Mailing Lists

• Key mailing lists
• Moderation and Moderation Guidelines
  • Moderators MUST
  • Moderators SHOULD
• Mailing list best practices

Academy Software Foundation maintains several mailing lists for the foundation itself, its members, and the community. The Academy Software Foundation staff and community leadership manages these mailing lists.

Key mailing lists

The primary mailing list for all technical community discussions is the TAC Mailing List. Each hosted project and working group has its own mailing list as well, which are listed in the project listing in the TAC repo.

Moderation and Moderation Guidelines

By default, TSC voting members serve as the moderator for discussions on the TAC Mailing List, and each hosted project’s TSC will serve as moderators for its mailing lists. Moderation privileges can be extended to others upon a vote by the TAC or respective TSC as applicable.

Being a moderator is as much a privilege as it is a duty. As part of volunteering to become a moderator, you now represent the Academy Software Foundation community. It is your responsibility to remain aware of your contributions in this space. These responsibilities apply to all official Academy Software Foundation channels.

Moderators MUST

• Take action as specified by these Moderator Guidelines.
  • You are empowered to take immediate action when there is a violation. You do not need to wait for review or approval if an egregious violation has occurred. Make a judgment call based on our Code of Conduct and Values (see below).
  • Removing a bad actor or content from the medium is required, do NOT let it sit there.
• Abide by the documented tasks and actions required of moderators.
• Ensure that the Code of Conduct is in effect on all official Academy Software Foundation channels.
• Make yourself generally available during working hours in your time zone for moderation. This can be handled as a group so that there is enough coverage of people to allow for absences/travel.
• Take care of spam as soon as possible, which may mean taking action by removing a member from that resource.
• Foster a safe and productive environment by recognizing potential cultural differences between community members.
• Understand that you might be contacted by moderators, community managers, and other users via private email or a direct message.
• Keep up with software/platform changes on the property they are responsible for. This might include UI changes, features, or other software changes. Moderators are encouraged to meet regularly to train themselves on proficiency with the platform.
• Report violations to the email specified in the Code of Conduct.

Moderators SHOULD

• Exercise compassion and empathy when communicating and collaborating with other community members.
• Understand the difference between a user abusing the resource or having difficulty expressing comments and questions in English.
• Be an example and role model to others in the community. Moderators are some of the first people new contributors will interact with in many cases.
• Remember to check and recognize if you need to take a break when you become frustrated or in a heated debate.
• Help your colleagues if you recognize them in one of the stages of burnout.
• Be helpful and have fun!

Mailing list best practices

• Review your mailing list subscriptions regularly, and either change the delivery mechanism ( such as switching from individual emails to daily digests ) as it makes sense to keep the signal-to-noise level reasonable for you.
• Keep your comments and conversation on topic.
• Recognize that replies aren’t instantaneous with a global community and other obligations.
  • Refrain from cross-posting to get a larger audience for your post.
• Contact the list moderators if there are concerns about the Code of Conduct.