Guidelines for Discussion on Telegram and Forum

Organisation
1

Draft Guidelines for Group discussions

TLDR: Be nice

Descriptive guidelines

  1. Be nice
    While there will always be disagreements on various things and things can get heated, don’t go out of your way to be rude to someone.

  2. Ask precisely for help
    Since there’s a lot of people on in any discussion and not everyone knows what you want, if you’re ever asking for help, stop asking to ask for help. Just ask the question.

  3. Not too much fluff
    Hi Everybody (and nothing else), random quotes, completely left field stuff (not related to policy, tech, or related politics) is not allowed.

  4. No horrible content design
    For the love of god, do not use
    a. too many colors in one post.
    b. 20 different fonts.
    c. 30 different font sizes
    or generally attention grabbing stuff. If your content is good, it’ll be upped anyway, otherwise let it die.

  5. Harassing / Doxxing
    Don’t do any of the above. Refer to rule 1 as to why not to do so. Also, you’ll probably get banned.

  6. Don’t do illegal stuff
    This is self-explanatory. For the most part, if you are planning on doing something illegal, don’t do it in a discussion or in public. (Examples : Threatening someone, etc → As cases arise).

  7. No NSFW stuff (And NSFW usernames / pictures)
    Come on people, don’t put nudes in your profile/posts/username for god’s sake. Chill.

  8. Chatbombing
    Wait for 2-3 days before posting a duplicate or following up. If there’s a time crunch or anything similar, drop a DM to an admin to find out.

  9. No self promotion
    Please don’t.

  10. No cross-posting in multiple topics
    Don’t cross-post same content on multiple topics on Telgram group or forum.

  11. No Job Posting
    Use the job board if you are looking to hire or get hired.

Applicable for admins (and anyone, really).

Note: These guidelines will keep being improved as we learn more about the horrors of humanity online.

Credit : @KaranGandhi, @Aditya_Sujith_Gudime, @wisharya
Reference : Odin Project Community Rules

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2

To 3, I would add “no out-of-context one liner chit chat” to avoid annoying message pollution to thousands of users.

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3

Adding to Kailash’s point; no “one-word questions” should also be added to point 2 - some people tend to ask “is anyone familiar with X? I need some help”. This should not be encouraged, it makes discussions more lazier.

Some nice (and commonly shared) guides on asking questions:

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  1. Self promotion is hard to define. Is that why it is undefined? I would think that FOSS related self promotion is encouraged.
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5

Posted an updated draft with Vishal Arya, must be updated soon.

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+1. Sharing personal projects with others is core to FOSS. That’s also “self promotion” in a way. Don’t think this line should be in the guidelines.

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