Slack and Mailing Lists

Topicbox

The Carpentries uses Topicbox to manage email lists.

There are many ways in which you can join our conversations:

• The Discuss email list, which community members are welcome to join and post to.

• Our other email lists are a combination of regional and topic-specific lists.

• Our Slack community , which community members are welcome to join. Click on “Channels” in the left panel to view all existing channels.

Below are descriptions of selected channels found on TopicBox (as discussed in this blog post):

• Instructor Trainers - A list/group for topics related to the community of Trainers that prepare new instructors in teaching Data, Software and Library Carpentries lessons.

• Discuss - A list/group for general discussion of Carpentry teaching practices and community activities and concerns.

• Discussion Hosts - The community of instructors that hosts community discussion sessions.

• Instructors - An admininistrator approved list/group where opportunities for badged instructors to teach are announced.

• Maintainers - A list/group for topics related to the maintenance of Carpentry lessons.

local-* - A set of city / region-specific lists/groups discussing The Carpentries in our local and regional communities

Region-specific lists/groups

• Australia and New Zealand

• Africa

• Germany

• Latino America

• Nordic

• United Kingdom

City-specific lists/groups

• Bay Area

• Colorado

• Davis, California

• Heidelberg

• Seattle

• Southwestern United States

• Southeastern United States

• Vancouver, Canada

• Washington, DC

Slack Quick Start Guide

About the Guide

Note: these instructions are created for the desktop version of Slack. There are also browser and mobile apps that may have minor differences.

Welcome to The Carpentries Slack group – a place for members to ask questions, share resources, opportunities and more.

If you’re new to Slack or simply overwhelmed by the prospect of yet another Slack group, here are some quick pointers to help you to configure and use the tool in a way that works best for you. They are in 3 key areas:

• Configuring your account

• Notification settings

• Communicating with others

For more detailed information on getting started with or using Slack, including accessibility features and change of contact information, please visit their website.

Any questions? Email: community@carpentries.org

1. Configuring Your Account

A. PROFILE When you set up your profile there are three things to bear in mind:

• Your username – please use a name by which others will be able to identify you. Your email address will not be visible to others.

• Your avatar – please add a profile picture or other identifier that you’re comfortable with so that others can associate your posts with you more easily.

• Your time zone – this determines when Slack will notify you and can also help others know whether it’s a reasonable time of day to get in touch.

B. STATUS UPDATES Status updates can be a useful way to let others know your availability. For example, if you’re away at a conference, you may want to let others know that you’ll be slower to respond or entirely absent from the group.

Remember that your status will be visible to everyone in the Slack workspace.

To update your status, click your avatar in the top right of the screen and your status will display below your name. Select the edit button “(“displays as a pencil”)” next to your status to select a new status. You can select when you want your status update to be removed by stipulating a timeframe from the “remove status after” dropdown menus.

You can clear a status update at any time by clicking on your avatar and selecting “clear status” from the dropdown.

2. Adjusting the Volume-Notification Settings

A. HOW TO FIND AND JOIN CHANNELS By default, you are automatically added to the #general channel which is the shared community of practice that everyone belongs to. You’re also added to #welcome – and encouraged to introduce yourself there.

There are additional channels that you may be interested in. To find them:

• Click the “v” icon to the right of the word “Channels.” Select “Manage” to reveal “browse channels.”

• Want to join in? Simply highlight the channel you wish to join and click “Join..” The channel will now be listed in your left hand side bar.

• Click a channel name in the sidebar to load the channel in the center pane.

B. CONFIGURING YOUR NOTIFICATIONS Slack has lots of options for you to determine how and when you are informed about content – and at what level of granularity.

• For the overall group

  • Click on your avatar at the top right of the pane and select “preferences” from the dropdown

  • In the Notifications section you have options which include:

  • Set times when you do not want to be disturbed by notifications

  • Enable desktop notifications

  • Choose to be alerted when certain keywords are mentioned

• Channel by channel

  • When you’re in a channel, click the channel name in the center pane. Choose “Get Notifications for @ Mentions.”

  • Here you have options to get notified for all messages or to mute the channel entirely.

• Following a specific thread

  • If another group member posts something of particular interest you can choose to follow that thread.

  • Click the ellipsis (three dots) to the right of the original post and select “get notified about new replies” from the dropdown.

• Getting a reminder about a specific thread

  • You additionally have the option to be reminded about a thread at a more convenient time. From the ellipsis to the right of the original post select “remind me about this” from the dropdown and choose a timeframe.

C. MUTING OR LEAVING CHANNELS

• If a channel has become too noisy, you can additionally:

  • Mute it: When you’re in a channel, click the channel name in the center panel. Choose “Get Notifications for @ Mentions” and select “Mute channel.”

  • Leave it: When you’re in a channel, click the channel name in the center panel. Scroll down and click “Leave channel.”

Communicating with others

A. A FEW POINTS OF ETIQUETTE

• Use threads to continue conversations

  • When someone posts a brand new item in a channel, anyone in the channel can reply directly to it, creating a thread. Threads allow separate conversations to take place in the group without confusion - and for members to choose which of those conversations to follow more closely.

  • To add a comment to a thread, click the speech bubble icon to the right of an existing post.

• Respect the context of this shared space

  • While this group is open for anyone interested in The Carpentries, we want it to be somewhere where learning can happen in a supportive, safe environment.

  • Please DO NOT take conversations out of context and copy/paste them elsewhere without the permission of all the individuals who posted.

• Not all communications will be synchronous

  • While IM-based conversations can feel very immediate, please don’t feel that you have to respond to messages immediately, nor expect others to respond immediately. We’re all busy! Use your status to inform the community of your availability.

B. SENDING PRIVATE MESSAGES It can be helpful to others when you’re sharing resources and brainstorming solutions to “work out loud” in a specific thread because then your learning becomes a future resource for others, too.

However, sometimes you want to start a private conversation. To do this, go to the direct messages section on the bottom left of the left-hand side bar. Click the + icon to start a new message. You can add more than one recipient to create a group message.

Acknowledgments

The content of this guide was based upon the Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement “Slack quick start guide” by Lou Woodley and Katie Pratt, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.

The original guide is cited as: Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement. (2020) Slack quick start guide. Woodley and Pratt doi: 10.5281/zenodo.3763730