Slack mimics the way large groups naturally communicate, adding tide pod emojis, savage bots, magic 8 ball decision making, and of course gifs! No wonder the WordPress community has started to use Slack to coordinate activity.
Standing for Searchable Log of All Conversation & Knowledge, Slack is more than just a glorified text message platform. It’s a central knowledge base where ideas evolve as they’re recorded and shared openly, rather than entombed in email inboxes or lost in a social media stream. Becoming a part of different communities in Slack can help you increase your profile in the WordPress sphere.
In this post, we’re going to share some of the top Slack workspaces that are taking WordPress projects to new and exciting places. Don’t be afraid to jump on board, introduce yourself, and start bringing your ideas & experience to the table.
All Work and No Play Makes Slack a Very Dull Boy
Slack workspaces are communities, just like the literal millions of assemblies found on LinkedIn and Facebook. There are also some great finds scattered randomly across the internet. For example, check out this list of Slack communities specific to remote workers.
To join a Slack workspace, you need to be allowed by the admin. For public workspaces, the process is automatic. You just enter your email and an invitation is automatically sent to you. For private Slack workspaces, you’ll need to be approved before you receive an invite.
Here are some WordPress Slack workspaces where the best and brightest gather.
1. WordPress + Slack
The main WordPress Slack community is at WordPress + Slack. Not only is this the largest WordPress Slack workspace, it’s one of the largest Slack communities on the web. There is a lot going on.
There are over 80 channels on different topics ranging from bbPress, BuddyPress, accessibility, WP-CLI, Core, to translations and more.
You’ll also find channels for WordCamp EU and WordCamp US, so you can follow up on all those connections you made.
Note, Slack communication is used for contributing to the WordPress project, be it code, design, documentation, etc. There is no support channel for WordPress on Slack; the best place for that is the WordPress.org support forums.
To join, login to wordpress.org or create an account to get started. You’ll then scroll down to the Joining the WordPress team on Slack section and click on the I understand. Please send me an invite link.
This will send an invite to the email associated with your WordPress.org account. Open up the email, click on the link and proceed to Slack.
2. The WordPress Governance Project
First announced at WordCamp US 2018, the WordPress Governance Project aims to explore and define the principles, leadership and governance model for the WordPress open source project.
When you join WordPress.org, you’ll get an @chat.WordPress.org email address that forwards to the personal email address you chose to associate with your WordPress.org account.
You’ll use the same @chat.WordPress.org email to join the WordPress Governance Project Slack workspace. Your email will be your WordPress.org [email protected]
The confirmation email will take you to Slack where you will enter your name and agree to the terms of service.
3. WP Developers’ Club
Even though it has club in the name, the WP Developers Club is completely free to join. You don’t actually need to be a developer either, although the channels are dedicated to topics developers are most interested in.
There are channels devoted to the different code languages, and channels that aren’t tech related. There’s channels for gigs, mentorship, and that shameless self promotion that makes the world go round.
It’s the second largest WordPress Slack community, right behind WordPress + Slack.
4. WooCommerce
There’s a lot of WooCommerce troubleshooting going on in the WooCommerce Slack. This makes it a great log of known issues with WooCommerce and a central location for other valuable information such as WooCommerce meetups, hosting for WooComm, and more.
The WordPress WooCommerce group has channels on everything from development to themes to extensions. There’s even un canal en español.
This is a great place to get help on WooCommerce issues or hire a WooCommerce expert who knows what they’re doing.
Slack of All Trades
Slack is exploding in popularity. Even NASA has switched over to Slack for the last Mars mission.
When you’re working on the #MarsLanding but also have to keep up with all your Slack channels: pic.twitter.com/Nc5or3pfJB
— (((Ben))) (@bdh_photos) November 26, 2018
It’s a great time to get involved or start your own WordPress Slack community. You can create one for your WordPress business or for your local meetup. Starting your own Slack workspace is free and pretty easy.
Slack has completely changed the way we work at WPMU DEV. Seriously… we devoted an entire post to it. We’ve even integrated it into our famed Forminator plugin.
You can use Forminator to create a sign up page for your WordPress community. Additionally, you can alert your team on Slack when someone fills out a contact form. Best of all, you don’t have to pay an additional fee to access Forminator integrations because they’re part of the free version of the plugin.
So what are you waiting for?! One would normally say stop slacking, but when it comes to this prolific communication tool, you can’t start Slacking soon enough!
Editor’s Note: This post has been updated for accuracy and relevancy.
[Originally Published: January 2019 / Revised: March 2022]
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