-to-markdown
    

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27. 10. Adopt a code of conduct*
    

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28. GitHub Community Guidelines
    

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29. *Why add a code of conduct?
    • Reasonable people disagree on the internet
    • Establishes expectations for community norms
    • Signals that your project is a welcoming community
    • Better to have before something happens, not after
    • It's the right thing to do
    

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30. Bonus: find someone to adopt it
    

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31. 10 ways to grow communities 

    around your Wordpress theme or plugin
    0. Solve a shared problem
    1. Choose an open source license
    2. Link to the repository from wp.org
    3. Publish technical documentation
    4. Document how to contribute
    5. Clarify support v. development
    6. Welcome new contributors
    7. Set up automated tests
    8. Enforce WP code standards
    9. Deploy to WordPress.org
    10. Adopt a code of conduct
    

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32. Growing open source communities on GitHub
    @benbalter
    ben.balter.com
    around your WordPress theme or plugin
    

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