welcoming

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Welcoming is how we as a community welcome new members to our community.

Most often people join via chat (it's prominently suggested here).

before events

People often find the community through one of our Homebrew Website Club or IndieWebCamp events.

Before such events, it may be helpful to message those who are going, encouraging them to join the chat/Slack, introduce themselves, and suggest filling out the event wiki page with more info about themselves, their projects, etc. (See also: IndieWebCamps/Attending

indieweb-visitor

When someone joins the main #indieweb discussion channel as "indieweb-visitor" it means they likely followed the web client link on the IRC wiki page to join via Libera. They might need some help engaging in the channel. Start with:

  • Welcome indieweb-visitor! Go ahead and use the /nick command to change your name. e.g. /nick yournamehere

And then when they've done so, e.g. identified themselves as "Maheen", see the next section:

new person

When a new person, say, "Maheen", joins #indieweb, here are some things you can say and ask to make them feel welcome and help get them on board and taking steps towards being on the indieweb.

  • Welcome Maheen!
  • Do you have a website already?
  • What's the next thing you want to do with or add to your personal site?
    • The point of this question is start getting the new person thinking in terms of:
      • what their personal website needs & wants are (previously: scratch their own itch)
      • eat what you cook
      • wikifying - adding such personal site needs & wants to their "User:" page on the wiki

offtopic discussions

Off-topic discussions tend to be a distraction from providing a space to talk about actual IndieWeb topics, and thus should be encouraged to be moved to the informal indieweb-chat channel.

hypothetical discussions

Hypothetical discussions tend to drive out more useful, practical, actionable conversation (and people!) in the channel, thus we must proactively respond and redirect such discussions to more productive ends. This section has been developed in response to actual experiences!

If a new person, joins #indieweb and starts discussing some random (usually technical) subject X that may only be tangentially related to the indieweb, it can be unproductive for everyone, both existing active community members, and especially new or quiet folks looking to learn immediately practical things about the indieweb.

Your goal as an experienced #indieweb participant and overall positive community contributor is to redirect enthusiasm from any/all hypothetical/rambling discussions of subject X to:

  • Practical indieweb-specific discussions of subject X
  • wikify indieweb-relevant aspects of subject X, assuming they support X on their personal site.
  • Blog on their own site about subject X, instead of discussing in #indieweb chat.
  • Refocus them on understanding/documenting their personal site needs & wants on their User: page
  • Help them to document said personal site needs & wants

When a new person starts a hypothetical discussion about some subject X, assume that they mean well (unless shown otherwise), and they may be approaching the conversation from a high level of domain-specific expertise.

Use the following to redirect to practical discussions, with one or more prompts/questions as needed.

Respectfully ask these questions, addressed to them personally ("Shuri, ...") until they either connect the theoretical to something practical (e.g. eat what you cook) or document hypotheticals elsewhere (rather than our discussion channels). You may need ask them personally to make it clear you are asking for a response. E.g.

  • Shuri, do you support X on your personal site? (since they brought up subject X, this is a reasonable question)
    • if so: Could you wikify X on indieweb.org, and add yourself in an "IndieWeb Examples" section?
    • if not: Could you point to documentation elsewhere about X so we can read up on it?
      • if they do provide a URL to actual documentation, then thank them, and create a small stub page linking to it.
      • if they do not point to documentation: Shuri, before discussing it here in #indieweb chat, could you write up a blog post on your own site first? (with the implication that they should provide a link to that when they're done). See below for some exceptions to this.
    • if they do not point to a document nor seem amenable to blogging about it, then you must redirect the conversation to their personal site needs & wants instead of subject X:
      • Shuri, what’s the next most important thing you want to improve or fix on your personal site?
      • and then ask them to document their personal site needs & wants on their User: page per wikifying.
      • once they have added one or more personal wants to their Use: page, perhaps most importantly, help them (if you can) with the first thing on their list.
      • enabling them to build something for themselves that they care about is incredibly powerful and compelling, and they will hopefully find much more sustainably motivating/interesting than carrying on a hypothetical discussion about subject X.

Exceptions:

There are some hypothetical exceptions that useful for #indieweb discussions:

  • If the discussion is admitted brainstorming that is *on topic* for the indieweb, either the first time on a subject or an existing wiki page, help move it along and encourage incremental wikifying of the brainstorm, even if only encouraging capturing it on a User: page as a personal site need or want.

See Also

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