Contributor Spotlight: Nadia Maya Ardiani

Welcome to another edition of the Training Team’s Contributor Spotlight! In this series, the Training Team introduces you to one of our many valued contributors, and you can learn more about their contribution journey.

All about Maya

Maya’s educational background is in English literature, and she began her career as a journalist. Starting from radio, Maya explored many mediums, including magazines and websites. She specialized in music, culture, and regional news, as well as feature writings on people and places. Maya’s fascination for media and communication brought her to various related avenues: media relations specialist, publicist, and public diplomacy officer for a foreign government representative. 

However, everything changed when the pandemic hit — Maya had to find another arena that was more flexible in regards to place and time, and that was when she became a content writer in the tech industry. This was the time when Maya learned in-depth about WordPress because she had to write about it. It was quite a pivot, but a step that she is grateful she took.

Maya is currently a content specialist with Hostinger, and interviews people — from Hostinger’s clients to WordPress community members — and writes articles about their expertise and inspiring stories. She also works on social media to boost the performance of their website content.

Outside of WordPress, Maya loves going to live music. She also loves spending time with her friends, reading, experimenting with recipes, watching movies, and exploring the internet for her daily dose of memes.

Maya’s WordPress Journey

Maya has always been drawn to the Internet and its culture, as well as the people who create and use it. She first discovered WordPress during her school years and was struck by its sophistication, even though it didn’t visually captivate her at the time.

Years later, Maya’s job as a tech content writer required her to have a deep understanding of WordPress. She was surprised to find that WordPress had grown significantly, offering exciting customizations and becoming easier to understand. She started exploring WordPress more, attending her first WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. and contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.. It was during these experiences that Maya fell in love with the WordPress community, where everyone learns and supports each other.

Maya’s commitment to the WordPress community solidified when she volunteered as an interviewer at WordCamp Asia 2023. Being a part of something that makes the internet more accessible to everyone motivated her even further.

“It’s just so lovely to be involved in something that makes the internet more accessible for everyone.”

First Contributions

Maya’s journey as a contributor to WordPress began with her first contribution to the Polyglots teamPolyglots Team Polyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/.. While she doesn’t recall the specifics, she remembers working on some strings related to the current release towards the end of 2022. 

With the Training team, Maya made her initial contribution by creating a lesson plan and translating a tutorial. To her surprise and delight, she received news that the tutorial she translated was the first-ever Indonesian translation within the Training team—something she found truly awesome!

Overcoming Challenges

When Maya first began contributing to WordPress, she faced a common challenge—the feeling of knowing very little and wondering if she truly belonged on the Training team. There were moments when she questioned if she deserved to be a part of a team dedicated to helping others learn about the platform. However, Maya discovered a supportive and helpful community within the Training team.

“Everyone is a work in progress, and we’re never alone in the process, so as long as we’re willing to learn, we can learn together with everyone.”

Memorable WordPress Moments

Being welcomed into such a diverse community, even in places where Maya may not see many people who looked like her, has been a great source of joy. One significant moment was when she interviewed Michelle Frechette, who told Maya that it’s important to show up and start doing something even when you feel like you’re one of the minorities, because you might open the door for others who relate to your experience. This conversation inspired Maya and served as a reminder that her participation could create opportunities for others like her. Seeing fellow POC hijabi women participating at WordCamp US 2023 reaffirmed the idea that there is a place for her at the table. This heartwarming encounter boosted her confidence and conviction more than any inclusivity campaign had.

Maya also had incredible experiences at her first local WordCamp and her flagship WordCamp. The local event allowed her to dive into the intricacies of the project, while the flagship event provided her with a whole new scale of WordPress contributor experiences. These experiences fostered a sense of camaraderie with her fellow contributors, and Maya will always cherish those moments.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to get started with contributing to WordPress?

“You don’t have to be an expert to begin contributing. Start with what you have and improve at your own pace can always be a good idea. In the WordPress community, everyone has each other’s back, so don’t be afraid to ask, even though it might feel like a stupid question (it’s totally fine, everyone’s a newbie at some point in life).”

Thank you, Maya, for all your dedication and contributions to the Training Team and to the WordPress Open SourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. Project!

#contributor-spotlight