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Davide Marquês
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OutSystems Community Recommendations
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Hi community!

Community managers here at OutSystems have always had a good time on the job: helpful members, curious newcomers, quick replies and to top it off we don't even have trolls to feed! :)

So far our biggest and only arch enemy is SPAM! Dealing with it is like playing wack-a-mole for all eternity. To help out in our fight, we believe it's time to turn ad-hoc house cleaning tasks into community wide recommendations - the kind of stuff you can point newcomers to and just refer to when future discussions get out of hand (trolls will show up eventually).

This will be a live discussion that captures common forum etiquette and also OutSystems policies which community managers need to enforce.


RECOMMENDATIONS


1. There are no dumb questions

As a newcomer you are free to share your questions without being scared of anyone judging you.

Not happening:
"OMG! What a n00b! RTFM!"
Most likely:
"Hi <you name here>!
Could you share a bit more about that issue you're facing?
Cheers,
<friendly person name here>"
Yup. That's how cool our community is! :)


2. There are no dumb answers

Have something to add to discussion? Then please do!
Even if yours isn't the final answer you will be giving the discussion some extra buzz -> getting others' attention on it.

Not sure what the question is about? Try this:


"Hi <other person name here>!
Could you share a bit more about that issue you're facing?
Cheers,
<your name here>"
That should get the conversation going. ;)


3. English is the preferred language

Writing your questions in English ensures that everyone else in the community can get it and will contribute for a faster answer. That said; if you do write it in your own language we'll try to google translate our way to whatever you are asking.


4. Self-promotion on the forums is... just spam

Please don't spam other community members. Feel free to promote your company on your profile page but don't participate in the forums with "me too" posts just to seed links to your company/site.


The forum administrators will quickly spot the spammy posts and progressively apply the following measures:
  1. remove the links from the post, leaving a watered-down comment that adds no value;
  2. remove the post completely;
  3. look at your contribution history and decide whether to classify you are a spammer and lock you out for good.


5. Avoid duplicate posting (in the forums and external sites). 

If you're stuck with a problem it's tempting to go overboard and post the same questions in multiple forums or event multiple sites. You are free to do so but the best way to get a solution to your problem is to post it just once in the forums. That way the community experts will have access to it and the conversation will not spread across multiple channels - which you'd have to track individually.

6. Play nice

The Community Leaderboard is cool and I'm sure you want to get in there but there's no hurry. If you take shortcuts people will notice and you'll just become a number. Is that what you want to be? A number? :P
Share your questions, help and be helped, upload cool components, meet nice people, share the occasional laugh and have fun as part of this awesome community! :)


7. Don't spam!

Respect other online forums. Share your OutSystems Platform love but don't push it on others. M'kay?



Those are the recommendations that jumped in my way in these past months.
Have you suffered from other deviant behaviours that need our attention? Let us know below or contact community@outsystems.com.
 
Cheers!
Davide Marquês
("Bad cop" Community Manager)
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08 Apr 2013
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2016-04-21 20-09-55
J.
 
MVP
Great post!

Just noticing the "Bad Cop" :)
Where there is a Bad Cop there is also a Good Cop.
So who is he? Someone in disguise? :)

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16 Apr 2013
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Davide Marquês
Good VS Bad depends on the beard length.

Good cop today!


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16 Apr 2013
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Davide Marquês
The guys from Discourse have done a great job of aggregating "a safe, simple default set of guidelines for civilized discourse".

Their exploration is well worth a read - especially if you're starting your own forum or need to support an online community. Enjoy!
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04 Sep 2013
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2025-11-03 12-56-18
Evert van der Zalm
 
MVP

Nice post!


Davide Marquês wrote:
Community managers here at OutSystems
 Managers -> Davide and ? ? ?

Also is there gonne be a 'clean-up' for old post or post that aren't related anymore (old platforms etc)? Since that is also a reason why you sometimes can't find if something was already posted.

Kind regards,
Evert
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03 Oct 2013
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Davide Marquês
Hi Evert!

I meant Community Managers along the ages -> Davide and Miguel Melo and Paulo Tavares.
Improvements to the search have been on the community site backlog for a while now and when the clouds clear we'll get right to it.

Cloud, PaaS, cloud, cloud, PaaS, PaaS regards!
Davide
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03 Oct 2013
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Community GuidelinesBe kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting.