Gitter

Wiki ▸ Gitter

Gitter is a Web-based chat room service provider that integrates tightly with GitHub. We use Gitter as a public-facing chat room for general chatter, casual socializing, and welcoming newcomers.

• Gitter room: https://gitter.im/betterangels/better-angels

Welcome message

Our Gitter chat room is configured to show the following "Welcome message" to users who join. (It looks something like this.) Not all chatters can change the welcome message. If you can't, and you'd like to propose a change to it, you're welcome to edit the text below:

This is a general purpose chat room for the Better Angels, your friendly neighborhood direct action software development anarcho-anticapitalist tech collective. (Learn more about Direct Action Software Development by watching this short video.)

Come on in and introduce yourself! Stick around even if you don't get a response immediately; sometimes we're just not at our keyboards.

We take anti-racism, feminism, queer liberation, and anti-capitalism very seriously. Contributors who don't share our exact politics are welcome. Debating the merits of these positions or acting to undermine them is not. There are plenty of other places on the Internet where you can go to debate politics or immerse yourself in viewpoints that differ from these.

Finally, while you're here, we expect you'll do your best to abide by these three additional social rules, which are designed to facilitate a collaborative environment for our work:

1. Be supportive; no feigning surprise. This just means that you shouldn't act surprised when someone else doesn't know something, whether it be technical or non-technical. ("What? You don't know what a pull request is?!" Or "I can't believe you've never heard of Beyoncés Lemonade!!!eleventy!") Everyone has gaps in our knowledge. Is it really so surprising? Use this as an opportunity to support one another develop our skills and expand our horizons instead of tearing one another down by exaggerating other people's ignorance.
2. Be proportional; no well-actually's. A well-actually happens when someone says something that's almost but not entirely correct, and you say, "well, actually…" and then give a minor correction. The keyword here is "minor." It's okay to join a conversation mid-way through to offer your own view or correct a fundamental misunderstanding—we're here to learn and grow, after all—but these sorts of interjections are especially annoying when the correction has no real bearing on the conversation. A well-actually is always about grandstanding, not knowledge-seeking.
3. Be engaged; no back-seat driving. This just means that if you're going to engage in a conversation, commit to actually having it. Don't just lob advice into the chat and then disappear. If you have to go away-from-keyboard for a while, say so. Better yet, wait until you have enough time to spend helping someone else work through their issue. In other words, fully engage, rather than butting in sporadically.

(The social rules above were adapted from the Recurse Center User Manual. Thanks, RC!)