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I think we can all agree that this site is slowly becoming a great WordPress resource and I find it much more rewarding answering questions here than on the WordPress.org Support Forums.

Some thoughts on getting the word out:

  • Reach out to some popular WordPress blogs and ask them to take a look at the site and write about it.

    • Someone from MikeSchinkel Enterprises could write a really nice guest blog post highlighting some of the questions and answers.

    • Have a WordPress Plugin contest using the StackExchange API

    • Build a Twitter Bot that updates every time a new question is asked

How can we get a piece of the StackOverflow WordPress tag?

The WordPress tag on SO gets an average of 13 or 14 questions a day which is about the same as our average. Most of those questions would fit here.

How are we doing compared to the other SE Beta Sites?

In terms of users we rank 18th out of the 22 StackExchange Beta Sites. At least we are doing better than Bicycles and Home Improvement.

What other ideas does everyone else have to promote the site and increase users?

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  • On topic of ranking I thought 80+% answered is kinda decent for complex topic, but eeeeek... Looked through unanswered questions but still barely managed to drag us above Apple. Too many post question and don't bother to follow-up and accept answers.
    – Rarst
    Sep 20, 2010 at 9:53
  • @Rarst: I think the percentage is calculated the same way unanswered questions are calculated here: if there is one answer with an upvote, it is no longer unanswered. So not accepting answers would not be a problem if the answers were upvoted, which anyone can do. The Big Three also hover around 80-85%, and the sites with very high percentages could be seen as more subjective (everyone has an opinion on cooking...).
    – Jan Fabry
    Sep 20, 2010 at 18:41
  • Yeah, I understand how it works. I spend plenty of time wandering through unanswered questions. There are often nothing to upvote because answer is essentially "not enough detail" or you have no idea if answer resolved original question or not. PS and can't upvote myself, shucks :)
    – Rarst
    Sep 20, 2010 at 19:05

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I particularly like your second idea - a WordPress Plugin contest using the StackExchange API. Until you brought it up, I wasn't even aware there was an API for SE. Since there is, though, here's a plug-in I'd like to see:

A WordPress admin panel (i.e. dashboard widget) that lists recent questions/answers (kind of like an RSS feed) but that also allows you to add comments directly from WordPress. I manage everything else from my WP dashboard already (including Facebook and Google Reader), so managing SE content would be a huge added bonus ... and would help more people to experience WordPress Answers without forcing them to leave their blogs.

WordCamp

Last weekend was WordCamp Portland, and I was talking the site up as much as I could. I should have held a separate unconference session to present and discuss how the community could best use the site, but I was unprepared for it and it never happened. However, I think anyone and everyone attending WordCamps around the world should be promoting the site. Just mention it as a tool for hardcore WP users that works in parallel with the forums and Codex.

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  • I think the plugin contest would be huge hit. StackExchange has no problem contributing prizes and funding efforts. The ideas just have to come from our community. People at WordCamps are hungry for knowledge so that is also a great idea.
    – Chris_O
    Sep 20, 2010 at 20:42
  • I like the contest idea!
    – MikeSchinkel
    Sep 29, 2010 at 0:55
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I propose that we appeal to the Stack Overflow organization to have an ad for WordPress Answers shown (in rotation with their other ads) on question pages (on SO) with the wordpress tag.

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  • That is great idea. The are rotating ads for programmers.stackexchange on SO right now. Our user with the highest rep should be the one to propose the question on meta.stackoverflow.com
    – Chris_O
    Sep 22, 2010 at 6:03
  • @Chris_O: All public beta sites get ads, but I don't know whether they are linked to tags, or just spread around everywhere.
    – Jan Fabry
    Sep 22, 2010 at 7:31
  • I just realized they probably don't show to users who have associated their so account with the beta account. I have not seen one for WordPress Answers yet.
    – Chris_O
    Sep 23, 2010 at 7:49
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I don't have the ability to comment, so I'll "answer" with agreement that the 50-reputation point requirement is a high bar, and I think it's too high.

(EAMann, I don't quite understand what you mean by linking to another StackOverflow/StackExchange site. I don't see anything in the FAQ about that. Do you mean literally that if I create a link to or from stackoverflow.com in one of my answers, I'll get 100 points? I'm a little puzzled by that.)

This is a very technical site. It's a little bit of sweat and blood for me to have the 17 reputation points I've got so far. For instance, I poured a lot of time into my first answer, and then I found the question gone the next day, alas, no points there. I'd gain more out of the site, and I think the site would gain more out of me, if I had the ability to comment. For now it sort of seems you need to be a WordPress superstar to be part of the conversation.

EAMann, I understand your perspective, but keep in mind that you're up there in the reputation stratosphere. It's a different view from down here. I do think I'm qualified to comment, but I'm just not there yet, and it'll take me a good while. Actually, I think I'm probably more qualified to comment (I've been a web developer for many years) than I am to answer (I'm new to WordPress development).

In sum, here's another perspective, and recommendation to lower the comment bar.

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I will do half a WordPress Meetup session on this site. Probably in 2011, as our Baltimore Meetup schedule is mostly full-up for this year. Will talk to co-coordinator about scheduling.

-1

allow comments to new users without hitting 50 cred.

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  • 1
    I would be opposed to lowering this threshold. Yes, it would encourage more comments by new users ... but it would also allow more comments from people who aren't really qualified to comment. I'm more interested in preventing spam and protecting the quality of the content on this site. Besides, you automatically hit 100 reputation if you link with another StackOverflow/StackExchange site ... so frequent users shouldn't have a problem passing 50.
    – EAMann
    Sep 21, 2010 at 19:50

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