Pin 'Calls for Feedback' as read-only forum topic

[woutermont]

In the light of the commotion aroung @jeff-zucker's comment on solid/process/pull/323, I took the liberty of creating a 'Calls for Feedback' topic on the forum, intended to be a central place of reference to new major work items, in order to reach a wider part of the community.

My question here is whether the admins could pin this topic to the top and, if possible, make it read-only except for editors and chairs.

[jeff-zucker]

I believe this is an appropriate topic for the Solid Team and will put it on the agenda. I think generally this is a good idea and am glad to see this outreach. When I see the title my first impression is that it is for general feedback on Solid and only if I look at the subheading or the description do I find it is about the specifications, not Solid in general. Especially if this is pinned to the top, unless the CG adopts community engagement as a mission, it will give the wrong impression about what kind of feedback it is caling for. Perhaps a mention of the specs in the title?

On the tech side (since I am currently the most active moderator of the forum), I know I can make it read only but not sure I can make it writable by a selection. You may have to submit new posts to the moderators and I or one of the other moderators would add it to the topic. I'll investigate the possibilities.

[VirginiaBalseiro]

The topic is labeled as being in the Specification category:

[woutermont]

Perfect! Thank for the quick follow-up, @jeff-zucker.

If it is indeed not possible to let a specific group of people post to it, could you add to my topic opener which people we can contact to add calls?

An alternative solution would be that we leave it unlocked, and should someone reply in the topic anyways politely remove/hide their post, refering to the topic's purpose.

[jeff-zucker]

The changing list of moderators and admins of the forum (who would have the ability to edit locked topics) is always available at https://forum.solidproject.org/about. If you prefer to leave the discussion open and edit replies, just let me know and I'll remove the lock.

[jeff-zucker]

I pinned the Call inside the Specifications topic. Is that sufficient to meet your needs?

[woutermont]

Well, I think this a perfect example of the distinct functions of communication between the CG and the Team: the CG can only provide the data to be communicated (e.g. the charter PR); whether a forum topic for this communication reaches a sufficiently wide audience in de Specification subcategory is entirely up to the Team.

I do think leaving it unlocked would be easier though.

[jeff-zucker]

Sure, if you want it unlocked, I'll unlock it.

Good point on the communication between the Team and the CG. Reaching a wider audience is not just a matter of where things are placed in the forum but whom they are addressed to. Yours is addressed to people who understand terms like "CG" and "WG" which leaves most forum members scratching their heads. If we have a recognized function for community engagement (whether it live in the Project or the CG), it could serve as a resource to help use inclusive messaging. People who are engaged in things tend to make assumptions about what is understood, acronyms being only the tip of the iceberg. My "commotion" about having the community engagement function within the CG was my way of attempting to get more coordination between the efforts so that things like your Call were more accessible to others than those already involved. Your reaching out to the forum was a great first step, but there is more to be done.

[jeff-zucker]

See, for example the discussion following this comment on the forum. Reorienting the discussion to be more inclusive in language literally brought someone into the discussion who had previously not been able to penetrate it. We need this kind of attention to those not already in the know at all levels of Solid.

[woutermont]

I understand the need for accessibility, and I agree we can in general pay more attention to it. Since that is not a spec-specific issue, however, it is i.m.o. up to the team to raise more awareness for it. (In this case: thanks for doing so; I'll edit my post.)

[jeff-zucker]

Here's a suggestion about a way to rephrase your introductory section :

Rather than responding to these calls here in the forum, you are invited to participate in the specifications writing process by

• asking questions or making comments in the specifications chatroom
• attending the weekly meeting of the Community Group and/or Working Group
• reading/contributing to the github discussions mentioned in each call

[jeff-zucker]

The Team didn't have time to get to this agenda item so I preemptively pinned it globally which means that all users will see it at the top of the list of posts. It will remain pinned globally until August 1. BTW, great job on making the call more welcoming/inclusive.

[jeff-zucker]

@woutermont - it looks like I can pin a topic but not a post within the topic so maybe you want to temporarily edit the topic title to be Call for feedback on the Community Group Charter and the text to be aimed at users of the forum rather than the editors. Just a suggestion, it looks a bit funny to me pinned as-is.

[jeff-zucker]

I especially do not like "PLEASE DO NOT REACT" in caps as the first thing a reader sees when entering the entire forum.

[woutermont]

Oh, right, I'll see what I can do about the caps.

Re the title: the intention was to have a single pinned topic where people can immediately see if there are any new calls for feedback, and I believe the title makes that clear. Did you interpret it differently?

[jeff-zucker]

I mean specifically the title as it appears on the globally pinned topic. The reason for globally pinning it is so that people can see and respond to the calls. You're not asking readers to respond to a generic call, you're asking them to respond about the charter. In the future another call would supersede it and you'd change the title on the globally pinned description so it always describes the thing you want feedback on. We can also pin your more general description of the topic inside the topic. That way the description that appears in the table of contents is always specific to what you are asking but as soon as someone clicks on it, they see your general message about how to respond, etc.

[woutermont]

Hm, I see what you mean, but I'm still unsure whether that's a good idea. We always want people to give feedback on any of the current topics. If in one week, editors add three new calls for feedback, for example, what should the title be? People will always see immediately when something new is posted in the thread (because of the unread counter), and if they want to check out what it is, they can simply click on the topic. Would that not suffice?

Also, we're past the editing time limit for the opening post. If you can remove that limit, or edit the post as moderator, I would suggest inserting a thematic break before the caps, so the pinned topic only shows the first line as intro.

[jeff-zucker]

You can worry about all that in the future. We may decide to have some different kind of pinned disambiguation page that points users to the key feedback areas of several kinds. For now you want feedback on the charter and my opinion is that you should ask for it in a way that people can understand what they are being invited to do. But up to you. If you want to edit and can't edit directly, just send to me (on the forum itself please - @jeffz).