Giving Back to the WordPress Community

One of the best things about Web 2.0 in my opinion is open source development. Partnered with Creative Commons Licensing, you are often free to build, re-work and share your contributions to an original work through public collaboration.

WordPress is a shining example of an open source project, meaning folks are free to build their own plugins, make their own themes, and add to the value of the entire platform by spinning around the code in their own way and releasing it back to the community for all to share – at least that’s the expectation. I haven’t heard of it happening much just yet, but with a WordPress install being basically free (except for your separate expenses for hosting, a domain etc.) just what exactly do people get out of running WordPress?

Reading one of my favourite resource sites this morning I came across “24 Ways To Contribute To WordPress” – from wearing your WordPress t-shirt with pride, to even writing a blog post about it, all of these step help spread the word. Here are some of the ways you can contribute:

Participate In The WP Forum
The official WordPress forums which can be found here were set up for users to help other users…

Donate Money Towards The WP Project
Now, you might scoff at the idea of donating cash towards the WP.org project, but the fact of the matter is, most of the money involved with Automattic is used for WP.com…

Create And Share WordPress Themes
Not much explaining I have to do here. If you create a theme, share your work to the masses…

Report Theme Piracy
While there is a large amount of inspiration within the WordPress themeing community, some folks just can’t seem to find a way to differentiate themselves, so they copy a successful theme from the codebase all the way to the CSS…

(Side note: Most themes have a Creative Commons License. I have found that if you hack apart a theme based on an original ie. not from scratch, simply credit/link the original author and state that your theme is ‘adapted’ from their works. As for premium ‘paid’ themes, always check the licensing and to see if they are being re-sold).

Report Security Hazards To The Proper People
If you happen to be a coder and come across something that you think may pose a security risk, the best thing for you to do is to send an email to security at wordpress.org…

What if you’re not a code monkey? Well.. blog it, wear it, or organize it.

These are just a few, for the entire list check out the Weblog Tools Collection site.

Also, a great way to participate is by having a coding party like the folks did at DrupalCamp Vancouver. Through the power of a Drupal Code Sprint, they took a website from alpha to beta and gave back to the Fearless City project. I propose we figure out something cool and neat to contribute during or after the next WordCamp Vancouver.

Finally, if you have a WordPress site show it off with a “proudly powered by” link or button, found here.