What kind of relationship should unofficial spaces (Reddit, Discord) have to the community and Foundation?

[tomodachi94]

Question

What kind of relationship should unofficial spaces (Reddit, Discord) have to the community? Should they be linked on the homepage? If so, should they be compelled to comply with the Foundation's code of conduct? Should we attempt to convert these communities into official spaces (if so, at what point)?

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[cafkafk]

TL;DR:

• The current subreddit needs to work on it's culture before we can responsibly endorse it
• We need to emphasize the technical concentration on matrix if we consider endorsing any Discord server
• Ideally, we create a community section for spaces we find compatible with our values, while not forcing them to be official NixOS spaces.

I think we've seen the Foundation and by extend the "official" community shift too much to a view of the "NixOS Community" being just NixOS/nixpkgs, NixOS/nix, the matrix channels, discourse, and zulip. I think it's a shame when we have veteran contributors calling lix "off topic" or seeing "aux" as a competitor.

The foundation should prioritize official projects, first and foremost, but it should also act as a force fostering a vibrant ecosystem --- of not only official projects --- but also unofficial community ones. There is a certain elitism from people like me who participate mostly on matrix and through more closed channels of direct messages that "those redditors" aren't as real community members as us, and I think that smells a bit of elitism.

I think reddit has a huge culture problem, and I don't think we should direct people there until that is solved on their side. But I also don't think we should force them to follow our rules just to get mentioned. What matters is they're compatible with our values, and create a space that isn't toxic and harmful for its users.

Regarding discord, it's again easy for me to argue against it on the basis of it being a proprietary platform. In no way should the official project ever add a proprietary product and make it load-bearing unless there is exceptional circumstances demanding it. At the same time, we should meet users where they're comfortable, and try to accommodate their wants and needs. The recent discourse thread about opening a new discord server received a bit too much vitriol in my opinion, users should be allowed to organize how they see fit, without us throwing too many stones at them.

The actual reason I'd not want to link discord on the home page is because I fear it would drive users away from the official matrix channels, where there is a lot of highly competent community members willing to help. I think the need for discord in the community comes from a need for a social space, and perhaps if we made that divide clear on the homepage, that matrix had a more technical slant, then it would be more reasonable. In this case, I also think we shouldn't demand they adopt our policies, but we should ensure that their spaces are compatible with our values. And we should remove them from the homepage in the future if they fail to be compatible with our goals for the wider nix community.

We also need to consider whether to just endorse a single subreddit/discord, or if we should just provide multiple options. A solution is to maintain a list of unofficial community spaces that are compatible, but not necessarily official, and put all of those together on a section on the homepage.