RFC 7: Community Team

[gdude2002]

This RFC describes the initial structure and purpose of the community management team.

Rendered view

[TheGlitch76]

How will people be added/removed from the community team (after the initial team is appointed)? I have a feeling the process will be different than the process for development teams, so that should probably be defined here.

[gdude2002]

That's a good question - I guess it would have to be relatively democratic, via some kind of application process? I was fairly happy with the process we came up with on the Fabric server honestly, but I wonder if that could be improved upon.

How much of that belongs in an RFC, though?

[TheGlitch76]

I'm unfamiliar with the old Fabric process, can you give a quick summary?

[gdude2002]

Basically, there was an Airtable form I put together with a bunch of questions in it:

• Basic info about the applicant
• Time restrictions, days they can't be around, etc
• Difficult moderation scenarios they're required to explain their approach for
• Why they're applying and how they think they can improve the team

That sort of thing. When we got an application, the (non-trainee) staff read it, chatted about it for a while, and decided together whether to bring the applicant on as a trainee.

I'm not sure whether we should also have a trainee process?

[mrmangohands]

Given the rate we seem likely to grow at, I think having a more formal on-boarding process for community members without as much prior moderation experience could be quite valuable. As for whether we need it in place from the get-go, I'd say it depends on how many people we think we'll have for the community team to start with, and also how hard of a line we want to draw between community and technical teams, as I expect the latter would be a major source of trainee candidates.

[gdude2002]

Given the rate we seem likely to grow at, I think having a more formal on-boarding process for community members without as much prior moderation experience could be quite valuable.

I was thinking about this on the road today, but it's worth noting that the process as written doesn't require prior experience - however, I would like to add an interview step to it to make it a bit more robust.

I'd say it depends on how many people we think we'll have for the community team to start with, and also how hard of a line we want to draw between community and technical teams, as I expect the latter would be a major source of trainee candidates.

A hard, hard line - at least for now. The community team should be fairly dedicated to its job, and it requires a mindset that many developers don't tend to have occupying their headspace most of the time. I think it's best to keep things split up for now.

[ToffeeMax]

Also - do we want to define the "HEAD" of the community team?

[gdude2002]

Also - do we want to define the "HEAD" of the community team?

I'm currently working on team roles - but no, there will be no single head of the community team.

[ToffeeMax]

I'm currently working on team roles - but no, there will be no single head of the community team.

Is your aim a more of a flat structure or multiple "heads of commu team?"

[gdude2002]

I'm aiming for a flat structure, with roles representing responsibilities rather than hierarchy.

[ToffeeMax]

I'm aiming for a flat structure, with roles representing responsibilities rather than hierarchy.

Okay! I can see the benefits of this system -- I pose the question of "What if there is disagreement between said roles" -- refer it to the administrative board (as defined in RFC 6)?

[gdude2002]

I think that's largely covered already, but it might be worth considering some more

[Forkk]

I have no problems with this as-is. It can be amended later if necessary, but I think we will only really know if that's necessary by actually trying it out.

Since the community seems impatient to have a Discord server, I think we should move forward with this without the final comment period, as long as everyone approves.

[Forkk]

As agreed, this will be merged with no final comment period so we can get Discord up and running quickly.

[parzivail]

Note that this document will need it's URLs that point to other RFCs updated as those RFCs are merged.