| object
| -
Let’s get personal: What does it mean to me to be a top
contributor in a community to a community manager in SUMO ( Mozilla
Support Community)?:
What better way to define a community culture by the community
members that make up the community? That would be the realistic
approach right? Well after speaking to the staff that maintains and
dictates goals to the community I run and am involved in, I have
learned what we hope the community culture to be like is often
ideal like a weight loss program. Without measurable goals, often
times, ideologies are just dreams. Milestones and achievements
happen over time from day to day contributions in the community.
Then new community goals realistically come from the reflection on
personal goals for community members and what community discussions
that recently took place. So this is why it is really important for
a community manager to no be an enforcer, but an enabler.
What is an enabler? An enabler in a community is someone who
creates relationships with people then invites them to a community
where their goals can be actually attained, measured and linked to.
An enabler is also a combination of a mentor, a discipliner at
times, and a leader, even if your community in the past have been a
bunch of cats
So let me take this writing assignment and take an attempt at
resolving the ideals with the attainable actions as a support
community manager that I can integrate into the relationships we
have as a community.
## Ideal 1: Quality Control and Customer Soft
Skills
Reality: Yuk, I am spending my free time to help out people that
use the same free software I do, what is quality, when you can have
my perfect personality?
I agree with this statement, when I am at home and on my
computer, I don’t mind answering a message from friend on chat, but
if it is from a user, after work, that message is going on mute.
Now if it is something that you like doing, then that is a
completely different mindset. What I have heard from many of you is
“I like helping people”, “I like solving problems”, and ‘I like
getting thanked and seeing people happy’
These are the right mindsets that quality and soft skills
follow. Now you can want to help someone and not have any soft
skills, that is ok, if you are open to learning, that is a top
contributor in training in my mind.
Action I recommend: When the words quality and soft skills are
thrown around in a support forum training, replace those words with
this what you do when….specific user behavior here….
For example:
Quality control guideline: Please greet the user and rephrase
their issue in a statement of your first sentence so they think
that you are listening and understand their problem.
Now replace that with: Let the user know you are human and are
there to help.
Much better? Same meaning and same goal, just one is what you
would see in an enterprise environment and the other is simple.
Soft skills do not mean that you have to be charming. Not
everyone on the internet is charming. But it does mean that you
have interacted with a human before. The only way to improve on
this is to practice. If you are not very good at this, go on IRC.
Start conversations with people. You can do it at the check out
counter at the grocery store, you can do it at the bus stop, you
can do it in the break room, or even after class with a teacher.
Send an email if you need to gather your thoughts, talk to the
wall, a mirror, even yourself depending on your comfort level. Once
you become more comfortable at talking to strangers the next step
is to learn how to do it and keeping the interaction pleasant and
easy. (hense ‘soft’)
I can teach you to fish, but I cannot control if you decide to
fish when you are hungry. And I can teach you where the fish are,
but I cannot tell you what kind of fish you like to eat. And I can
teach you by example, but cannot kill the fish for you. So go
search for a video on fishing, and go fishing. (metaphor)
## Ideal 2: Tone of Voice ~ What is
empathy?
This is a challenge on the internet, you never really know what
someone means by the order of words that they have typed into a
prompt and hit enter. You can see if there are lots of spaces they
used a translator, or if there are strange words in the wrong place
it is either a Speech to Text software or a mobile device with Auto
Correct. These things you pick up as you make the same mistakes
while interacting with other humans on tech devices.
Other challenges with multicultural communities like this one
include: sarcasm, insults, and deliberate personal comments. “Hey
nice shirt,” could turn into “Hey your shirt is something I noticed
and I want to make you feel weird” - not everyone wants personal
attention. What I learned from being on the phone with users as
well as in past emails, they just want to solve their problem. If
they start to get upset, sure, throw in a calming tone. You want to
be between helpful grocery clerk, and the automated phone message
tone when you call the bank or the pharmacy to reset a password or
refill a prescription. (can everyone relate to that?) Or maybe you
like sharing compliments because that is how you start a
conversation, with a simple compliment. Assuming good intentions is
a very vulnerable approach, but generally if you are nice, others
tend to be nice. There are a lot of grey areas, and a top
contributor is someone that has practiced this alot.
Action to practice: I would recommend when contributing to read
your post more than once. Do not hit enter right away, it is not a
race. Ask for help. A top contributor is humble in tone and
presence.
Empathy is practiced and is not natural. To compromise, you need
empathy in order work together and see the other person’s side to
find ways to meet one another half way. With text, video, IRC
chats, your tone is the first step to helping a user easily reach a
solution.
## Ideal 3: Everybody is polite and says thank you ~
What is “human” -ing?
Realistically: No. Not everyone is polite all the time,
especially when they are hungry, tired or they are volunteering
after a long day at work and they could be watching their favorite
show or being paid more for the time they are spent helping out
users of free software with their own opinions and feelings. I do
not say that out of insensitivity, but you may have caught my tone
at the end of a long day of answering tweets.
Action I recommend: Take breaks. Conversations can be draining,
especially when you are teaching a user a new feature or you both
do not agree on how you understand the product should work. And be
you when you write.
Mindset: Make a game out of it, where the goal of the game is
that everybody wins if they walk away happy. Or think of it as you
can offer what you know as the expert, and maybe learn something if
you have an open conversation about reaching a solution or
conclusion to the conversation.
A top contributor is not a robot, but does have a few sentences
here or there they repeat too many times. They learn to cherry pick
the conversations they can be human in.
## Ideal 4: The companies goals are the communities
goals ~ Why am I here? Really?
Reality: Sometimes, sort of.
Ideally the company wants to create a product that is perfect
and gets all of the users on the internet to believe that their
browser is is the one you want to use. Not really. The compromise
that I have seen between the business side of the browser and the
community is that, it actually is a product I can get behind. They
care about my privacy and they care about my security on the
internet and its free. So I want to be a jerk to the hacker that
found the security hole and stole my password, but if they did not
find it then I would have never known that it was stolen. Resetting
it is annoying, but it is important to me personally.
So when the company says “We are doing great financially this
year and we really want to grow out user base and diversify our
products in the market” what does that look like at a dinner table?
Or even between friends on an instant chat?
It looks more like this:
249l1kn2f36UGNDfNnk3GwiXXmXUIj3OHyizqdpHtIzU0_15H7j7LRu1gWCvFs45_7f1S9MDCqKt6kC3aAsZK5ffm0yWJfkzOXYuGuJWmX-fmJ_ZaFeIBTlBGeOfM-nltrx5i7Uh.png1275×704
249 KB
This is where I would measure Thank yous!
Ideal 5: Professional ~ What is diplomacy
Reality: What is that on the internet? LinkedIn
speech? Talking to a game boss? Begging for a free iphone on a
survey taking site (story for another time) this is not my strong
suite, I have always been a shut up and do what they say to not
lose your job kind of worker. With the imposter syndrome training
and participating in Tech Women and having other mentors, I have
learned otherwise.
Diplomacy is the word to use here, not
professional. Professionalism applied, in my opinion of what a top
contributor, is seen in the diplomacy between two or many people. I
can dress professional, but unless my actions, tones, and words are
expressed in a similar way I try to dress, I am not being tactful
or diplomatic.
A top contributor is someone who minimized the number of
arguments or hostile conversations that they get into.
Conclusion: This is my proposition and message to your computer
screen on what I think a top contributor is, I hope to learn what
you think a top contributor is in your community. I will still be
taking notes
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
