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Write the Docs 2019 Stats and Community Update

Since it’s quiet over the holidays, we normally don’t publish a newsletter in January. Instead, we send out a yearly update for the Write the Docs community, where we share updates on our progress as a community and an organization.

Community Updates

There are a few things that we know some of you have been wondering about, and we’d like to provide updates on:

The first big change is the Write the Docs Enhancement Proposals (WEPs) process. This process aims to provide transparency in community-wide decision making, and allows the entire WTD community to review and comment on major policies, processes, and governance topics. We already processed the first WEP, numbered WEP0, which defines the system and how to use it. We will be running more proposals through this process soon. We hope that you will provide your feedback and insight to us as we look to guide the community into the future.

The second major thing is another US conference closer to the east coast. We’re still in the process of talking with venues and trying to see if we can make it work for 2020. We will let everyone know the status of the event before Portland tickets sell out, so that you won’t miss your chance to attend.

The last major thing is our Salary Survey, which ran until November. This is the first year that we’ve done this, and we were blown away by the response. We had over 700 people fill it out, and we’re in the process of sifting through the data to provide some insights. We plan to release the full results soon, and in the future we hope to improve the process so that it gets analyzed and published faster.

2019 Stats

We’re presenting our yearly stats here without much commentary, except where it’s useful for interpreting the numbers. We hope it gives you a sense of the state of the community.

Note

You can also read our posts from 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Conferences

  • 500 attendees in Portland (up from 450)
  • 300 attendees in Prague (up from 275)
  • 100 attendees in Australia (similar to last year)

We also had a conference in Vilnius this past year, which drew 50 people. Portland is maxed out at 500, and won’t be growing again in the near future. Prague will be moving into a new venue so we can accommodate more folks next year.

Slack Network

Newsletter

Meetups

  • Over 10,000 members (up from 8642, too many to count :)
  • 46 meetups (up from 39)

Podcast

Website

  • 250,000 sessions (same as last year)
  • 430,000 page views (down from 450,000)

GitHub

  • 1,955 commits to our repository (up from 1,250)
  • 56 people who contributed to our repository (up from 53)

Thanks

Thanks again to everyone who makes this community possible. The community is the people, and we’re grateful to share our passion for docs with so many delightful people all around the world.

We hope to connect with you during 2020, whether in person at one of our conferences or online in one of our collaboration platforms.

Happy new year!

The Write the Docs team

CFP Reminder, Tickets on Sale, Grant Program   Write the Docs Newsletter – February 2020