Reorganizing The Woo Community Slack for Better Collaboration

The WooCommerce developer Slack has grown into a vibrant space with thousands of members, with many new Woo developers joining and collaborating daily. To better serve the community, we’re streamlining the channels in our workspace.

What’s changing

Starting Feb 10, you’ll find:

Core channels

  • #announcements: Critical updates about WooCommerce, including releases, security patches, and major community initiatives. Home for official communications.
  • #developer-chat: General developer discussions, code reviews, and technical problem-solving. Open to all skill levels – your go-to place for development questions.
  • #watercooler: Casual conversations and community building for the WooCommerce developer community. 

Product and feedback channels

  • #core-development: Technical discussions about WooCommerce core, PRs, architectural decisions, and development priorities. Key channel for core contributors.
  • #extension-development: Technical support for building WooCommerce extensions. Share solutions, discuss best practices, and get implementation guidance.
  • #blocks-and-block-themes: Focused on modern block themes, patterns, and templates. Get help with block development and theme creation.
  • #product-editor: Dedicated to the new WooCommerce product editing experience. Discuss implementation, extensibility, and development.
  • #product-feedback: Share ideas and feedback about WooCommerce products and features. Help shape future development.
  • #marketplace: Discussions about WooCommerce.com marketplace – guidelines, selling tips, business development, and marketplace-related questions.

Community channels

  • #showcase: Share your WooCommerce projects, implementations, and code solutions. Celebrate community achievements.
  • #opportunities: Find or post WooCommerce-related jobs, contracts, and paid projects. Commercial opportunities welcome.
  • #meetups: Organize and discover WooCommerce community events worldwide. Connect with local communities.
  • #moderators: Channel for community safety coordination and moderation team communication.

Recapping changes

Channels being introduced: 
  • #marketplace
Channels remaining active
  • #announcements
  • #meetups
  • #moderators
  • #showcase
  • #watercooler
Channels being renamed
  • #core → #core-development
  • #woocommerce-product-editor-extensibility → #product-editor
  • #jobs → #opportunities
  • #monorepo → #core-development
  • #woocommerce-blocks-and-block-themes → #blocks-and-block-themes
  • #developers → #developer-chat
  • #feedback → #product-feedback
  • #extensions → #extension-development
Channels being retired
  • #design-feedback (→ #product-feedback)
  • #community (→ #watercooler)
  • #themes (→ #blocks-and-block-themes)
  • #marketing (→ #opportunities / #showcase)
  • #meetup-london (→ #meetups)
  • #monorepo (→ #core-development)
  • #beta-testing
  • #hosting
  • #mobile-apps

Why these changes?

  1. Clear paths for technical discussion
  2. Reduced channel overlap
  3. Focused spaces for development and discussion
  4. Better community support
  5. Easier navigation for newcomers

Product Channel Guidelines

Channels like #product-editor and #blocks-and-block-themes are designed to provide direct communication between engineering teams and the developer community. These types of channels will be reviewed periodically and added/removed based on project activity and community needs.

New community guidelines

We’re introducing new Community Participation Guidelines covering:

  • Expected behaviors
  • Best practices
  • Community support
  • Issue resolution
  • Channel moderation practices

Timeline

  • We’re planning for all changes to be made by February 10th, 2025.

Get involved

Together, we’re building a more focused, collaborative space for WooCommerce development.


2 responses to “Reorganizing The Woo Community Slack for Better Collaboration”

  1. Dave Loodts Avatar
    Dave Loodts

    Great initiative, suggested it 6 months ago to Beau (on Post Status) to review the communication channels. Seems like there’s a new fresh wind blowing at Woo, love it.
    One tiny remark about the channel #product-feedback, the description is “Share ideas and feedback about WooCommerce products and features. Help shape future development.”.

    What do you mean with “WooCommerce products”? Is that woocommerce.com extensions and themes? And what can be really considered as a woocommerce.com product, as it is a market place with also third-party software.

    1. Brent MacKinnon Avatar
      Brent MacKinnon

      Thanks Dave! We always appreciate your insights, and we really have been picking up momentum with lots of help from the community.

      What do you mean with “WooCommerce products”? Is that woocommerce.com extensions and themes? And what can be really considered as a woocommerce.com product, as it is a market place with also third-party software.

      Good question! I’d say it’s a good place for feedback about WooCommerce core, but also other products we own and maintain: Woo Payments, Woo Shipping, the Woo Mobile App, and even things like AutomateWoo, MailPoet, and more. I’m happy to let this channel develop naturally based on what the community wants to discuss. If we see enough conversation about any specific part of the Woo ecosystem, we may break it out into it’s own channel (like #product-editor, for example) for a period of time.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *