community.txt
Communities shouldn’t be opaque. When someone considers joining one, they shouldn’t have to wonder what the group is really all about, or whether they’ll feel welcome there or not. Ideally there would always be some kind of window they could look through—a way to take a peek at the who, what, and why of the space. (We’re lucky to have such a window of our own, but not every online space does.)
Rather than leave people guessing or making assumptions, why not just make a web page and tell everyone what they should know about your community? It could live at /community.txt (like the other standard .txt files that are floating around out there) or even just /community as a slash page like the cool kids are making these days. In any case, it should be easy to find, and then everyone can learn all about what the community is about, its values, and anything else folks might need to know.
We’ll start here! Our own brand new community.txt page is live right now, and it’s even linked right on the omg.lol landing page to make it super easy for anyone to find. I’ve never felt like it’s enough to just say “we have a great community” and expect that to somehow telegraph all of the supporting details. I think it’s important to clearly spell things out. What makes a community great? What is its focus? What does it care about? Who’s going to feel at home there? There’s no reason to keep anyone in the dark on these kinds of details when a simple web page can bring everyone up to speed.
Maybe omg.lol will be the only little oasis on the internet that maintains a community.txt file. That’s fine; at least visitors will know what to expect here. But if you ever find yourself at the front door of an online space and it’s not entirely clear to you what you’ll see when you step inside, consider suggesting that they make their own community.txt or something similar.
If you have any questions about or feedback on the new page, I’d love to hear them!
— Adam