A safe space to ask any Joomla-related question, where shaming is not allowed. That’s Joomla Improvers, a Joomla channel on Mattermost.

The idea is twofold: to make a safe area to ask questions and find the best answers and to document those agreed answers as 'Verified Joomla Solutions' that will be added to a card in the channel board. These verified answers or solutions can be used later for an official Joomla user manual to help new users.

Phil, can I pick your brains, please?

The channel came about because I asked Philip Walton for help (again) with, on this occasion, excluding PDFs from indexing. Previously I have used the Joomla Facebook group and Joomla forum to find answers; sometimes, I need help understanding the solutions posted on the forum. Not because I'm dumb; it’s because my background is in Digital Marketing and SEO, with a bit of Web Design but no developer or coding experience other than a sprinkling of CSS.

Also, I was apprehensive about posting publicly as people may expect me to be a Joomla expert if I'm Marketing Lead, and I'm not, but I do want to improve! My web design experience was primarily Shopify, so Joomla was a different experience and was a little tricky to learn without any developer knowledge. As Marketing Lead, my objective is to grow Joomla's market share, and an official Joomla User Manual, in addition to the existing documentation, could aid that.

What are the benefits?

The benefits are shared knowledge and finding solutions to become better and more knowledgeable Joomlers without the fear of feeling stupid for asking a question. The community is blessed to have some incredible talent and expertise, so please share your knowledge and help if you can and are not too irritated by newbie questions!

If I'm brutally honest, I have been guilty of the odd scoff or rolling of eyes when reading a newbie question in my area of expertise, but as the saying goes, it's easy when you know how!

Can I get involved; how can I help?

The channel is still in its infancy and will require a degree of moderation, the creation of verified solution cards and general management for it to meet its objectives. This is currently falling under the marketing umbrella, but if anyone would be interested in helping to develop this, please get in touch at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

So how do I join?

Joining is easy, sign into Mattermost and navigate to find channels, then type in 'Joomla Improvers' as shown below:

So, if you want to improve your Joomla skills, pick the brains of experts and contribute to the collation of Joomla-verified solutions, please join the Joomla Improvers channel on Mattermost. I look forward to seeing you there!