I’ve been watching the comments here – thanks to all of you for your input. I’m not entirely sure where to start or what’s most important to respond to.
I think the most important positive outcome I’m seeing from this so far is that people are talking again here in the community. I know we are all under a variety of [insert COVID-related cliché here] stressors but if we work together as a group, we can start making progress again.
Market research would be fantastic. Polling our own community will result in skewed results, so it will be important to reach the larger universe of users. It may not even need to be restricted to WordPress users, but CMS users in general.
There are some inexpensive ways to DIY some market research. I’ve split this into another topic for further discussion.
These are valid comments. We need to get clear on our “WHY” – why switch? Until we have a few additional compelling reasons (other than “We’re block-free!”) we will struggle in this area.
IMO, with so many other voices saying “Update now in order to stay secure!”, this may be a difficult sell, particularly for less tech-savvy people. “Update now because we don’t support old versions!” is also an issue.
Then, there’s FOMO – “Update now to get these cool new features!”
I’m the last one to want to go negative here, but we need to take a hard look at the reality in order to start plotting a way through to the other side. We want to put out there that we are stable, but we can’t afford to put out there that we are stale, and I think that’s a very fine line when you start talking about updates.
This sounds great but it forces us to rely on the WP ecosystem for our success. The sooner we get the directory up & running, the better.
Between Scott’s departure, COVID, and the plain reality that we are all volunteers here, we’ve lost momentum and need to get it back if we want to survive. WP 4.9 users and disgruntled 5+ users are our “low-hanging fruit” so it makes sense to start here. However, it’s going to take a ton of work. Like Aussie said:
I am thrilled to see the spirited discussion taking place, but we can’t stop here. Action must be taken and it has to come from each of us, not just a select few.
It would be wonderful if multiple members of the CP Community get involved with the Hey Pressto! Conference. The price is right, and even if not many people “attend”, our tweets will be out in the Twitterverse for someone to pick up on in the future. It’s something we’ve been expressly invited to participate in, so I think it’s important that we do so.
The conference and the upcoming social media posts (which are scheduled 2x/wk through the end of October, so please keep an eye out for them and like/comment/share them!) are just two parts of what will (hopefully) become a larger marketing plan. Market research can and should be a part of that, but we’ve already been silent for too long – we need to get our momentum back and that means taking action, even if it turns out to be imperfect.
How does that old saying go?
“You can’t get a hit if you don’t swing the bat.”