RFC: Make ZATech more welcoming

[sixhobbits]

We had a few people mention that ZATech could be more welcoming, especially to new members. We should see how we can make it more welcoming.

Ideas:

• Welcome message: Most slacks have an automated DM from an admin, saying welcome, directing people what to do as the first steps, and suggesting some channels to join. We have some of this as part of the email invite process, but people might be more likely to interact in Slack if they have an obvious place to do that
• Default channels: Currently people get added to #introductions, #announcements, and #announcements community by default. Slack recommends some channels to them, often including #random. Hypothesis -- many people don't join any channels and then fall off because the default ones aren't that interesting. Some people might join some too-quiet or too-noisy channels and get put off. We should rethink the list of default channels to add people to.

• COC violations, warnings and pre-warnings: Many people do the wrong thing on joining (advertise in introductions, use the wrong work flow for docs etc) and often they get a message from the community or admins to tell them that they Did The Thing Wrong. While we should continue to take a strict line against bots and spammers, we should consider some template messages that are more friendly to help genuinely lost users. There are also a lot of 'pre-emptive warnings' across the website, invite emails, and channel topics, which might need to be softened or reworded.

Anything else? Please put your ideas as replies to this, or give any input on the above ideas.

[mobiRic]

I'd start by suggesting we all try being more polite to newcomers. There's an air of mistrust that I've seen a lot over the years, and which I've discussed with some of the admins quite recently.

It irks me a lot when someone comes into a channel and immediately gets the gatekeeper response of "no don't post here, ppl don't want it", most especially when I, as a member of a channel, feel that the post is pretty perfect for me.

[sixhobbits]

@mobiRic - totally agree. Where do you think a good place to 'codify' that is? An update to the CoC, some general guidelines somewhere else, individual responses every time it happens?

[sixhobbits]

We could also do something like

• identify people who joined in the last 3 months, posted an intro, and then nothing else
• DM or email them to ask for input on what they expected, what there experience was, and if there was a mismatch

[JohnRoux]

Templated Messages

The "templated messages" being slightly more codified can help reduce the "cost/friction" for existing users to use nicer wording and be less agressive, whilst also saving some volunteer/admin/moderation time.

Slack has quite nice support for it's auto-response messages. It might be worth taking a page or two from the RLS's book on this one.

The main issue with those messages is they can often feel a bit more cold or non-human. I think that can be partially resolved with well curated templated messages

Default channels

ZATech has an incredible wide variety of channels as it's both an active community as well as a generic tech space.
As such, without getting individuallized user feedback, I feel like you're never going to really get to a good default channel set.
Something which Discord communities do well here, (and we might be able to implement) is having an onboarding flow which gets information from the user about what they want, and based on their wishes, it adds them to various channels.

We could potentially achieve this with a nice welcoming bot user.

Discord example:
Each selection adds 1-* channels to your "defaults"

[dylanbr]

DM or email them to ask for input on what they expected, what there experience was, and if there was a mismatch

It would probably be worth sending out a survey to all users (or all users active and/or signed up in the last year) too from time to time, to get feedback on how things are going. Maybe with a prize draw attached to incentivise people to fill it in.

[sixhobbits]

@dylanbr - we're working on a survey to do exactly that!

@JohnRoux what about a list of 'blessed' or 'recommended' channels. Kind of like what we had in the wiki, but I think even DMing new users with a 'we'd recommend joining some of these channels to match your interests' would be more helpful than the Slack auto-recommendations, especially if they were categorized like

• Language and framework channels: #python #javascript #golang #flutter #dot_net whatever
• Tech specialization channels: #devops #infosec ...
• Vendor channels #aws #gcp ...
• Location based channels: #capetown #joburg ..
• Non tech channels: #gardening #parenting #coffee
• Hobby channels #gaming-chess ...

[JohnRoux]

Yeah, I think that's a great first step.

We can definitely agree that the default Slack tooling here is far from ideal or sufficient.

Having a nice onboarding message like that would definitely help.
Currently that kindof just happens in #introductions if people are extra nice.

The topic of Channel Discoverability is one which might need its own sub plan down the line

[sixhobbits]

I've created #4 to figure out a list of channels to recommend to newbies

[mobiRic]

@sixhobbits I don't know about codifying it - iirc we already ask ppl to be lekka, and engage from the standpoint of positivity.

I guess I'm just going on the record as saying that we could all try harder, and point out where others have been perhaps less welcoming than perhaps warranted.

I do understand there's a flipside to it, like the recent "bot-or-not" debates in various channels, but I'm an optimist in many ways and don't think those are the majority.

[sixhobbits]

@mobiRic yes I agree that codifying too much is definitely a mistake, but because 'be lekka' means different things in different communities, I think some examples of what we like and what we don't can't harm?

[nikspyratos]

because 'be lekka' means different things in different communities, I think some examples of what we like and what we don't can't harm?

Trite as it might seem, I'd say avoiding constant negative commentary would be one of the things to mention under "be lekker".

There are some channels that I've left (I'm basically down to just #laravel and #php) because the same few people either argue among themselves or just spew constant doom and gloom. #money is a good example.

Rigid rules on "be lekker" won't work because negativity is subjective. Facebook and Twitter moved past this because moderating unclear content is a time sink. Deciding what’s negative vs. necessary critique is difficult? Enforcing a "what we like/don't like" list means endless disputes and micromanagement. Let users curate their own experience instead of policing tone. If people leave over tough discussions, maybe the issue isn’t negativity, but intolerance for different viewpoints. I'd prefer people don't leave but if you're going to pull everyone into admin discussions over unclear topics it's going to breed hostility. Maybe people are negative in large in money because the financial situation globally is dire, or for other reasons, simply hiding this is just censorship of discussion.

[nikspyratos]

ZATech isn't a large social media platform.

Good community behaviour requires curation. Do you want quantity of members, or quality?

Quality comes from open discussion, not from silencing perspectives that some find uncomfortable. Curation is one thing, but enforcing subjective good behavior can easily become gatekeeping. If "be lekker" means suppressing certain viewpoints, it stops being about community and starts being about control. People discussing struggles or frustrations in #money isn’t a failure of moderation but instead it’s a reflection of reality. Pretending everything is fine doesn’t improve the community. it just makes it less honest.