https://www.writethedocs.org/ 2026-01-21T08:22:24.685981+00:00 ABlog https://www.writethedocs.org/blog/2026-january-update/ 2026-01-08T00:00:00+00:00 Eric Holscher <section id="write-the-docs-community-update-january-2026"> <p>Hey folks, Eric Holscher here, one of the co-founders of Write the Docs. I’m here with our traditional January community update while the newsletter team takes the month off.</p> <p>2025 was a big year for us. We brought our Europe conference back to Berlin for the first time since 2019, continued refining our hybrid approach, and saw our community keep adapting to how the industry and our work keeps changing.</p> <p>Two quick things before I dive into the details:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p>Submit a <a class="reference external" href="https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/portland/2026/cfp/">talk proposal</a> for Portland by <strong>January 19</strong>.</p></li> <li><p>Fill out our <a class="reference external" href="https://salary-survey.writethedocs.org/">2025 Documentation Salary Survey</a> by <strong>January 31</strong>.</p></li> </ul> <section id="salary-survey-ends-soon"> <h2>2025 Salary Survey ends soon</h2> <p>The <a class="reference external" href="https://salary-survey.writethedocs.org/">2025 Salary Survey</a> closes January 31. If you haven’t filled it out yet, please do, or share it with someone who should. We’re planning to release results in April, in time for Portland.</p> </section> <section id="our-2026-conferences"> <h2>Our 2026 conferences</h2> <p>Seeing everyone in Portland, Berlin, and Kenya last year was great. Kenya was the first year as an official conference, and Berlin marked our return to Europe for the first time in 5 years!</p> <p>Berlin was a real highlight for me personally, and we’re committed to making it a recurring part of our schedule. We learned a lot about what worked (and what didn’t) for both in-person and virtual attendees, and those lessons are shaping how we approach 2026.</p> <p>Here’s what we have planned:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/portland/2026/">**Portland**</a> is a hybrid event on <strong>May 3-5</strong>.</p></li> <li><p><strong>Berlin</strong> is planned to return in the fall as a hybrid event (more details soon).</p></li> <li><p><strong>Australia</strong> dates and format are still under discussion and we’ll share updates when we have them.</p></li> </ul> <p>As always, these events are only as magical as the community makes them. Submit a talk, show up in person or virtually, and help us make 2026 great!</p> </section> <section id="community-board-updates"> <h2>Community board updates</h2> <p>The <a class="reference external" href="https://www.writethedocs.org/team/#community-board">Community Board</a> has been guiding our strategic direction and supporting our community teams. Outside of our conferences, the team also focused on:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p><strong>Community spaces and safety:</strong> We reorganized internal team Slack channels, and Slack moderation kept up with a few new scams throughout the year.</p></li> <li><p><strong>Meetups and tooling improvements:</strong> The meetups team streamlined organizer workflows, including a more reliable 2FA setup for virtual meetups.</p></li> <li><p><strong>Global community growth:</strong> The Nigeria meetup hosted its first summit, and organizers from Kenya and other regions are exploring expanded activity.</p></li> </ul> <p>You can find the full archives of Community Board updates on the <a class="reference external" href="https://www.writethedocs.org/blog/archive/tag/community-board/">Community board blog tag</a>, where we share status updates each quarter to keep the community informed.</p> </section> <section id="from-our-sponsor"> <h2>From our sponsor</h2> <p>This month’s newsletter is sponsored by Promptless:</p> <a class="reference external image-reference" href="https://promptless.ai"><img alt="Promptless logo" class="align-center" src="../../_images/promptless.png" style="width: 50%;" /></a> <p><a class="reference external" href="https://promptless.ai/">Promptless</a> is an AI agent built specifically for tech writers to handle the most painful parts of docs maintenance.</p> <p>If you’ve spent too much time battling docs drift, chasing SMEs for context, hunting down stale screenshots, or scrambling to document features you weren’t looped in on, Promptless is here to help. Promptless connects to your workflow (GitHub, Slack, Jira, your docs framework or hosting provider), learns your style guide, and proactively sends you ready-to-review first drafts before features are shipped.</p> <p>Tech writers tell us “Promptless is a solo tech writer’s godsend,” “my team now calls me a 10x tech writer,” and “I finally have time to spend on higher value content”.</p> <p><a class="reference external" href="http://promptless.ai/">Book a demo</a> in January to try Promptless for free for 30 days!</p> <p><em>Interested in sponsoring the newsletter? Take a look at our</em> <a class="reference external" href="/sponsorship/newsletter/">sponsorship prospectus</a>.</p> </section> <section id="looking-forward-to-2026"> <h2>Looking forward to 2026</h2> <p>Thanks for being part of this community. Looking forward to seeing what we all build together this year.</p> </section> </section>

Hey folks, Eric Holscher here, one of the co-founders of Write the Docs. I’m here with our traditional January community update while the newsletter team takes the month off.

2026-01-08T00:00:00+00:00