During last week’s support chat, the Support and Meta teams agreed on introducing blocks to the support forums.
The support forums have a long history in WordPress. So much so that the current forum editor predates TinyMCE. By introducing blocks, the support forum will make use of the modern WordPress editor to improve user experience. Users will be able to easily insert links, share code or embed screenshots. Using Blocks will also enable new possibilities, such as using patterns for common responses to allow for faster answers.
Due to how old the current editor is and how the forums work, enabling the block editor on a per-user, per-language, or per-forum basis is very challenging. The most likely scenario is that once the new forum block editor experience is ready to launch, it will be rolled out to all users on all forums.
The details
Initially, the Meta and Support teams identified four blocks to be added to the support forums: paragraph, list, quote, and code. These four blocks would most quickly modernize the support forum experience while gently introducing support forum users to using blocks.
The next one on the list is an “add via URL” image block, as well as a few embed blocks, to make adding images easier.
Inline support links will also be included to help new users.
Next steps: test and share feedback!
Want to see these new blocks in action? Great! A live version of these blocks can be tested at https://test.wordpress.org/support/ If you would like to try it, please leave a comment and we will add you to the testing site.
A meta Trac ticket has been created to track known issues and tasks that need to be completed before support forum blocks are deemed fully functional. There are still a few things to iron out before the blocks can be made available to all users, but we are making quick progress and aim to enable blocks for all users as soon as possible.
You can help by taking time to test, flagging issues, and sharing feedback! Please make sure you review the meta Trac ticket for known issues but do not be afraid to suggest ideas outside the box. Let’s think big!
Please share your feedback before Monday, December 12th.
Who
Kudos to @clorith, @jdembowski, @jcastaneda, @macmanx, @sterndata, @yui for planning and testing these new blocks and to @dd32 for Meta support. Proposed block additions to the support forum leverage the Blocks Everywhere plugin, a standalone version of the block editor created by @johnny5.