Viptor Says: New Private Slack Channel For The WordPress Contributors

A new experiment planned to improve the coordination of the contributor teams of WordPress drew the attention of the entire WordPress community. Everybody, welcome the new Slack channel for full-time sponsored contributors. The announcement of Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the project’s executive director, about the launch of this feature has provoked some juicy comments from the contributors that pushed for clarification.

The crucial statement

In her words, the WordPress community has predicted a downturn in the level of volunteer contributions due to the worldwide situation. In these rough times, WordPress relies on those company-sponsored contributors, so the project does not end. For this reason, the WordPress team wanted to make sure they do not lag behind with the essentials and created an experimental Slack channel for contributors who are sponsored for 32 hours or more.

Chomphosy’s statement did not identify a specific reason for the development of the new channel but briefly outlined its purpose. The new Slack channel will be used as an opportunity for the people who are contributing full-time to WordPress to obtain knowledge of incalculable value about some of the WordPress insights.

According to Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the enculturation process will exclude the ones that are not sponsored by a company. The WordPress community has always been a fan of transparency in decision-making in all aspects of development. However, the new channel has the potential to create a disparity between the ones with full-time status and the ones that volunteer part-time.

What do people think?

A suggestion was made for WordPress to consider making the new Slack channel read-only for non-participants or bring out the chat log as a possibility to improve the documentation for private conversations. Joost de Valk calls for the goal to be more specified, so participants can appreciate what falls within the scope of the private channel vs a public discussion.

The most crucial feedback on this announcement came from Timi Wahalahti – the WordPress Community Deputy. He said he does not compulsory oppose the experiment, but he has a feeling that it was “a bad call to start the experiment with just notification without any prior public discussion about it.” Hе alsо sаid thе еxplanаtion in thе annоuncеment оf Hаden Chоmphosy doеs nоt justify thе nеed of thе nеw chаnnel аppropriately.

Wahalahti is wondering what kind of discussion does Chomphosy plans for the channel. He thinks that sincе thеse cоntributоrs alreаdy bеlong tо multiplе teаms in thе projеct, it might be more important to better the conversational connection between sponsored and volunteer contributors, rather than concentrate on the bоnd bеtween full-timе spоnsorеd cоntributоrs.

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