XOXO Slack
Originally created in 2015 to help attendees meet before the festival, the XOXO Slack has been fundamental in turning XOXO from an annual festival into a year-round community.
For many members, it’s a place to hang out and talk year-round, and in festival years, it becomes a buzzing hive of activity that’s essential for making the most of XOXO. The majority of our XOXO Social lineup is planned here, as well as countless unofficial gatherings and meetups.
But with hundreds of channels and nearly ten years of activity, it can feel a bit overwhelming to navigate. Here are some important tips for getting started using our Slack.
Request An Invite
You can request an invite to the XOXO Slack by signing into my.xoxofest.com. Click “Overview” in the left navigation, then scroll to “XOXO Slack” and click Request Invite.
Getting Started
Introducing Yourself
Introduce yourself in the #intro channel! We know that imposter syndrome is common around XOXO, but everyone is here because they make something. We’d love for you to share a little about who you are, and what you’re into.
Your Slack Profile
Please fill out your profile, including uploading an avatar and sharing your pronouns. It's difficult to keep track of the Slack’s 3,000+ members, and profiles help participants remember who you are. You can link to your #intro introduction from your bio, too.
Getting Help from Members
For general questions about the festival, #festival-help is a friendly place to ask about all things XOXO. #slack-help is great for questions related specifically to the Slack, like asking where to post something, or suggesting a new channel.
Getting Help from Moderators
Our volunteer Slack moderators can be identified by the red diamond emoji “♦️” by their names. You can use the “/mods <your message>” command to send a private message to our moderators, or @mention “@moderators” in a channel or thread to bring a discussion to the moderation team’s attention.
Etiquette
Always Thread
You’ll notice that almost all conversation in the XOXO Slack is in a thread. With a Slack as large as ours, threads make it possible for many simultaneous conversations to happen in a channel at once. Always reply in a thread. If you’re starting a new conversation, post your first message in the channel and the rest as replies in a thread.
Content Warnings
We use content warnings when discussing topics or events that might elicit a strong or potentially triggering response. A content warning allows members to prepare themselves when facing difficult material, or make the decision to avoid it entirely.
To share a post with a content warning, post the content warning (e.g. “CW: suicide, alcoholism, article about Anthony Bourdain”) alone, then reply to that post with your message to start a thread.
A brief summary without triggering information is very helpful so that others can determine if it's new information or related to something they've already heard about.
Privacy
The XOXO Slack is a private community. Please respect member privacy by not taking screenshots or sharing messages outside the Slack. Likewise, conversations held in private channels should remain private to those channels, and not shared outside elsewhere in the Slack.
Sharing Links
When sharing a link, such as a social media post or news article, include some context for what prompted you to share it. Don’t post a link if you’re not planning on providing your own thoughts or starting a discussion.
Self-Promotion
If you have something you made or worked on that you’d like to share, feel free to post it in #show-and-tell. Sharing what you’re working on is always encouraged, but please don't spam links to something you’re promoting in multiple channels. It won’t go over well.
Reaction Emoji
If you simply agree with a point someone has made, consider posting an emoji reaction (aka “reacji”) instead of replying. We have thousands to choose from!
Navigating the Slack
#commons
Our default general discussion channel is #commons, which nearly every member is in. With nearly 3,000 members, we ask that you notpost messages there unless they’re relevant to the majority of our members. (That especially applies to questions related to attending the festival, which belong in #festival-help.)
Channel Browser
There are over 200 public channels in the Slack, covering all sorts of interests, topics, and cities. You can open the Channel Browser in Slack by clicking “More…” in the sidebar and “Channels” to browse the full list. You can sort it by most popular or most recommended, or search to find channels relevant to you. Join anything that looks interesting!
Making New Channels
To make the community more manageable, we’ve disabled the ability to create new channels. If you want to create a new public channel, start a discussion in #xoxo-slack. If there’s enough interest, and if it doesn’t overlap with existing channels, the mods will create the new channel.
Private Channels
To create a protected space for marginalized groups, the XOXO Slack has dozens of invitation-only private channels, with protected spaces for people who are women, queer, trans, and non-binary, among others, as well as channels for people of color, those living with disabilities, and issues related to mental health and well-being.
Who Private Channels Are For
While allies are welcome (and encouraged) to join public channels like #intersectionality, private identity channels are exclusively for those who identify as part of the group the channel was created to accommodate.
We don’t police identities — if you request to join an identity channel that applies to you, we’re not going to ask you to prove it. We just invite you at Indie's request.
Finding and Joining Private Channels
We use our custom Slack bot named Indie to help new members join private identity channels. Indie provides two main functions for finding and joining private channels that can be run anywhere (except inside of a thread):
/list-private [filter]- Indie will show a list of all private identity channels and their purposes that match an optional filter e.g. "poc", "health", etc.
Indie provides buttons within this list that you can click to join the channels.
/join-private [channel-name]- Provided with a specific private identity channel, Indie will coordinate your joining said channel.
When Indie lets a channel know someone wants to join a channel, please invite them! Moderators in our private identity spaces will be on the lookout for invite requests, but anyone is welcome to run the invite commands Indie requests.
Other Tips
Popular Channels
Some popular channels unique to the XOXO Slack include:
- #bad-attitude - a judgment-free place to vent
- #gratitude - the opposite of #bad-attitude
- #whining-on-the-yacht - complaining about problems that aren’t real problems
- #tiny-victories - small accomplishments you’re proud of
- #good-internet - good and weird internet: funny/interesting websites, posts, memes
- #tech-culture - the worst of tech, VC, and startup culture
- #scream - just scream into the void