Catering for Mums and Dads

#1

I was so glad to see CP had been created as a place for people to go, who wanted to continue using “WP”, but without Gutenberg. As we suspect, it will affect a lot more than just the editor over time.

The release of the Beta version is enabling people to see CP in action, and I have switched over on two of my sites. Currently, things work exactly the same for end users, with just the word ClassicPress replacing WordPress here and there in the admin backend.

However, a lot of the categories and posts in this forum are about topics most people (like me) don’t understand. While the technical issues obviously need to be discussed publicly, it does come across as a bit scary and overwhelming.

While I realize the target audience for CP is primarily business sites, I feel ordinary mums and dads should have a category to go to in the forum, where our concerns can be addressed in layman’s terms.

For example, if a certain plugin we are using suddenly needs Gutenberg to work in the future, how is this going to be overcome for CP users? Or even simpler than that, is CP really going to be a “replacement” for WP for everybody, or only for businesses? Is CP only going to be for the elite?

I have watched a lot of YouTube videos, listened to podcasts and read articles discussing the pros and cons of whether CP is even a good idea. Personally I believe it is, for many reasons - not just avoiding Gutenberg. But the average WP user is going to need to be convinced and reassured that it is a viable and long-term solution.

A separate category for non-tech or semi-tech users would allow them (us) to feel a part of the community, without feeling embarrassed about not understanding geek-talk, or asking “silly” questions.

Just a thought :bulb:

#2

Great to hear you’ve switched to ClassicPress!

I’ve been programming for 15+ years and even I find some of the topics on the forum daunting, so I completely understand where you’re coming from.

Perhaps we need to rearrange the forums on the homepage - “General” is way down the bottom right now.

Do you have any thoughts about what new categories you’d like to see?

#3

P.S. I’ve reordered the forums on the homepage - it hopefully looks less scary now!

#4

Hi Scott,

The General category is logically a place for “general” posts/questions and used in most forums.

Maybe a new category above Team Discussions called User Discussions, with an explanation such as:

A place for all users to discuss ClassicPress, regardless of their technical skills.

Or:

Feel free to be part of the community without needing to speak geek!

Something along that line. The main thing being, it is obvious you don’t have to be an expert to post there. Yes, keep the General one at the top.

#5

If it’s okay for me to input here, I kind of agree with the poster as far as making areas for casual CP users who learn about it through articles or forums as I did, searching for solutions and forks.

Maybe categories such as “How CP Works,” “How to Install and Use,” “Plugins,” “Updates,” “Where We’re Headed,” Beginners," and so on, with sub-threads to address specific things like where to find CP and where to find the migration plugin.

#6

I’m very sympathetic to your statements because a) I work with many small business owners who want more leads but don’t know anything about digital marketing beyond that, so I get it, and b) I’m probably somewhere in-between the brilliant programmers who forked this and the general hobbyist web developer since my background is more in marketing. So I fall somewhere in the middle with understanding most of what they’re talking about but getting lost in the “config,” PHP, and database discussions.

At this juncture, I think the main things are to let people know CP exists first of all, and help spread the word, and offering to help in whatever capacity we can. And of course, by doing so, we are crossing our fingers and toes that CP will continue for years to come and grow exponentially.

#7

I have reorganized the categories - specifically General and General Discussion (General will be turned off). Let me know if the description for General Discussion is better :slight_smile:

#8

@ wadestriebel Yes, that looks good.

It’s the first thing visitors will see and lets them know they are welcome to participate in the forum, without needing to feel pressured or embarrassed.

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