That kind of sounds a bit funny doesn’t it? Getting the most out of the Magento community, like it’s a freshly picked orange for juicing. But you wouldn’t want to miss a single delicious drop, would you?
Table of Contents
Learn & Experiment
Want to get involved in Magento? Then I suggest you to learn Magento. Learning is your first step to becoming a Magento pro, whatever your area. This encompasses everything from playing around in the Magento admin panel to setting up your first Magento website to starting developing for Magento.
Also, don’t be afraid to experiment! Often the best way to learn is to take stuff apart and try to put it back together, to break things and to be forced to fix them.
It is only through failure and through experiment that we learn and grow. – Isaac Stern
Ask For Help & Don’t Be Afraid of Feedback
Everyone who’s ever worked with Magento has needed some guidance at one point or another. Magento is big, complex and powerful. You are going to need help and there’s no shame in asking for it, it’s the reason we have spaces like the Magento Community Forums and the Magento Stack Exchange. On these forums, you can search through a sea of already answered questions for the advice you need or post a new question for feedback.
For more help with using the community forums, check out my video: Magento Community Forums – How To Get Involved In The Magento Community
There To Help, Not There To Serve
Everyone is busy. The support you receive on the forums is voluntary. Do not abuse the resource that is the Magento Community. If you have a question, make sure it’s not already been answered on the forums, collect as much information and detail as you can prior to posting and be patient.
Ask for help. Not because you are weak. But because you want to remain strong. – Les Brown
Community is not about just taking what’s shared, it’s about giving back, growing and improving the resources it harbors. The only reason we have a Magento community to adhere to is because of the past, current and future unselfish sharing of experiences and learnings. By not sharing, you actually only limit your own development.
In vain have you acquired knowledge if you do not impart knowledge to others – Deuteronomy Rabba
Please & Thank Yous
Respect and appreciation go a long way. Not everyone will agree 100% of the time, how boring and none progressive would it be if we did? Nothing to challenge the standard, no one to push for better. One thing we can do 100% of the time, though, is to be nice to each other. Be nice, play nice, nothing but nice.
The only people with whom you should try to get even with, are those who have helped you. – John E Southard
Where To Look
Hiding is not something the Magento community has ever tried to do, we aren’t a secret organization cloaked in orange drapes and living underground – in fact, we are standing loud and proud across the globe, from Ottawa to Aukland, Rosario to Xinghua and London to Wellington. Here’s where we are and tips on how to find us:
- Twitter – Search for #RealMagento, #Magento2 or even just Magento and you’re sure to stumble across us.
- LinkedIn – There are loads of groups around Magento for you to join! Just search for them and send a request to join.
- Facebook – Just like LinkedIn there are Magento focused Facebook groups just waiting for new members to join and follow.
- YouTube – Whether it’s training videos, talks from Magento conferences or little old me, you can find Magento content on YouTube too.
- Stack Exchange – As mentioned a little earlier under “Asking for help…”, the Magento Stack Exchange is the perfect place to find the best Magento developers on the planet.
- GitHub – The community loves to collaborate and share, GitHub is perfect for that and so you can find lots of peeps there!
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it. – George A. Moore
Get Away From Your Screen
The beautiful thing about the people in the Magento community is they are actually real-life people who are just as nice in real life, maybe even nicer! If not nicer, definitely cuddlier. There are absolutely loads of Magento centric events throughout the year, all over the World! To name but a few:
- Mage Titans (UK, Italy, Texas & Mexico)
- Meet Magento (Everywhere!*) (*pretty much)
- Magento Live (UK, France & Austrailia)
- Mage Unconference (Germany & Netherlands)
You can also check out the Magento Meetup page for a list of Magento Meetups near you.
Any excuse to get away from the computer screen is welcome. – Stefan Sagmeister
Join In!
Both face to face and online. Magento’s community may seem a little intimidating at first, but I promise there is no need to be scared of getting involved. I encourage it! The more participants we gain, the more chance we have to explore new views and it is a great way to tease out insight from both current community members and you, the new member. After all, this is how we will continue to grow Magento and it’s community as we seldom form opinions in isolation.
So go out and network your socks off, but don’t make it your aim to be known, make it your aim to get to know others and build valuable relationships with people that share your passion.
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. – Dale Carnegie
How can you get involved right now?
Tweet me: @RebeccaBrocton
Tweet Mageworx: @mageworxteam
Tweet #RealMagento: #RealMagento
Just Tweet. Speak. Share. Do.
We Are Magento.
This is a guest blog post by Rebecca Brocton– eCommerce Solution Specialist at JH, Magento Enterprise Solution Partners.
