To all:
As a community grows, it becomes even more important to document the nature of the community and expectations between its members. This gives the community a greater sense of identity, direction, and purpose, and helps new members understand what the community is all about and what they can expect from it when considering joining.
In the Liferay community, I believe we want a productive, happy and agile community that can welcome new ideas, improve every process every year, and foster collaboration between groups with very different cultures, backgrounds, needs, interests and skills. I believe with this we remain a strong and vibrant community. Further, I believe that in writing and codifying this ethos, everyone can fully understand and appreciate what it is we do, and how we do it, and it can be used as a reference for current and future members.
Our community leadership team has created two documents to document our collective statement of community, and I would like to ask you to read and review and let us know what you think! These documents will eventually be sprinkled appropriately through the community at relevant touchpoints (e.g. when authoring a new post, and also on its own page to reference in the future).
The first document is the Liferay Community Ethos, and is a high-level description of the nature of the community and how it operates. It is not a rulebook, but rather a statement of what we collectively believe about our community, why and how we participate, and the values we believe in with respect to participation and contribution. There is a shortened version at the top of the document
The second document is the Liferay Community Content Policies and Guidelines which govern the contributions of our community, mostly applying to our online forums, blogs, wikis, and other content created within our community. Most of it I believe is standard stuff (e.g. be courteous, don't spam, etc) but also covers some ambiguities from past experiences like the posting of job offers, or commercial misrepresentation. There is also a shortened version at the top of the document It will also replace the existing FAQ in the near future.
Why are we doing this? Other than automated spammers, we don't have a big problem with community members operating outside of the expectations these documents convey, but it's important for any community (especially those that are growing) to document expectations so everyone (old and new) knows what is expected.
As I said above, the vast majority of our community members already align with the spirit and the policies within these documents, so there's really nothing to do. It merely gives us a tool to reference in the future and say "this is who we are", "this is what you can expect", and "this is how you can contribute to the community". There have been disagreements in the past and violations in the past (yes, even by Liferay, Inc.), so I want our community to know exactly what is expected of them, and what they can and should expect of others.
Please give them a read and let us know what you think! It's not a legally binding contract and will simply be assumed that we collectively operate with these principles, abide by the policies, and use the guidelines when applicable when participating and contributing in the community.
Finally, I also believe that this description of ourselves can and will change over time, because communities themselves change over time due to many different factors. Again, please give them a read and let me know what you think. They are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license and are a remix of two documents from the Ubuntu community, which I believe is a very strong and effective community, much like what we strive for in our own community.
As a community grows, it becomes even more important to document the nature of the community and expectations between its members. This gives the community a greater sense of identity, direction, and purpose, and helps new members understand what the community is all about and what they can expect from it when considering joining.
In the Liferay community, I believe we want a productive, happy and agile community that can welcome new ideas, improve every process every year, and foster collaboration between groups with very different cultures, backgrounds, needs, interests and skills. I believe with this we remain a strong and vibrant community. Further, I believe that in writing and codifying this ethos, everyone can fully understand and appreciate what it is we do, and how we do it, and it can be used as a reference for current and future members.
Our community leadership team has created two documents to document our collective statement of community, and I would like to ask you to read and review and let us know what you think! These documents will eventually be sprinkled appropriately through the community at relevant touchpoints (e.g. when authoring a new post, and also on its own page to reference in the future).
The first document is the Liferay Community Ethos, and is a high-level description of the nature of the community and how it operates. It is not a rulebook, but rather a statement of what we collectively believe about our community, why and how we participate, and the values we believe in with respect to participation and contribution. There is a shortened version at the top of the document
The second document is the Liferay Community Content Policies and Guidelines which govern the contributions of our community, mostly applying to our online forums, blogs, wikis, and other content created within our community. Most of it I believe is standard stuff (e.g. be courteous, don't spam, etc) but also covers some ambiguities from past experiences like the posting of job offers, or commercial misrepresentation. There is also a shortened version at the top of the document
It will also replace the existing FAQ in the near future.Why are we doing this? Other than automated spammers, we don't have a big problem with community members operating outside of the expectations these documents convey, but it's important for any community (especially those that are growing) to document expectations so everyone (old and new) knows what is expected.
As I said above, the vast majority of our community members already align with the spirit and the policies within these documents, so there's really nothing to do. It merely gives us a tool to reference in the future and say "this is who we are", "this is what you can expect", and "this is how you can contribute to the community". There have been disagreements in the past and violations in the past (yes, even by Liferay, Inc.), so I want our community to know exactly what is expected of them, and what they can and should expect of others.
Please give them a read and let us know what you think! It's not a legally binding contract and will simply be assumed that we collectively operate with these principles, abide by the policies, and use the guidelines when applicable when participating and contributing in the community.
Finally, I also believe that this description of ourselves can and will change over time, because communities themselves change over time due to many different factors. Again, please give them a read and let me know what you think. They are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license and are a remix of two documents from the Ubuntu community, which I believe is a very strong and effective community, much like what we strive for in our own community.