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#community-development
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2021-03-23
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pavlosmelissinos17:03:08

I was afk for the day and when I came back I couldn't even follow #beginners because there were 7-8 posts, each several screens long. I demand a refund! Jokes aside, do you think it would be within the interests of the community to make stronger suggestions regarding pasting blocks of code/text? Spam can be a nuisance but on the other hand community rules tend to drive newcomers away sometimes 🙂

andy.fingerhut17:03:40

I think it is common for individuals to repond (in a thread) to people sending such messages asking them to please post long messages within a reply thread, or send a link to code on Github or other public places.

andy.fingerhut17:03:58

Most people get the idea if an individual points it out to them.

metal 3
andy.fingerhut17:03:10

I've just replied in a thread to two recent "offenders"

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pavlosmelissinos17:03:36

You're right. I think I'll follow your example in the future, thanks 🙂

seancorfield17:03:00

@UEQPKG7HQ I agree it is frustrating when a few folks (nearly always beginners) post large slabs of text into a channel, instead of using pastebin or something similar and just providing a link. I think the “culprits” were asked to use code snippets in future.

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pez18:03:39

I love how you always have the sensible suggestions, @U0CMVHBL2. ❤️

andy.fingerhut18:03:19

I try 😉. From the perspective of a beginner, they are learning the ropes not just of Clojure, but sometimes also of Slack and this Slack community in particular. Polite requests for changes in how they share messages are usually followed. If they aren't, then maybe bringing in a Slack admin for more 'weight' is justified.

metal 6
andy.fingerhut18:03:41

Most people are only too happy to learn the polite interaction mechanisms that are customary in an on-line community, if you point it out to them.

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dharrigan20:03:32

It's quite common in irc channels to see things like Don't paste: use in the channel description. Do you think that might be an idea to add to slack channels?

dharrigan20:03:05

(not saying github is what could be used, simply that it's common to see services such as these in the channel topic)

dharrigan20:03:54

Maybe something like "If pasting over 5 lines, we suggest blah blah...". ?

andy.fingerhut20:03:37

I mean, we could. But the channel topic for #beginners already spans 3 lines in the Web UI, and I have to hover to see it all, and one of them is a gist link to resources helpful for beginners. How often do people read those? Not sure.

dharrigan20:03:03

Agreed. Yet, at least it's there and people will become familiar with them over time?

dharrigan20:03:48

Which reminds me, the topic in #clojure is way wrong 🙂

dharrigan20:03:55

It seems to be missing text 🙂

seancorfield20:03:19

And most people don’t read the topic or channel description anyway… 😞

dharrigan20:03:59

This is what I see:

seancorfield20:03:07

I just removed the two newlines. I think that helps.

seancorfield20:03:37

Mouseover it — the text is all there.

dharrigan20:03:45

with the two newlines removed

dharrigan20:03:03

I would never think to hover over the topic

dharrigan20:03:09

irc habits and all 🙂

seancorfield20:03:18

The problem is “anyone” can change channel topics and descriptions so we’re kind of at the mercy of anyone who clicks into them and messes them up.

dharrigan20:03:34

boo slack boo 🙂

seancorfield20:03:54

We should all move to Zulip amirite? 🙂

dharrigan20:03:38

no comment 🙂

jumar06:03:35

I really wish people used threads (and longer, cohesive messages instead of short one-liners) way more but for some reason (someone mentioned smartphones) it's not used as often. Sometimes people keep talking about the same thing in the main channel and if you are not interested in that you have to skim it all - instead of just reading the first message and ignoring the whole thing if it was done in a thread.

seancorfield06:03:36

We try to encourage using threads but there’s only so much you can do. And it’s easy to get caught up in a discussion in the main channel when things are quieter in the evenings…

jumar15:03:59

Yes, I know it’s hard- it’s quite difficult to do in a small company and more so in a large community