# 2023-03-23 Support Squad Meeting

## Support Squad as a role
- How should the role be assigned?
- self-assigned?
- "granted" by someone who notices?
- IDEA: keep a table of members with their skills / interests
- some kind of list would let people know who to ping for which topics
- if we see this on paper, we'll know where our gaps are and can try to actively recruit for certain expertise/skills/interest

## Threads in #support-squad channel
- We should have them! :smile:
- Multiple people who SHOULD have permission to enable them have not been successful
- Fred has been pinged to figure out why, and to enable them
- Otterlord has posted a list of threads to be created once we're able:
- Rethinking Tags
- Support Squad Role
- Docs Search Bot
- Stack Overflow Webhooks
- NOTE: you CAN join/unjoin/mute/set notifications on a per-thread basis, so you do not have to be involved in each one.

## What is the purpose/responsibility of Support MOD role?
- Things they could/should (?) be doing to help keep forums clean:
- rename, retag so that thread meta data better represents contents
- delete empty posts (made in error, deleted etc.)
- archive / closing
- identify when a convo has changed from the original topic, and move things to a new thread for correct classification of the new problem?
- QUESTION: how strictly should we be doing these things?
- Is it unfriendly/unhelpful for people to find threads closed on them?
- Would better guidance in the "before your first post" message in support help set people's expectations? (Your post might be renamed, retagged)

## Support Squad Written Resources
- Which resources are helpful?
- Any "instructions" or "good to knows" re: using the support threads/Discord
- Reminders that prioritizing completely unanswered questions is always helpful, even if you don't know the answer yourself, and here are some ways you can do that...
- "Stock phrases" you can use in different "tricky" situations
- Guidance on when/how to "leave" a conversation when you need to!
- Who/how to ping for more assistance (technical, "moderation", personalities)
- Something public-facing for QUESTION ASKERS to help them craft good questions, make reproductions... or something like this that support squad can use while giving support to help people rephrase their problems in a way that makes it easier to give support
- Where can these resources live?
- We currently have [SUPPORTSQUAD.md](https://github.com/withastro/docs/blob/main/SUPPORTSQUAD.md) in the Docs repo
- Pinned message in #support-squad channel with links to helpful things?

## Rethinking tags
- We have a limited number of tags. Do we have the right ones? Should we reevaluate?
- Tags should help SUPPORT SQUAD more than users, if necessary

## Support Rewards/Recognition
- Recognizing Support Squad and other community members is on Astro's official quarterly plan!
- We may be asking for suggestions... or just surprising you! ;)

## Discord Docs Bot demo

- mandar1jn demo'd a Discord bot that searches the docs for relevant pages right in a Discord message :tada:
- We discussed using this *only* in the private, #support-squad channel to start, as a test before unleashing on the public
- Dan has initiated conversation with Fred to get the bot the proper permissions

## Keeping up the Vibes :raised_hands:
- Reminder (and acknowlegement!) that you are ALL volunteers!
- You must self-manage when things get stressful or unpleasant, and feel free to step away -- there is always someone else around!
- Tip that you can leave a conversation at any time with a simple, "I have to step away now, but I hope someone will be along shortly to help!" You don't have to give an explanation.
- It maybe stressful and exhausting to hear the same questions repeated, or deal with difficult (even unintentionally so!) peeps
- It is better to walk away then be snarky!
- If you can't bring yourself to give a cheery redirect, then say nothing!
- e.g. :x: "This isn't the place to ask this question"
- :sunglasses: "I'm not sure you'll get a helpful answer about that here, since this is mostly focused on just Astro support. But, you can try posting in off-topic and see if anyone can help you there!"
- e.g. :x: "Why would you want to do that?" or "That's a terrible idea."
- :sunglasses: "Here's how you would do that. *(Or, I can absolutely tell you how you could do that. But, ALWAYS ACKNOWLEDGE WHAT THEY ASKED FOR. They know their situation better than you do, and there might be a very specific need/reason that their terrible idea is the only thing that will work... and they might already know it's terrible!)* But, I'm curious, what are you trying to accomplish? Because there might be better ways to get the outcome you're looking for. I've had problems doing X in the past/I worry that doing that might cause you some unintended problems. Is doing that a *requirement* or do you want to explore some other ways of accomplishing your goal?"
- Dan shared a link to our [Community Code of Conduct](https://github.com/withastro/.github/blob/main/COMMUNITY_GUIDE.md) to assist you when others are not contributing to our "good vibes only" mandate! Don't hesitate to point others there to remind them about how we expect people to conduct themselves in our Discord community!