Planet Drupal

Planet Drupal and its regional versions are aggregated lists of feeds about Drupal. They provide a place for interesting content that may not fit the existing topical sections of drupal.org, groups.drupal.org, or other sub-sites. Their purpose is sharing useful and relevant Drupal-related knowledge and information drupal.org visitors might not otherwise encounter.

Content on Planet Drupal and its regional versions is discarded after three months and three weeks, the maximum allowed from the Aggregator module used to handle Planet Drupal; articles that are older than that, when a feed is added, are never shown.

Posts need to be in the appropriate language: English for Planet Drupal, Spanish or Portuguese for Planeta Latinoamericano, and Chinese for Planet Chinese. Like all the interactions with the Drupal community, posts in Planet Drupal should follow the Drupal Code of Conduct.

Regional Planet Drupal

Existing Programs

• Planeta Latinoamericano was the first pilot for a regional Planet Drupal. Content is posted in Spanish or Portuguese.
• Planet Chinese was the next regional Planet Drupal to be created. Content is posted in Traditional or Simplified Chinese.

Potential for expansion

The language of the main Planet Drupal section still is and will stay English. However, Drupal.org users may create an issue in the Content queue to request a new regional section. These new regions may aggregate content written in languages of those regions, rather than English.

There are 4 other available regions. These regions are in part derived from the United Nations regional groups, and in part from Drupal.org 2015 demographics:

• Africa
• Asia-Pacific
• Eastern Europe
• Western Europe

To request a new regional Planet Drupal section:

• Open an issue in the Content queue
• Explain what the section would accomplish, the unique audience needs it would meet
• Provide examples of at least 5 Drupal-related RSS feeds that would be aggregated into the new section
• Identify at least 3 active Drupal.org users who would commit to moderating the section and adding new feeds to it

Implementation details

Any regional section will be created as a new category in Drupal.org Aggregator module configuration. Sections will also be added to the drupal.org/planet navigation.

These sections will still have to follow Planet’s guidelines (except for the language requirement). All sections and their feeds will be moderated via the Content issue queue. The title of an issue will need to specify which regional section of the Planet the issue is about.

However, in order to create consistent information architecture all regions will have to follow these guidelines:

• Section title (and thus category title) pattern: Planet [regional designation]
• URL pattern: d.o/planet/[regional-designation]
• Section feeds must be active; a section that is dormant for 2 months will be retired

Content that is great for Planet Drupal

• How-to, guides, and tutorials that highlight how to use Drupal effectively
• Module, theme, profile, and distribution announcements, preferably with some discussion or background
• Case studies that highlight how Drupal was used on a project
• Slides and presentations from Drupal-related talks, or notes from a past presentation
• Community news, like progress updates on an in-progress Drupal initiative or project

Content that does not fit Planet Drupal

• Press releases
• Job announcements and hiring announcements (It is fine to mention a career change in a post, but that should not be the post topic.)
• General posts that only mention Drupal in passing
• "I Love Drupal!" posts that don’t provide valuable, actionable content to readers

Other places for special Drupal-related content

• Press releases can be posted into the News and Announcements forum
• Announcements about Drupal-related events can be posted on the groups.drupal.org events page
• Case studies explaining how a particular Drupal site was built can be submitted in the Drupal.org Case Studies section

Request to add a feed

1. You must have an RSS feed that contains only content appropriate for Planet Drupal.
2. Your feed must have at least two posts already, created (preferably) the past 30 days or in the past three months and three weeks. This allows to evaluate the content, make sure it is appropriate for Planet Drupal, make sure the feed has sufficiently recent content, and show the feed is kept updated with new articles. (The Aggregator module discards articles older than three months and three weeks.)
3. Your feed must pass source code validation, since the Aggregator module used for Planet Drupal, or the regional versions, is very strict about parsing feed source code.
4. It is recommended that you trim or use a summary for your feed content between 600 and 1000 characters. Due to the number of posts on the Planet, this will make it more pleasant for readers to find what is interesting for them without having to scroll page after page.
5. It is recommended that you enable reader comments for content that appears on Drupal Planet. Because Planet content is intended to increase communication and connection in the Drupal community, dialogue and feedback are important.
6. It is strongly recommended that you avoid relative URLs for images in your posts. They won't display for people reading your post on drupal.org and is generally discouraged.
7. Once your feed meets the above requirements, create an issue in the Drupal.org Content project issue queue asking to be added to the Planet using Add [your-domain] to [planet-name] as issue title. (Replace [your-domain] with the effective domain used by the feed, and [planet-name] with Planet Drupal, Planeta Latinoamericano, or Planet Chinese.)
   Remember to include the link to your feed, as well as the name you would like in the listing.

Request to update a feed

1. You must have an RSS feed that contains only content appropriate for Planet Drupal.
2. Your feed must have at least two posts already, created (preferably) the past 30 days or in the past three months and three weeks. This allows to evaluate the content, make sure it is appropriate for Planet Drupal, make sure the feed has sufficiently recent content, and show the feed is kept updated with new articles. (The Aggregator module discards articles older than three months and three weeks.)
3. Your feed must pass source code validation, since the Aggregator module is very strict about parsing feed source code.
4. It is recommended that you trim or use a summary for your feed content between 600 and 1000 characters. Due to the number of posts on the Planet, this will make it more pleasant for readers to find what is interesting for them without having to scroll page after page.
5. It is recommended that you enable reader comments for content that appears on Drupal Planet. Because Planet content is intended to increase communication and connection in the Drupal community, dialogue and feedback are important.
6. It is strongly recommended that you avoid relative URLs for images in your posts. They won't display for people reading your post on drupal.org and is generally discouraged.
7. Once your feed meets the above requirements, create an issue in the Drupal.org Content project issue queue asking to update an existing feed using Update [your-domain] on [planet-name] as issue title. (Replace [your-domain] with the effective domain that will be used by the feed and [planet-name] with Planet Drupal, Planeta Latinoamericano, or Planet Chinese.)
   Remember to include the link to your feed, as well as the name you would like in the listing. If you can provide a link to the issue used to ask to add the feed to Planet Drupal, that is good, as it makes updating the feed faster.

Feeds that are removed

A feed is removed if:

• It does not meet the content guidelines stated above
• It violates the Drupal Trademark and Logo Policy
• It contains spam, it is hacked, or its posts are offensive
• It does not work anymore, or it is no longer Drupal specific
• It has not been updated in two years
   

Report inappropriate content shown on Planet Drupal

If you find a post on Planet Drupal you feel inappropriate or in violation of the content requirements above, create an issue for it in the Drupal.org Content project. Please don't leave comments on the article itself telling the author the post is not welcome on Planet Drupal; Planet Drupal moderators will look into the issue and determine whether the violation merits a warning or removal from the Planet feed.

Feed owners who disagree with a decision can appeal by creating a follow-up issue in the Drupal.org Content project. The appeal will be discussed and voted on by the Drupal Planet content moderators, but their decision will be final.

Help in reviewing requests

If you want to help reviewing requests to add feed to Planet Drupal in the issue queue please refer additionally to Moderating content.