Sorry, we’re back to the subject of Gutenberg toxicity. Again.
But, this time, it was directed at me on Twitter. What did I do to deserve this? I tweeted this…
Contributing to WordPress is something I am proud to have done and I will continue to do it – my recent talk at WordCamp Edinburgh was on this subject too.
But someone didn’t like it.
I try and engage as best I can.
Now, I guessed what would happen next and that was a response of “everything”. I tried, I guess. But then she mentioned, “the mess your team made of content creation on WordPress”. “Your team”? I wasn’t sure who she was referring to so I enquired further…
She thinks that by me mentioning that I wasn’t part of Gutenberg that I’m somehow trying to back out of my original Tweet. Far from the truth – her anger is obviously directed at Gutenberg, yet that wasn’t the part of WordPress 5 that I contributed to.
Yep, my contribution to WordPress 5 was language translations – most of which (bar a couple of lines) were for the new theme, Twenty Nineteen.
Because, contributing to WordPress doesn’t have to be developing core – there are lots of opportunities for ANYBODY – including Kelly – to help out. Whether it’s writing documentation, editing videos or, yes, translating (amongst many others).
Of course, other people saw Kelly’s conversation and ploughed in, supporting her, without reading the entire thread…
And in each case, Kelly included, they left the conversation when the reality of what I was talking about hit them.
Well, with one exception – one Twitter user then accused me of “being a defensive baby” and then decided to publicly blame me for all of her perceived issues from WordPress 5…
As with everyone else, I blocked her. Launching an attack on me, in this way, even when the reality is explained to them, is not something I’m prepared to sit and have to defend, or just put up with any further. I leave the conversation threads available, though, for anybody to read.
Except my comments are there for anybody to read ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Maybe, just maybe, it’s worth not making assumptions before jumping in with both feet when there’s a good chance you’ll end up looking foolish. And you know how you can really make things better? By getting involved. Contributing, for example.
#stillproud
Talk to me!