There are a list of things that I would look for in a community. This is not a definitive list of everything that makes up a good community but it will give some guidelines for what I think is important:
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+* Code of conduct: Good communities have guidelines for things that the community will accept, tolerate, and abhor. It should be visible to all members of the community, and each member of the community must be accountable to those guidelines. It must also be enforced. If you note situations where the code of conduct is selectively enforced against certain members you should be wary of staying within that community.
+* Moderators: There needs to be someone (or a group) in the community that can diffuse situations and meter out meaningful punishments when folks get out of hand. Moderators should be even-handed and consistent as possible with their decisions. They should also demonstrate that they too are following the same code of conduct by their actions in the community. A good moderator should be visible but not overbearing. You should feel welcomed by the presence of a moderator and feel free to engage the moderators if you have questions about the community.
+* Spaces for questions and guidelines for good questions: There should be a place for folks to ask questions related to the topic of the community. People should feel safe in asking on-topic questions, and the community needs to be clear on what it considers an on-topic or good question. Is the space OK for beginner questions? If not, could such a space be made? What sorts of questions would the community be happy to answer and what sorts of questions would upset the community? These need to be clearly defined so beginners can have a sense of what the community will welcome and what it will not tolerate.
+* Joy: Do the people in the community seem pleased to discuss things? What is the tone of the conversations? Are folks interacting in a positive way with each other or are they resorting to insults and name-calling? Are questions welcomed or are they discouraged or ignored? If there's no joy in being in the community then the likelihood of folks sticking with it will be lowered.
+* Compassion and empathy: Does the community allow for people to make mistakes? When something goes wrong does the community try to help as best it can? Does the community remember what it was like to be beginners and act with compassion or do they expect everyone to be more experienced before participating?
+* Kindness: This is the most important factor - does the community behave in a kind manner to others or do they split off into factions and try to cut each other down. Do they view new folks as friends or as outsiders that must prove themselves? This relates to compassion and empathy above, but we tend to see acts of kindness before we see compassion and empathy. Kindness manifests itself in community members being OK with folks not getting everything right away and acting with gentleness rather than taking a stern approach. They let folks know that they too had trouble with whatever is puzzling us and suggest that we work together to smooth things out for folks who might fall into this puzzle. They act in a way that does not put their ego first, and instead behave as though they have been given a gift that is best shared with others.
-* Code of conduct: Good communities have guidelines for things that the community will accept, tolerate, and abhor. It should be visible to all members of the community, and each member of the community must be accountable to those guidelines. It must also be enforced. If you note situations where the code of conduct is selectively enforced against certain members you should be wary of that community.
-* Moderators: There needs to be someone (or a group of people) in the community that can diffuse situations and meter out meaningful punishments when folks get out of hand. Moderators should be even-handed with their decisions. They should also be as consistent as possible with their decisions. They should demonstrate that they too are following a visible code of conduct by their actions in the community. A good moderator should be visible but not overbearing. You should feel free to engage the moderators if you have questions about the community and feel welcomed by their presence.
-* Spaces for questions and guidelines for good questions: There should be a place for folks to be safe in asking questions of the members of the community. People should feel safe in asking questions, and the community needs to be clear on what considers a good question. Is the space OK for beginner questions? If not, can such a space be made? What sorts of questions would the community be happy to answer and what sorts of questions would upset the community?
-* Joy: Do the people in the community seem pleased to discuss things? What's the tone of the conversations? Are folks being positive with each other or are they resorting to insults and name-calling? Are questions welcomed or are they discouraged or ignored?
-* Compassion and empathy: Does the community allow for people to make mistakes? When something goes wrong does the community try to help as best it can?
-* Kindness: This is the most important factor - does the community behave in a kind manner to others or do they split off into factions and try to cut each other down. Do they view new folks as friends or as outsiders that must prove themselves?
+We'll talk more about kindness in upcoming chapters.
-These are just a sample of what I find in good communities. Feel free to add to this list as your experience grows (and let me know so I can update this list).
+These are just a sample of what I find in good communities. Feel free to add to this list as your experience grows (and let me know so I can update this list for future readers).
projects / themediocreprogrammer.git / commitdiff