Discussion and support: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 02:45, 15 October 2018

The central platform for community governance at diaspora* is our Discourse. It is used for discussions on governance, process and technical topics.

Getting in

Simply sign up!

Using Discourse

We use Discourse to decide the directions for the project to take, in software development, in the structure of the organization running the project, in outreach, and in other matters.

Although Discourse can be useful for discussing features for the app, please don't use Discourse discussions as features wish-lists. In most cases, the reason that diaspora* doesn't have the features you want to see is because of a lack of developers to create them, or in some cases because other hurdles need to be overcome in the software before such a feature could be successfully implemented.

Before starting a discussion in Discourse, please check for existing discussions on the same topic. You can use the search facility in the header bar for this.

Categories

Our Discourse is divided into categories. This ensures that not everybody has to follow all the discussions, as many community members are only interested on some specific area. We also have non-diaspora* folk for example discussing federated social networks as concept.

All categories, except for Team Internal, are and should be public for transparency.

Announcements

This category will be used for important announcements by the diaspora* core team.

Communication and Outreach

A place for discussions regarding our communication with both contributors and users as well as outreach efforts.

Development

For discussions regarding our development tools, methods and principles.

Features and Ideas

Feature suggestions as well as discussions on how to implement specific details.

Federation

The right place for discussions about the federation protocol and its implementations.

Governance

For anything related to the project management, asset management and related.

Support

Do you need help or do you have a question about diaspora* you don't know where to ask? This is the right place for community-driven support. There are sections for podmin support and developer support.

Website, Documentation, and Discourse

The right category for discussions about our website, the diaspora* wiki and other places where we store information.

Team Internal

This category is only visible for both diaspora* core team members as well as very active, reputable contributors to discuss things a bit more privately, if needed.

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-== Loomio ==
+The central platform for community governance at diaspora* is our '''[https://discourse.diasporafoundation.org/ Discourse]'''. It is used for discussions on governance, process and technical topics.
-A central tool for our community governance is our group in the [http://www.loomio.org/groups/194 Loomio tool]. The tool is used for discussing on governance, process and technical issues, and it also functions as a voting tool.
+== Getting in ==
-=== Getting an invite ===
+Simply sign up!
-Loomio is a new tool that is currently in invite only status. It is important to note that we give out invites to any community member who wants one, so this is not a restriction enforced by us but the restriction of Loomio itself. You can gain an invitation to Loomio by asking someone, either using [[How We Communicate]] or contacting almost any of the [http://diaspora-project.org/supporters project members]. One option is to use Diaspora* itself by posting a public message with the tag #diaspora.
-=== Subgroups and Teams ===
+== Using Discourse ==
-Our Loomio group is further divided in to subgroups and teams. This ensures that not everybody has to follow all the discussion and voting topics, as many community members are only interested on some specific area. We also have non-Diaspora* folk for example discussing federated social networks as concept. Some subgroups serve as teams where the purpose of limiting membership to group is to keep decision making power to those who are members.
+We use Discourse to decide the directions for the project to take, in software development, in the structure of the organization running the project, in outreach, and in other matters.
-All groups are and should be public for transparency.
+Although Discourse can be useful for discussing features for the app, please don't use Discourse discussions as features wish-lists. In most cases, the reason that diaspora* doesn't have the features you want to see is because of a lack of developers to create them, or in some cases because other hurdles need to be overcome in the software before such a feature could be successfully implemented.
-===== Documentation Team =====
+Before starting a discussion in Discourse, please check for existing discussions on the same topic. You can use the search facility in the header bar for this.
-The Documentation Team is dedicated to keeping our wiki updated, and at the same time, keep communication between podmins going. By sharing information and advice, we can improve the docs.
-===== Feature Proposals =====
-This group is specifically for proposing features, or modifying existing ones.
-===== Developer Proposals =====
-This group is not for feature proposals, so much as it is intended for proposals to improve the underlying platform.
-===== Governance Proposals =====
-Proposals for workflow and governance go here.
-===== Federation Discussion =====
-Working group for those interested in improving federation.
-===== Social Media Group =====
-This is the decision hub for the new Social Media Team. We propose campaigns, forms of user engagement, and strategies to raise awareness about the things we value collectively as a project.
-===== Packaging Team =====
-Group to discuss and plan packaging efforts for Linux distributions and other targets like app hosting platforms like Heroku.
-===== GitHub repository governance =====
-Discussions and votes regarding the government of the GitHub organization. Note! Membership to this group is restricted, it should only contain members who are a member of the [https://github.com/diaspora?tab=members Diaspora* organization] in Github. This decision was made in proposal [http://www.loomio.org/discussions/950?proposal=659 #659]
-===== diasporaproject.org Team =====
-Working group for the relaunch of diasporaproject.org as a central starting point for the complete project and community overview.
-=== Voting ===
+=== Categories ===
-Everybody in the subgroup that the proposal takes place in has one vote. When you create a proposal please try to make sure it is in the correct subgroup. Senior community members can move the proposal to another subgroup if that subgroup is the correct place.
+Our Discourse is divided into categories. This ensures that not everybody has to follow all the discussions, as many community members are only interested on some specific area. We also have non-diaspora* folk for example discussing federated social networks as concept.
-When voting there are three options:
+All categories, except for ''Team Internal'', are and should be public for transparency.
-* Yes
-* No
-* Abstain
-* Block
-A proposal is passed if there are more Yes votes than No and Block votes together. Abstain does not count either way. Block does not block the proposal from passing, [http://www.loomio.org/discussions/716?proposal=540 it is simply a strong message] that more discussion might be needed. Maybe as a proposal maker if your proposal is getting many block votes it would be better to discuss a little more about the proposal.
+==== Announcements ====
+This category will be used for important announcements by the diaspora* core team.
-=== Proposals ===
+==== Communication and Outreach ====
+A place for discussions regarding our communication with both contributors and users as well as outreach efforts.
-Follow these guidelines;
+==== Development ====
+For discussions regarding our development tools, methods and principles.
-* Before creating a proposal it is a good idea to discuss it first by creating a discussion.
+==== Features and Ideas ====
-* Make the proposal absolutely clear on what is proposed. People cannot vote on vague proposals!
+Feature suggestions as well as discussions on how to implement specific details.
-* If the proposal includes technical details or long text, put it in the [http://wiki.diaspora-project.org/wiki/Category:Proposals Proposals] wiki page and link that page to the Loomio proposal.
-* Do not create proposals on things that cannot be done. We don't need proposals on features that everybody wants but that need developers to do the code. Making a proposal about a feature will not get it done any faster.
+==== Federation ====
-* Make sure you have a sufficiently long time for voting, one week is a good generic timeslot for normal proposals. Larger issues or critical feature decisions could have longer times.
+The right place for discussions about the federation protocol and its implementations.
+==== Governance ====
+For anything related to the project management, asset management and related.
+==== Support ====
+Do you need help or do you have a question about diaspora* you don't know where to ask? This is the right place for community-driven support. There are sections for podmin support and developer support.
+==== Website, Documentation, and Discourse ====
+The right category for discussions about our website, the diaspora* wiki and other places where we store information.
+==== Team Internal ====
+This category is only visible for both diaspora* core team members as well as very active, reputable contributors to discuss things a bit more privately, if needed.
 [[Category: Governance]]
 [[Category: Community]]