The Craft of Answering WordPress Questions

A presentation at WordCamp Europe 2014 in September 2014 in Sofia, Bulgaria by Andrey Savchenko

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The Craft of Answering WordPress Questions

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

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not for sale

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

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

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scale

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

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

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kinds of answers

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

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

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

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

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“it’s really good”

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streamline

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16 Boilerplate • personal • verbose • polite

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

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

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

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but environment

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22 People • who have your back

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

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

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understanding

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

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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