Items discussed at yesterday’s Support Team meetup.
Volunteer wrangling
I missed the meetup but what was discussed was how to encourage people to volunteer for support.
The difference between support and other teams is that we’re a responsive team. All other teams have goals like “Make translating easier” or “review more things”. The support team is the team that responds to forum topics or helps via IRC.
Saying “make more members of the team” is vague. If you replied to a topic in the forums, helped in IRC or provide support at a WordCamp or meeting then you’re in. You’re part of the support team even if you are not aware of it.
Encouragement is the thing. If you see someone helping over time then let them know. Invite them to the #forums Slack channel. Let’s get to know them and show them we’re welcoming them to the team.
This is where the terminology became fun. What defines team membership for support?
Forum moderators are a part of the support team, being a moderator is not a requirement to be a member. What is needed is to create more of a sense of community between people who help with support, whether they’re a moderator or not. That role or responsibility started to discuss a person or role to have that responsibility.
A volunteer wrangler is tentatively defined as someone who
- Spots people in the forums or IRC who should be invited to Slack
- Recommends people get badges
- Encourages people for their good replies in the forums or IRC
- Recommends people for… becoming a forum moderator?
This lead to a discussion about process and @bethannon1 and @kenshino offered to bounce ideas together for a process for a volunteer wrangler. The idea of encouraging more people into support will continue at the next week meetup.
Check out the transcript, it was a good conversation.
Read the meetup transcript in the Slack archives. (A Slack account is required)