In my previous post, I shared a few thoughts on how I think someone can become a better WordPress developer.

When it comes to talking with beginner – or intermediate – WordPress developers, one thing that I’ve noticed is that when you suggest the WordPress Codex as a resource, there’s beginning to be a somewhat-typical response that I’m beginning to hear:

Please don’t suggest the Codex.

Bummer, right?

Not The WordPress Codex. Anything But The WordPress Codex!

Okay, so I’m being somewhat melodramatic here, and I recognize that there are people who don’t want to hear that as a suggestion because they’re already aware of it, have already used it, and are looking for something more.

But this isn’t the case for everyone.

A Call To Action For The Codex

As someone who knows the state of the Codex, tries to contribute to it when possible, and understands the ultimate mission of the site, it’s sad that the very manual for the software and API people are looking to learn is a place that they’d rather not be referred.

Sure, some people don’t want to be told to look there because they already know; however, there are people who end up at dead ends when they start looking for their answers in the manual.

A Call To Action For The Docs

Then again, what if the Codex isn’t your thing? There are plenty of documentation efforts going on for WordPress right now.

Make WordPress Docs

Right now, the documentation effort for WordPress is being split among a variety of different handbooks. Some of these handbooks include:

  • Theme Development
  • Plugin Development
  • Inline Documentation
  • …and more

If you have the time and the area of expertise for any part of any handbook, then consider contributing!

Paying It Forward

Ultimately, this is something that all of us who build things both for and on WordPress should be aiming to fix.

This obviously a full on blog post or article discussing how to do something, but a reminder that we – as the people who are responsible for pushing WordPress forward in a variety of ways – should be contributing to the manual of the software we use so frequently.

To that end, if you come across a page that doesn’t exist, a page that needs updating, or a page that could benefit from improved code, then please take a few moments and work on contributing towards it.

Let’s try to make this thing better for the designers, developers, and users coming up behind us.

Comments on this post are disabled. Go update a page in the Codex or the Documentation instead!