Ways to make the yt community more welcoming
Hi all, Sarah Sharp, formerly the maintainer of the linux USB stack, recently stepped down from linux kernel development due to the toxic nature of that community. While we're miles ahead of the tenor on the linux kernel mailing list, there are always ways we can improve the community. Just today Sarah published this post on her blog, which has lots of concrete suggestions for making communities more welcoming. http://sarah.thesharps.us/2015/10/06/what-makes-a-good-community/ Are there things on these lists that the yt community could be doing that we aren't right now? There are lots of project ideas here, some much bigger than others, so I'm just throwing it out here in the hopes that will pique the interest of a few of you to implement some of these suggestions. -Nathan
Hi Nathan, Thank you for sending this out. I've looked it over, and I think we might have bits and pieces of the higher levels, but it seems to me that we're reliably somewhere between level 0 and 1. We are missing a few level 1 items, like how to contribute non-code things, up to date step-by-step tutorials, and feature cut-off dates, but I think we have the others. And we're doing a bit better on some level 2 contributions, like self-contained projects, but not so much on things like newbie todo lists, or available mentors. (We have mentors, but I think we might not be quite at the level that is meant in level 2.) But I do think we're doign a good job of thanking people, providing informal communications, and the code of conduct. When we get down to level 3 or 4, we start to get a bit more patchy -- I like to think we have a good track record of admitting mistakes, but we could definitely do better encouraging diverse voices and increasing plans for succession. We don't have a community manager. Level 5 contains things I want to see us do much better about -- providing child care, 30%+ new voices, and participation in community diversity programs especially. This is a really, really great blog post. I'd like to see us start trying to take action on some of these things. What do you think our strategy could be? -Matt On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 8:42 AM, Nathan Goldbaum <nathan12343@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Sarah Sharp, formerly the maintainer of the linux USB stack, recently stepped down from linux kernel development due to the toxic nature of that community.
While we're miles ahead of the tenor on the linux kernel mailing list, there are always ways we can improve the community.
Just today Sarah published this post on her blog, which has lots of concrete suggestions for making communities more welcoming.
http://sarah.thesharps.us/2015/10/06/what-makes-a-good-community/
Are there things on these lists that the yt community could be doing that we aren't right now? There are lots of project ideas here, some much bigger than others, so I'm just throwing it out here in the hopes that will pique the interest of a few of you to implement some of these suggestions.
-Nathan
_______________________________________________ yt-dev mailing list yt-dev@lists.spacepope.org http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
Also, I want to highlight this bit from the end, which it seems we're guilty of: "The thing that frustrates me the most is when communities skip steps. “Hey, we have a code of conduct and child care, but known harassers are allowed at our conferences!” “We want to participate in a diversity program, but we don’t have any mentors and we have no idea what the contributor would work on long term!” So, get your basic cultural changes done first, please." On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 2:26 PM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Nathan,
Thank you for sending this out. I've looked it over, and I think we might have bits and pieces of the higher levels, but it seems to me that we're reliably somewhere between level 0 and 1. We are missing a few level 1 items, like how to contribute non-code things, up to date step-by-step tutorials, and feature cut-off dates, but I think we have the others. And we're doing a bit better on some level 2 contributions, like self-contained projects, but not so much on things like newbie todo lists, or available mentors. (We have mentors, but I think we might not be quite at the level that is meant in level 2.) But I do think we're doign a good job of thanking people, providing informal communications, and the code of conduct. When we get down to level 3 or 4, we start to get a bit more patchy -- I like to think we have a good track record of admitting mistakes, but we could definitely do better encouraging diverse voices and increasing plans for succession. We don't have a community manager. Level 5 contains things I want to see us do much better about -- providing child care, 30%+ new voices, and participation in community diversity programs especially.
This is a really, really great blog post. I'd like to see us start trying to take action on some of these things. What do you think our strategy could be?
-Matt
On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 8:42 AM, Nathan Goldbaum <nathan12343@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Sarah Sharp, formerly the maintainer of the linux USB stack, recently stepped down from linux kernel development due to the toxic nature of that community.
While we're miles ahead of the tenor on the linux kernel mailing list, there are always ways we can improve the community.
Just today Sarah published this post on her blog, which has lots of concrete suggestions for making communities more welcoming.
http://sarah.thesharps.us/2015/10/06/what-makes-a-good-community/
Are there things on these lists that the yt community could be doing that we aren't right now? There are lots of project ideas here, some much bigger than others, so I'm just throwing it out here in the hopes that will pique the interest of a few of you to implement some of these suggestions.
-Nathan
_______________________________________________ yt-dev mailing list yt-dev@lists.spacepope.org http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
Sorry to *once again* reply to my own email -- to be clear about this, I was referring to the notion of "skipping steps" in the blog post as something we're guilty of, as I noted we have patchy coverage of the different levels. On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 2:29 PM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk@gmail.com> wrote:
Also, I want to highlight this bit from the end, which it seems we're guilty of:
"The thing that frustrates me the most is when communities skip steps. “Hey, we have a code of conduct and child care, but known harassers are allowed at our conferences!” “We want to participate in a diversity program, but we don’t have any mentors and we have no idea what the contributor would work on long term!” So, get your basic cultural changes done first, please."
On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 2:26 PM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Nathan,
Thank you for sending this out. I've looked it over, and I think we might have bits and pieces of the higher levels, but it seems to me that we're reliably somewhere between level 0 and 1. We are missing a few level 1 items, like how to contribute non-code things, up to date step-by-step tutorials, and feature cut-off dates, but I think we have the others. And we're doing a bit better on some level 2 contributions, like self-contained projects, but not so much on things like newbie todo lists, or available mentors. (We have mentors, but I think we might not be quite at the level that is meant in level 2.) But I do think we're doign a good job of thanking people, providing informal communications, and the code of conduct. When we get down to level 3 or 4, we start to get a bit more patchy -- I like to think we have a good track record of admitting mistakes, but we could definitely do better encouraging diverse voices and increasing plans for succession. We don't have a community manager. Level 5 contains things I want to see us do much better about -- providing child care, 30%+ new voices, and participation in community diversity programs especially.
This is a really, really great blog post. I'd like to see us start trying to take action on some of these things. What do you think our strategy could be?
-Matt
On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 8:42 AM, Nathan Goldbaum <nathan12343@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Sarah Sharp, formerly the maintainer of the linux USB stack, recently stepped down from linux kernel development due to the toxic nature of that community.
While we're miles ahead of the tenor on the linux kernel mailing list, there are always ways we can improve the community.
Just today Sarah published this post on her blog, which has lots of concrete suggestions for making communities more welcoming.
http://sarah.thesharps.us/2015/10/06/what-makes-a-good-community/
Are there things on these lists that the yt community could be doing that we aren't right now? There are lots of project ideas here, some much bigger than others, so I'm just throwing it out here in the hopes that will pique the interest of a few of you to implement some of these suggestions.
-Nathan
_______________________________________________ yt-dev mailing list yt-dev@lists.spacepope.org http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
Hi Nathan, This was a very interesting read. I'm very glad you sent it out. I agree with Matt's responses that we seem to be doing a decent job on a number of those levels, but also with some large holes. I guess I don't have much else to add other than to push this back into inboxes and keep people thinking about it. I hope there will be an opportunity to discuss this more at the next team meeting or whenever yt people happen to get together next. Britton On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 10:33 PM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk@gmail.com> wrote:
Sorry to *once again* reply to my own email -- to be clear about this, I was referring to the notion of "skipping steps" in the blog post as something we're guilty of, as I noted we have patchy coverage of the different levels.
Also, I want to highlight this bit from the end, which it seems we're guilty of:
"The thing that frustrates me the most is when communities skip steps. “Hey, we have a code of conduct and child care, but known harassers are allowed at our conferences!” “We want to participate in a diversity program, but we don’t have any mentors and we have no idea what the contributor would work on long term!” So, get your basic cultural changes done first, please."
On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 2:26 PM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Nathan,
Thank you for sending this out. I've looked it over, and I think we might have bits and pieces of the higher levels, but it seems to me that we're reliably somewhere between level 0 and 1. We are missing a few level 1 items, like how to contribute non-code things, up to date step-by-step tutorials, and feature cut-off dates, but I think we have the others. And we're doing a bit better on some level 2 contributions, like self-contained projects, but not so much on things like newbie todo lists, or available mentors. (We have mentors, but I think we might not be quite at the level that is meant in level 2.) But I do think we're doign a good job of thanking people, providing informal communications, and the code of conduct. When we get down to level 3 or 4, we start to get a bit more patchy -- I like to think we have a good track record of admitting mistakes, but we could definitely do better encouraging diverse voices and increasing plans for succession. We don't have a community manager. Level 5 contains things I want to see us do much better about -- providing child care, 30%+ new voices, and participation in community diversity programs especially.
This is a really, really great blog post. I'd like to see us start trying to take action on some of these things. What do you think our strategy could be?
-Matt
On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 8:42 AM, Nathan Goldbaum <nathan12343@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Sarah Sharp, formerly the maintainer of the linux USB stack, recently stepped down from linux kernel development due to the toxic nature of
community.
While we're miles ahead of the tenor on the linux kernel mailing list,
are always ways we can improve the community.
Just today Sarah published this post on her blog, which has lots of concrete suggestions for making communities more welcoming.
http://sarah.thesharps.us/2015/10/06/what-makes-a-good-community/
Are there things on these lists that the yt community could be doing
aren't right now? There are lots of project ideas here, some much bigger than others, so I'm just throwing it out here in the hopes that will
On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 2:29 PM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk@gmail.com> wrote: that there that we pique
the interest of a few of you to implement some of these suggestions.
-Nathan
_______________________________________________ yt-dev mailing list yt-dev@lists.spacepope.org http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
yt-dev mailing list yt-dev@lists.spacepope.org http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
participants (3)
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Britton Smith
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Matthew Turk
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Nathan Goldbaum