Thought Experiment: WordPress.org

[JohnM]

I`m sure your solution will be much better than the current solution, but I`m a bit surprised you dont see the value of categories when organizing 10.000 items into something usable and effective.

Do you believe a WordPress.org tag based organization will be more usable than the category based Joomla extensions directory ?

[Ipstenu]

I see where Otto's going. Categories are a murky, eye-of-the-beholder definition system. To many plugins could fall into too many slots, and when a user goes to look for 'facebook crossposter' plugins, they do not want to find Otto's simple facebook connector. It's a great plugin, but that's not what they wanted.

Contextual searches are in the mind of the person searching. You can't really predict past 'Do you want a theme, a plugin or a cookie?'

[andrea_r]

If search worked really well, there's many people who woudl use that far & beyond any categorization feature.

[Otto]

I`m sure your solution will be much better than the current solution, but I`m a bit surprised you dont see the value of categories when organizing 10.000 items into something usable and effective.

Do you believe a WordPress.org tag based organization will be more usable than the category based Joomla extensions directory ?

It's not that I don't see the value of categories. It's that I think they're far less effective than a really good search system, which is what I'd prefer to have.

Also, I think that categories which are frankly arbitrarily defined (like the lists you gave before) are not as useful as "categories" built on real-life data, such as the tag data. Of course, that's subject to manipulation, but defining a hidden-rule system to produce useful results is a lot easier (and better) than taking some ill-defined and arbitrary categorization system and having people categorize things badly.

I think that the Joomla Extensions Directory is fine, but the categorization is meaningless and useless. The Search box is far more important.

[dancole]

WordPress development is suppose to be a cycle of voting for ideas, discussing them on the hacker's mailing list, developing them in track, and getting feedback in the forums. It would be nice if this process was more seamless and easily browsable, e.g. a feed of all the activities relating to a single enhancement or idea. One way of doing this might be a combination of custom meta tags and hash tags.

[sleary]

Gosh, yes, a better roadmap for contributing to core would be welcome. I've tried to clean up the Codex page a little (they didn't mention #wordpress-dev or wpdevel.wordpress.com at all!) but that whole section could use an overhaul.

[WraithKenny]

I would personally enjoy having the codex contain a section with function references right out of the source code. I've much used the codex for function reference, but have recently taken to the suggestion of reading the source directly. I think the following proposal would be best for Newbies and Pro1337s together...

The function reference section could be tagged up, and categorized, with some scheme for hierarchy (all available within a WordPress implementation). For an example of a non-arbitrary hierarchy, how about exactly as the folder/file structure of the source code? The articles would contain what the codex now contains (description, examples, args, output), but also a direct copy of the actual php function from the source as well as phpdocs with possibly the ability to see older function (from tagged branches) versions (via revisions?).

Additionally having a (moderated) comment/discussion threads could provide example and tutorial links for newbies, and a central reference for function-specific discussions and documentation by contributors who may overlapping interests (I don't think that's well covered in Trac exept by the power of some contributors' brains to keep track of it) and suggested improvements without cluttering up Trac. Lots of potential here I think if done right ;)

Also, in general, the wiki way of organizing information isn't good for what wordpress.org's codex is for. For a wiki, you kind of need to know what your looking for in order to find it. The problem is always organization and navigation in wikis. Exploring and learning on wordpress.org's codex should be at least as easy and complete as browsing the source code. In wikis, content can sometimes be orphaned with no links to it and that should be avoided.

P.S. I think it'd help people who would contribute to the newer codex to be able to systematically explore all the content via navigation. Some areas (in a wiki like system) that would be sorely in need of attention would be missed exactly because of a lack of attention/awareness.

[WraithKenny]

On the Tag/Category organization of everything not codex, WordPress can handle both. We definitely need a better search, but some times some people explore without knowing what they are looking for, and categories are good for that. As long as it's not mutually exclusive, we should do both types, even if Categories are more arbitrary then searches. Perhaps a system to refine and refresh those categories periodically?

Basically, the more ways to find stuff, the better.

[wycks]

Define a problem: Wordpress.org is not as social as it could be.

The .org social interface is very dated, it's basically a vanilla forum/wiki.

Look at who is using the social bits and pieces of their site in an awesome way in terms of connecting users of all kinds (writers, coders, devs, groups, etc) with data of all kinda ( code, snippets, wiki, issues, news, etc):

I am speaking mainly of github ( but there are other examples, like mozilla). WordPress has provided a great tool for bloggers as a social network with both with .org and .com, but the coders need some social attention too! After all a large part of WordPress's success comes from the shear amount of people involved in plugin/theme/core development, and of course support.

I think these ideas are somewhat easy to implement, but the interface for this is crucial, something that WordPress has always excelled at.

I honestly think WP can come up with something really innovative here, in terms of a social platform/UI for the developers/hackers, that other platforms will look at and go "damn, that is cool!".

Ultimately when you create this type of social fabric that relates to the product itself, instead of just the use of the product, it lends itself to the future of open source growth and a really mature and innovative community, it becomes attractive and welcoming.

[mmuro]

One thing that would be nice for plugin pages is to be able to anchor link certain questions on the FAQ (or any section, really).

Also, what's the deal with the stats bar graph still using Flash? I know the pie chart is using Google Charts API, so why can't the bar chart be converted as well? I made my own little plugin to do this for myself, so I know it can be done.