OpenGeofiction
OGF Slack channel
Posted by doktorpixel14 on 19 February 2019 in English. Last updated on 20 February 2019.Hello everyone,
We have a new (unofficial) channel on the OSM-US Slack for OGF. To join you have to register at https://slack.openstreetmap.us and join the #opengeofiction channel. The Slack is called OSM-US but people from everywhere are welcome, so feel free to join!
Discussion
Comment from Toadwart on 19 February 2019 at 13:12
What’s it for?
Comment from doktorpixel14 on 19 February 2019 at 13:19
Chatting
Comment from eklas on 19 February 2019 at 13:21
Comment from Toadwart on 19 February 2019 at 13:46
oh dear…
Comment from Sarepava on 19 February 2019 at 14:29
Admins are clear that we will not be endorsing or making ‘official’ any external social media sites. If you really wish to know the reasons why we can spell them out, but this policy isn’t going to change.
Comment from mvexel on 19 February 2019 at 16:26
FYI I created that channel, mainly because I thought I might get some information from more experienced OGF mappers. And I like to have a chat channel to share information and learn from others. I don’t think it needs to be official for it to work. I am not particularly fond of Slack, but the OSM community Slack channel works very well, and there’s an obvious overlap, so it seemed an obvious place to start. I would love it if more people joined. Thanks for posting it doktorpixel14!
Comment from stjur on 19 February 2019 at 16:39
If you need a place to start, check https://wiki.opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/Portal:User_Help_and_Resources#Mapmaking_in_OGF, written by more experienced OGF mappers for newer users willing to learn and improve. We’ve had multiple attempts to create official chatrooms for OGF and they’ve all failed miserably, so we’re not going to have it again.
Comment from mvexel on 19 February 2019 at 18:08
stjur: yes, that is a great page and I have benefited a lot from it already! I’m not looking for official endorsement of the slack channel, I didn’t even know that was possible. I’m just happy to have a place to talk to people directly and happy for anyone to join!
Comment from Luziyca on 19 February 2019 at 18:46
I feel 99% sure that this chat violates this policy that the admins have instituted.
But yeah, we have had many many issues concerning chat rooms that it is not really worth reopening that.
Comment from mvexel on 19 February 2019 at 19:15
Okay, thanks Luziyca! Obviously I was unaware of any such policy. Anyway – if there’s one thing I learned from the OSM community is that most things are perfectly fine (better?) left unregulated, including chat channels. OSM has countless facebook, telegram, discord, mattermost, irc, slack channels and that seems to work just fine.
Comment from UmgangsCool on 19 February 2019 at 19:22
slacking
Comment from louis_walker on 20 February 2019 at 02:11
Is that policy even remotely enforceable? I appreciate the work the admin team does, but policing off-site behavior is pretty intense.
Comment from zhenkang on 20 February 2019 at 07:18
Talk this out with admins
Comment from Luciano on 20 February 2019 at 18:19
It’s really not a matter of “policing” off-site behavior. At least that’s not at all how I see it.
People are free to say whatever they want, off-site. Even create sites dedicated to trashing OGF, its admins, etc. That’s fair, and all about freedom of expression, etc., which I fully support.
However, here’s the problem as it’s arisen in the past: someone had a discord channel that looked “official” - i.e. it bore the “opengeofiction” brand, if that makes sense. That discord channel was then used to coordinate high-visibility vandalism attacks on openstreetmap. Not pretty - and it makes it LOOK LIKE OGF is hosting vandals.
So here’s how I see our “ban” on outside groups. It’s not about what people can say or can’t say. It’s about how the “opengeofiction” brand is used. Don’t call your slack group #opengeofiction - it looks “official”, which isn’t fair to the admin team, since we can’t control its content. Likewise with discord or any other platform. Come up with a different name - call it “OGF-dissidents” if you want to criticize the admin team - that would be great. I might even want to join. Or use “ogf-users-unofficial” - that would be transparent.
Does this make sense at all?
Comment from mvexel on 20 February 2019 at 19:56
I added a note about the channel being ‘unofficial’ to the Slack channel. Happy chatting!
Comment from louis_walker on 20 February 2019 at 20:12
LOL @ OGF-dissidents
And yes, @Luciano, that makes a lot more sense (at least to me). The admin team should absolutely have the final word on how the OGF brand is used.