Is the roadmap still alive?

Projects Core Development
41

Yes/no.

Paid job - only if the person is well-known in the WP community. But we can have a myriad evangelists without any title. In fact, most of this community already are evangelists of CP.

I may sound boring, but again, a more active involvement in FB, Twitter, Reddit, other communities is required from our marketing team. Supporting activities of our members there, of any other supporters of CP are an easy job (because don’t require any new content creation), but it encourages them to spread the message about CP. More attention from CP team to them will create more evangelists. Evangelists, because they believe in CP, not because they are paid to evangelize.

And yes, I found the discussion about buyer personas too academic and completely unnecessary. Buyers can be everywhere, where WordPress users are. Let’s tweet ten tweets about CP, instead such discussion!

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Well, at the risk of sounding defensive, I’ll just mention that the majority of the people present at the most recent marketing meeting were leads from other teams, and some of them actually aren’t even on social media. Our marketing team officially appears to be a team of one, currently.

I have taken your comments to heart and am retweeting posts by our community that I am aware of, that are ClassicPress related. However, I disagree that this should be the only thing that happens with marketing. There needs to be a plan in place, content created, and a schedule by which that content is posted. Then, we need the rest of the community to share it.

At the last marketing meeting James came up with some talking points about ClassicPress. I’ve seen a few others here, which I am happy to include. If there are others, I’d be happy to hear them. Up to this point, there’s been very little participation in marketing. I have always been, and continue to be, open to people that are ready to roll up their sleeves and do the work of getting the word out.

I am very grateful to @klein and @ozfiddler’s contributions on the marketing team in the past and I hope that at some point they will be able to help again in the future.

I would happily tweet 10 tweets if I had content. Linas, you have often said that you would help; I would be very grateful if you would contribute some of your time to the marketing team as a content creator. Please consider it and let me know.

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I tweet as often, as I can (I am behind @PressHill Host), I see @ZigPress often tweets about CP, Code Potent was active some time ago and that’s almost all.

For tweeting, you don’t need a super original content, you just need to tweet or retweet about things, that share our philosophy: openness, privacy, community. Also, a call for core developers (for as specific task as you can define, and as small, as @james can construct - because more specific tasks lead to more response, and the small first step looks easy).

I wrote a couple articles for our own page, but because at this moment we didn’t accept new clients, I postponed publishing. They will appear after we start to accept new clients again. Will let you know.

You are paying too much attention to the “plan”. I am not a fan of any formal plans in marketing, we should know direction and seek opportunity to join or spread discussions, ideas, news, etc., that corresponds this direction. Twitter and Reddit are the right mediums at this stage, IMHO. So, let’s start from Twitter, my guess is, that CP have a much bigger potential there and can achieve much better results. We just need one tweet per day, and a few retweets at this stage.

Don’t take anything too deep to the heart, protect your health from stress :slight_smile: Don’t Worry Be Happy

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Hi Linas,

Thanks for your response. I look forward to seeing your articles when you post them.

My offer still stands:

Thank you.

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From a happy ClassicPress user, thank you Linas and everyone else on this thread/developers/committee etc. for your discussion, input and effort. I’ve been in touch with Michelle and will help with the website/marketing in any way I can.

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46

I have delayed adding my thoughts on this post, as wasn’t sure if it was for just for the committee or for everyone to chip in.

I am only an ordinary user, with a website that is probably too bloated and uses too many plugins, uses a standard basic theme, but unfortunately cannot code so just want a sytem that works. I originally switched to classicpress right near the beginning, because i liked wordpress as it was, and at the time there was great enthusiasm and many plans, which is why I switched.

Now if I am correct in what i have read in previous posts, unfortunately, because of the lack of developers or coders, progress has stalled or moving at a slower pace.

So wouldn’t it better to rethink our plans. Lets stick with the current version, with some minor tweaks and updates, which works well and takes the pressure off. Concentrate on our own plugin directory, which in my opinion, should have been out as soon as possible after v.1 instead of waiting until v.2 so that developers have somewhere to market to classicpress users.

Then we will be independent from wordpress, not having to use their plugin directory, and showing plugin and theme developers that we are serious and not just a fork, and that they have somewhere to market their wares. This could also be the springboard onto a newer version (v2)

I would also add, that although it would be good to have a coordinated marketing plan, in my opinion we have to be careful not to put too many titles and labels around as this can send out the wrong signal.

Something unique that we have compared to wordpress is that we may be a small group, but we are a genuine community led group, who have come here for a variety of different reasons, have different skill sets but (hopefully) believe in an independent and community led Classicpress.

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47

100% this.

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48

The single biggest marketing move for ClassicPress is the launch of plugin & themes directory. All marketing without it looks like we are marketing “old and obsolete” WordPress. There are nothing wrong with “old” WP from the technical view, but directories are the point, where “Old WordPress” becomes “New ClassicPress”. A different level.

Directory makes the real difference between WP and CP. So, again, why not to tweet call for help, targeted to more experienced WP developers? Ideally - with very specific, but not very big task? Marketing is not only about “sales”, marketing is about attracting core contributors, too. Maybe, @james can formulate a small, but useful task for potential contributor?

The list of ClassicPress themes starts here: SimplePress ClassicPress Theme

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49

I’m fine with most of this as an option. The only change from our current roadmap would be that we don’t start moving features out to “core plugins” until after the plugin directory is launched.

Launching a plugin/theme directory is a major change regardless of when it happens, so it still justifies a bump to v2.0.0 even by itself.

Good idea. I will talk to Michelle about this when we have some more things that are ready for help.

This is great to see! However it looks like there is only one theme here? I think this should also be posted in the Themes subforum.

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50

Can’t we then just do that, so getting rid of the Wordpress directory addons page, so that we then look an independent unit, and not just a spin off.

If it makes it clearer as this is a major change like you say, then make this V.2 and what was planned for V2, push back to V3 and change the road map accordingly.

As this group are just a small band at the moment, I think we need, in fact it is important to have an eventual goal/target, which could be Version 2,3,4 or even 10, but made up with smaller steps that are easier to attain, and then in the eyes of the world of users and developers, we are always progressing, developing and improving our product.

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51

Jason, you are thinking exactly the same as me.

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52

Makes sense in all circumstances :slight_smile:

I wouldn’t want to lose the WP ‘add plugin’ page completely yet - I had always imagined that in CP v2 there would be two tabs on that page - one for the WP repo, one for the CP directory.

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53

Yes, exactly. Until in the WP repository we can find at least one plugin, compatible with CP, the “WP plugins” tab is welcome. I exaggerate a little, but not much. :slight_smile:

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54

Just playing devil’s advocate.

There hasn’t been a new major release of CP since its inception, getting on for 2 years ago now. There is some evidence to suggest that this gives the impression CP is not very active.

We need to consider what the community has requested via the petitions process and at present there is overwhelming support for things like removal of Emojis and XML-RPC into core plugins, as well as an improved media library. Would this indicate the need for a version 2.0 release?

It doesn’t end there. We also need to consider what is likely to appeal to our target audience – those users (including developers) who haven’t yet switched to CP.

There are relatively few dedicated CP plugins available at present. How would a CP plugin directory in admin dashboard be perceived if there’s only a few plugins on display?

Conversely, the fact that there are relatively few plugins and themes means that there’s less competition and greater opportunities.

Should we wait until there’s a few more plugins?

Could we make use of something like Easy Digital Downloads in the interim?

Between a new plugin (and theme) directory and a new major CP release, which is most likely to make people want to switch to CP? Which is most likely to make existing users and community members stay with CP? What is most likely to show that CP is very much alive and kicking?

How important to us is public perception?

I know these are all questions, but that’s the point.

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55

From what I see, there isn’t just one problem and one solution, but slightly different problems with multiple answers for each one.

The reason I suggest that we would concentrate on the plugin/theme directory, is so existing users and new users now that we are different from wordpress. Plus on a selfish note, one day the existing plugins and the theme I currently use will eventually not work as plugins raise their min requirements, and then I will have to try and work out what I then do. I know it is not here yet, but one day it will arrive.

If we have two tabs for the Plugins, one official classicpress and one unofficial (WP) and state that compatibility cannot be guaranteed, then that would be a start. Then set a date, for example 1 Jan 2021, when the wp tab will be removed.

Then get a marketing, developer member or members (team) to email systematically all the WP plugins, stating that for the present and up to the date agreed upon, they will still be available to our users, but afterwards they will not, unless they submit it to our new directory.

If this project is to move forward, even in small steps, we need to leave the shadow of wordpress, you don’t see WIX, Squarespace etc marketing themselves as WP with/without …

Existing users, if they don’t like gutenburg, will probably continue until they have no choice to leave or switch to using it, unless we can prove we are moving forward independently, and we will probably struggle with new users as the advertising from the major brands is just too much at the moment, unless we get a sponsor or something, but then we wouldn’t necessary be independent.

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56

Why? Didn’t see any point here. More choices are fine, I even think, that integration of CodeCanyon as the third tab is a plausible idea. And a stream of some income to CP for further development.

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57

The only reason, I mentioned a date, was as an incentive for developers to move into our own directory.

I think the idea of multiple directories is a great idea, I mentioned an idea similar to this near the beginning, especially if we can get an income stream from this, but then why would we then want to continue to offer the WP tab as well.

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58

I like this idea a lot.

  1. It will make it very easy for users to find a CP compatible plugin. At the moment it requires research and it is still often vague (eg… “currently supports” sort of statements).

  2. It will force the hand of plugin developers. There are a number of plugin developers who have given “conditional” support for CP and many more who haven’t even given it a thought. It will make them give a firm commitment and they will be able to see very clearly who is already on board (and if it is one of their direct competitors they will have some extra incentive).

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