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-random 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.

technical or silo rants

If someone is ranting about technologies or silos in one of the IndieWeb chat channels, beyond normal constructive criticism, there are a few ways you can help redirect that energy towards positive actions, or at least discourage unproductive chatter. Try the following steps in order until the person has stopped ranting (i.e. no need to do the whole list) and switched to more positive contributions.

Show curiosity about the source of the rant or problems to better understand them. Sometimes acknowledging concerns and asking questions about something someone is frustrated with helps to both show empathy in the problem and to narrow it down to specifics which are more solvable.
Encourage them to blog and describe the specific problem, and their ideas for how to solve it, or document any workarounds, or alternative techniques. Acknowledge the thought they have put into the problems. E.g.
Maybe write a short blog post about it? Backward compatibility sounds like a good technique to emphasize and it sounds like you've put some thought into this particular feature / set of interactions.
Would make a good indieweb gift for today: how to use the title attribute properly in 2024 and progressively enhance with popover.
Ask if there is something the channel can help them with, and set a channel boundary If they refuse to engage productively, or blog about the problem, it may be time to ask them directly if there is something in particular that the channel can help them with, and express that expressing general anger at something on the internet is not a good use of IndieWeb channels. E.g.
Beyond the rant, is there something dev can assist you with? I'm not sure "I'm angry and I disagree with a thing on the internet" is a great use of this helpful space.
If they play victim or claim a personal attack, be polite but firm that that’s not the case. If the person plays the victim / claims personal attack, make it clear that's absolutely false, then expand more clearly on the purpose of the channel(s) and how other behaviors should go elsewhere. E.g.
Sorry, but I am *certain* that's not what I said or indicated. We share this space, to try to help each other accomplish things and learn. When we lose sight of that, or a particular problem, it is easy to get mired in anger at all wrong with the world or all the things we disagree with. That would be some other space.

Overall goals here are:

Help redirect someone to a more positive path, in words and actions
Redirect persistent rants to other spaces