I'll now list and describe the channels. These descriptions are written off-the-cuff for the audience here, who I expect to be familiar with the community as it exists now and with that big previous discussion. I intend to write up something like this Member Handbook for a newcomer audience, with more clear and concise descriptions. The first three channels (alphabetically) are about the community itself. #admin — discussion about the administration of the community, meta-discussion about the Slack, requests for moderation, discussion of community finances and governance, etc. Formerly called #CEXED56UR. #announcements — super low-volume channel with messages that every community member should see, even if they only log-in infrequently. #introduce-yourself — the first post by every new community member should go here. Formerly called #CC2JRGVLK. The next channel is by itself. #linking-together — If you want to start a discussion about an article, talk, book, paper, or other work authored external to the community, this is the channel. We devote a channel to these "external" discussions so that it's easier to follow the "internal" discussions that happen in other channels. This does create a decision that some might struggle with ("Which channel does this go in? I understand all the guidelines, but this falls in a grey area and I'm not sure!"), but I don't believe that's a problem that is entirely solvable at the level of channel design. The previously linked Member Handbook should carry significant weight here. Another point about this channel is that I'm not entirely happy with the name, and would love something that _even better-_satisfies all the design goals and starts with the letter "R". Suggestions welcome. The following are what I've previously called "subject-specific channels". They're all named with a common scheme, so that they (A) sort together and (B) reinforce that we're here primarily to talk about the future of these subjects, not just to gossip about current goings-on. This common scheme should make it much less painful for us to add new subject-specific channels as the interest arises, or to rename existing ones, since these channels are all off over there in their own space. #of-end-user-programming #of-functional-programming #of-graphics #of-music #of-research All the following channels are one-offs, and aren't meant to form a group. #present-of-programming — Our community contains considerable expertise about programming as it's currently practiced. It would be valuable for us to have a space where we could share that expertise, without dragging the community away from its main focus on futurism, research, and experimental development. A channel focussed on the present also gives us a way to more clearly define what subjects or projects qualify as meaningfully "futuristic", without entirely excluding other subjects from being welcome in the community — the lack of such an outlet has made me very reluctant to broach this topic. One other point about this channel is that, again, I'm not entirely happy with the name, and suggestions that balance the design goals are welcome, though it can't start with the same letter as any existing channels, or any letter lower than "I". #share-your-work — This channel is for nurturing feedback, fostering collaboration, gathering input, links to external things by community members. It has overlap with other channels (like #linking-together, the subject-specific channels) but the key factor is that everything in this channel is by someone in this community, and they want you to approach it on terms they define. There's no harm in someone posting their own work to another channel. There's no harm in posting things that aren't totally futuristic in their scope. This is the channel that newcomers should enjoy browsing, as a way of seeing all the cool things made by people here in this community, and how helpful we are with our feedback. #thinking-together — This is the most important channel. It's the new #C5T9GPWFL, minus the links to external stuff covered by #linking-together. This channel is for questions, ideas, brainstorming, wild visions, summaries of research. Things in here must be forward looking (though this can include scouring history for things we can apply to the future). This is the channel for people actually building the future of computing. Links in posts are welcome (eg: supporting references), but the discussions should not be centred on some external media that needs to be read/watched/etc and then reflected on. #C0120A3L30R — Closing out the channel list, this channel is exactly what it is now. It's a fun collaborative experiment in sharing our work, with accessibility prized above depth. If you are happy with this plan, enough at least to try it out for a while, please leave a positive emoji reaction on this post. (I'll be interpreting the sentiment of the emojis, so feel free to hit me with your best contrarianism.) If you have significant concerns about this plan, please leave a comment in the replies to this post. Thank you all for weighing in with your thoughts and ideas so far! I hope these changes (and other upcoming initiatives, like some sort of Member Handbook) will fix a few issues we've had and, as the startups say, unlock deeper collaboration across the organization. <3

Or write situated software - aka future-of-slack for lack of a better name 😂

if people don't like #linking-together (I do, it's cute and matches #thinking-together) it could be #news-links or similar, to give it that Hacker News connection?

Not sure where humour/fun goes though 🙂

(jobs to stop them being posted anywhere else)

The future isn’t funny, Ope

The one I envision is 😎

All the location-specific channels will remain unchanged (#CD618THB6, #CG8QU2QUU, etc). There can be an unlimited number of those, and they probably don't need a special naming scheme since most people will be in a single one if any.

ivan i just wanted to take this moment to note that we’re extremely lucky to have you, and that i really appreciate what a clear communicator you are!

The subject channels remind me of Handmaid's Tale.

@Kartik Agaram My partner watched it.. but I haven't yet. (No spoilers!)

My reference is from the first episode or two.

I’m also unsure about “present of programming”. A support channel has a clear purpose, but more open-ended discussions on programming inevitably start with either what exists or what could exist, then draw contrasts between them.

Agreed — there is some muddiness to the purpose of that channel. I'll think about it some more and if I come up with something clearer, I'll fold that in to the plan. Once we've lived with the new setup for a while, we'll have a sense of the new problem areas and can think about making some more changes down the road. Nothing is static, everything is evolving.. (rest of the quote does not apply, heh)

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/481535-nothing-is-static-everything-is-evolving-everything-is-falling-apart ♥️

@Kartik Agaram The Slack is saying to us all: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/430361-nobody-can-teach-me-who-i-am-you-can-describe

Not the only apropos Achebe quote..

We ready to roll this out? Version 0.9?

Soon.