Community Slack

AIGAHOU.slack.com is the place to connect and get involved with the design community in Houston. It is also a great place to stay up to date with AIGA Houston and the folks you’ve met at our events. To join our Slack network, you can get an invite automatically.

What is AIGA Houston? AIGA HOU advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. As the largest community of design advocates, we bring together practitioners, enthusiasts, and patrons to amplify the voice of design and create the vision for a collective future. We define global standards and ethical practices, guide design education, enhance professional development, and make powerful tools and resources accessible to all.

Why Slack? Our primary goal with this Slack is to build community among Houston creative professionals, to strengthen our collective skills, to communicate about creative happenings, to advocate for the role of designers, and to use design as a tool for advocacy in the community.

Default channels

Everyone who joins the Slack will be added to these channels:

• #announcements – The main channel for AIGA Houston related announcements. Only admins can post in this channel, but all members are welcome to reply!
• #random – For talking about things that are off-topic or don’t fit neatly into another channel. Get to know folks’ interests that aren’t related to AIGA.
• #intros – Introduce yourself! Let people know who you are and why you are here.

Some channels have specific rules or guidelines. If they do, they will be listed in the purpose or pinned docs of that channel.

• #jobs – Finding project collaborators, getting referrals, and finding design jobs in Houston. (RSS)
• #career-advice – Should you take that job? Am I being paid enough? Ask here!
• #feedback – Looking for feedback on a topic, project, or portfolio? Post a snapshot here with context and questions!
• #learn – Share new articles, tools, and online classes. Share an interesting thing you learned today (#todayilearned). Get help learning something new.
• #houston-happenings – What events are you excited for in Houston? Share upcoming events that our community can benefit from joining! (not necessarily hosted by AIGA)
• #design-advocacy – discuss design as advocacy & advocating for local creative talent (#CreativityLivesHere)
• #ask-a-board-member – This is your direct link to your board. Have a question about an event? Want to get more involved? Let us know!
• #tools-of-the-trade – Ask questions about software, development, vendors, etc! Think of this as StackOverflow for design.
• #coffee-buddies – Join to be randomly paired with another person in the AIGA community to meet up for coffee or donuts!
• #??? – Don’t see what you’re looking for? Members may create channels too! (guidelines)
  
  

Guidelines

The following principles should guide the behavior of all AIGA members, both online and off:

• Be friendly and patient.
• Be welcoming. We strive to be a community that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities. This includes, but is not limited to members of any race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, color, immigration status, social and economic class, educational level, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, size, family status, religion, and mental and physical ability.
  • Say hi. The world is a better place with a flood of hello’s.
  • Use inclusive language. When posting in channels, avoid using words such as “guys” to address a mixed group. Possible alternatives: “y’all,” “humans,” “people,” “folks”, “everyone”, and “designers.” Please respect people’s names and pronouns as they introduce themselves and use them as they wish to be identified.
• Be considerate. 
• Be respectful. Not all of us will agree all the time, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behavior and poor manners. We might all experience some frustration now and then, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. It’s important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one. Members of the AIGA Houston community should be respectful when dealing with other members as well as with people outside the community.
  • Don’t be snarky. We are all trying the best we can.
  • Only participate when you can be constructive. Try to be constructive in all that you do, and otherwise consider not participating in a conversation.
• Be careful in the words that you choose. We are a community of professionals, and we conduct ourselves professionally. Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other participants, individually or as a group. Harassment and other exclusionary behavior are not acceptable. This includes, but is not limited to:
  
  • Violent threats or language directed against another person.
  • Trolling, discriminatory jokes, or insulting/derogatory comments
  • Personal attacks & knowingly making harmful false claims about a person.
  • The use of sexualized or violent language or imagery
  • Deliberate “outing” of any private aspect of a person’s identity without their consent. This includes publishing other’s private information, physical/electronic addresses (“doxing”).
  • Advocating for, threatening to, or encouraging, any of the above behavior.
  • If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
    

Online community issues

There is a specific set of behaviors that is prevalent in online communities that we’d like to address, to make sure our community doesn’t fall into these traps. Please avoid these behaviors:

• No Black Sheep – There may be tools that you don’t like. There is a good chance there is someone in the room who either helped create or likes to use that tool. Don’t make them feel bad, they are likely just in a different context.
• Let Me Google That For You (LMGTFY) – If people ask questions that are simple to answer on Google, still answer them nicely.
• Question Policing – Some people might ask incomplete questions that are hard to answer. Ask follow up questions and act in good faith to help them solve their issues.
• No sales-y content
  • No Direct Pitches – Our Slack is not the place for sales pitches. Consider sponsoring one of our events, initiatives, or conferences instead!
  • No links without context – If you put a link in the chat without context or explanation, it may be deleted.
  • No Brands – If you’re going to post, post as yourself, not as a brand. We are a community of individuals and we all exist outside of our day jobs and personal brands.

Reporting issues

In general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop. Violating any of the above guidelines could result in your removal from our Slack community. If you see people not following our etiquette guidelines, you have two options:

• Message them privately, and explain why what they said might have been hurtful to someone, referring to this guide.
• Ask a Moderation Team member to address the situation, include a link to the conversation if possible. Please report any violations to slack@houston.aiga.org.