The Craft of Answering WordPress Questions

The Craft of Answering WordPress Questions

2 Andrey “Rarst” Savchenko ♦ WPSE ( s.tk/wp ) • family’s tech slave In the past • support infrastructure lead • “anykeyer”

not for sale

4 Taught me research & programming 1. Ultima Online 2. Answering questions Formal education never clicked.

5 Answering illuminates topic • breadth ( you are doing what? ) • depth ( look at what it can do! ) • trends ( enough of that, go away. )

scale

7 Things important for scale • workflow • environment Or your sanity won’t last.

8 Question comprehension 1. I did… 2. I expected… 3. I got…

kinds of answers

10 Nudge • short • precise • for pros • never just a link

11 Code • impressive • hard to read • eager to go viral ( worst of it is ) • result divided by effort

12 Answer • correction ( do / expect / get ) • educated guess • well–referenced

13 Legend • major experience ( 1–2 years ) • major effort ( 4–6 hours ) • whatever it takes

“it’s really good”

streamline

16 Boilerplate • personal • verbose • polite

17 “ Sometimes I start to type “what the f∗∗∗?” and it comes out “could you please elaborate?”.

18 Hotkeys • mouse is slow • find the hot spots • as much as makes sense

20 md-link.js javascript:(function () { var selection = window.getSelection().toString(); var anchor = selection ? selection : document.title; void(prompt('', ''+anchor+'')); })(); gist.github.com/5700850

but environment

22 People • who have your back

23 Step away when not your • depth • patience • happy place

24 Supply of questions • hard are for discovery • easy are for mastery • both are necessary

understanding

26 Thank you for listening! Questions? ;) • @Rarst • The Loop ( s.tk/chat ) Rarst.net/slides/answering

27 Image credits • “1971 Concrete Bridge” by John Lloyd CC–BY • WordPress.TV: Andrew Nacin “WP_Query” • xkcd: Is It Worth The Time? CC–BY–NC