Living in the most beautiful city in the World, Novi Sad, is, among other things, great for going on daily walks. And daily walks I do. These walks gave birth to my talks, blog posts, ideas for projects, and a shameless YouTube playlist called “90”. One of these walks brought the idea for apply_cookies() initiative.
I love how a quick development foreshadows good ideas. Within 30 minutes, I had a name, format, tools, and announcement ready. I came home, set the tools and published the announcement. In 10 minutes, my April was booked.
The name
Maybe it’s obvious to people who know me. I’m that WordPress Documentation team co-rep who will lure you with cookies to join the team during Contributor Days. Classical Serbian bribery, and it gets the job done.
Another aspect of open-source that I really adore is the broad palette of knowledge, experience, and opinions. My mum always told me to listen to everyone’s opinion and then apply what feels best for me. Sort of like a filter.
And WordPress has a function, apply_filters(), that allows you to register your custom filter and value(s) that other people can change. Having my personal opinion as a value that you can accept, but also change and apply to your situation, sounded a lot like apply_cookies().
The format
I felt that a 30-minute one-on-one video call might be slightly short, especially with people I don’t know, but I thought it could be enough for a meaningful session without disrupting my schedule too much.
I also start with four questions for my guests, which help me get a faster insight into their lives and personalities:
- Where are you from?
- What are you doing with WordPress?
- What is the hardest thing in your life right now?
- What is the best thing in your life right now?
That moment when people switch from thinking about the hardest to thinking about the best thing in their life, the light on their face, the smile and warmth; it’s magnificent.
Interestingly enough, my guests in April were from Greece, Pakistan, Canada, India, Egypt, Brazil.. And during those four questions, I had something personal in common with each of them.
After my questions, we discuss the topic they chose, and at the end, I have another question:
Is there anything I can do for you?
I have a feeling they wished to be more prepared for that question.
Follow-up and feedback
Shortly after our session, I send the follow-up email (for which I have permission) with a summary of everything we talked about and a link to the feedback form. These came back.
The best thing
the opportunity to talk you on the personal level and learn from you
Everything. You actually heard my words and tried your best to communicate and solve the issues. Thanks for that!
The safe and open space. I felt genuinely heard, and the advice was both practical and encouraging. The structure of the session made it easy to take away clear, actionable points, which I really appreciated.
The worst thing
You didn’t give me any cookie. I expected an Oreo.
It was very short I felt we can talk and discuss more thoughts
Honestly, there wasn’t anything I’d consider “bad” or “worse” about the session. If I had to mention something, maybe just wishing we had a bit more time for the conversation as it was so engaging that it flew by! But at the same time I understand the value of you time!🙇♀️
Additional thoughts
No additional thoughts. You’re doing good. Just keep the momentum ongoing.
This was a truly meaningful and empowering session. I walked away with more clarity and confidence, especially around embracing vulnerability in public speaking. I’m grateful for the initiative and your thoughtful approach. Keep doing this because it’s clearly making a difference!💫
Conclusion
I enjoyed these sessions far more than I anticipated. It felt like reconnecting with old friends I haven’t heard from for a long time. It also reminded me of a tagline for WCEU 2018 Contributor Day in Belgrade, when I was a member of the organising team:
You may come as a contributor, but you leave as a family.
And that’s all you need to know about WordPress Community.