This plan will go live on December 1, 2021
Since its founding back in 2019, this forum has been a small, private community of some of Resonate’s membership – with a few non-member guests.
The forum is the main way for members to meet others, get involved, and influence the co-op’s direction. However, something has been missing: a way for potential members to get to know us and get involved.
While these folks aren’t part of the co-op yet, they are still a key part of our community.
Being welcome
Let’s say you are an artist who just discovered Resonate. You want to upload your music and become a member. If the forum is open to non-members, then this means that you can join the community right away. Not sure how to upload music? Head to Help desk and ask. Maybe someone asked the same question in the past. Want to get to know some folks in person first? Come by the Community Call.
Right now, potential members who are exploring Resonate have to go through our inbox or social media to get answers and make connections.
Well, this has downsides:
- new artists are outsiders until they’ve uploaded music, with little to do in the meantime but wait in silence
- folks who want to contribute work to help build Resonate can’t investigate what work is going on and can’t take initiative
- Resonate’s communications workers answer familiar user questions over and over, creating a lot of repeat work
As a result, connections at Resonate have tended to get scaffolded around the most involved players – those who have had the time, luck, and resources to figure out how things work and what’s going on.
We can democratize this knowledge. Spread it out. All throughout the co-op should be able to help others and take this agency for themselves.
Opening the doors
The Handbook area of the forum will soon be going public – a wonderful step forward which will make it significantly easier for everyone (here and beyond) to learn about Resonate and how stuff works. A new project by the Board – the Handbook Committee – will be writing these guides and materials.
However, for both transparency and practicality, I believe we should take a step further, making most of the forum public.
The proposal
- make most of the forum public and readable by passersby – a common setup; example: Blender Artists
- when joining the forum as a new user, you won’t be able to post in all categories right away – you’ll be limited to the Help desk and perhaps another category or two. After exploring a while, you will unlock the ability to post in more areas (pretty standard to how Discourse is designed)
- however, members can post everwhere right away – even if they have just become members
- categories pertaining to formal voting processes and general meetings will be viewable only by Resonate members
- there will continue to be some worker-oriented private categories used for coordination; users who want to contribute work regularly can request access
Eventually, our new ID server will remove the distinction between creating a forum account and creating a user account on Resonate.
In the wind
As we’ve been building Resonate, much of this work has been private. It’s tender material that can feel fragile. To open up the forum means that past conversations among compatriots will be exposed to the wild winds of the world wide web. This can feel scary – I myself am a bit nervous at the thought.
Nevertheless, within the strength of those same winds is pure potential – a resource and a gift – new friends that can fill the sails and lift us far beyond where we are. I for one am ready to see where we can go with those winds at our back. Please share your thoughts on this vision and where you see the good and the bad at this fork in the road.
Current List
#lab
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@everyone
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@everyone
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#handbook
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@everyone
See, Reply -
@staff
See, Reply, Create
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- Parent (#music itself)
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@everyone
: See, Reply, Create
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- Artist categories (e.g. #music:kallie-marie)
- supporter group: See, Reply, Create
- Parent (#platform itself):
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@everyone
: See, Reply, Create
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- Working groups (e.g. #platform:player):
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@everyone
: See, Reply, Create
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- Private working groups (e.g. #platform:community-credentials)
- working group: See, Reply, Create
#members:
- Parent (#co-operation itself)
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@members
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@everyone
: See
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- Working groups (e.g. #community, #communications (previously story))
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@members
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@everyone
: See
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- Member meetings (e.g. #co-operation:member-meeting)
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@members
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@everyone
: See
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- Private Working groups (#story)
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@Story
: See, Reply, Create
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#boardroom: @board
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#forum-staff: @staff
: See, Reply, Create
#lounge: TL3 >=
: See, Reply, Create