How to USE Slack

Slack housekeeping and general guidelines

WHO IS IT FOR? Our Slack group is the meeting point of all the Google Dev Scholarship students from all the 4 tracks, who made it into Phase 2. To make this Community more personable, please use your real name (or indicate it in your profile), upload your photo (or a nice avatar), and mention your Track (or insert a cool badge in your status).

WHAT IS IT FOR? Slack is the main platform for your Community Mangers to keep in touch with you, and to inform you about the Scholarship. As this Slack continues the amazing Community that was formed in Phase 1, you can use it for socialising and networking with fellow students, for organising meetups, for collaborating and working on cool projects together, for sharing ideas and resources, for discussing the course material, and of course for getting support and helping each other all the way to Graduation.

However, don't forget that for any questions related to your course content and your projects, you have many more additional services: your personal Classroom Mentors, the course Discussion Forums, and also your ND-specific work groups, with their further technical support.

WHAT IS IT NOT FOR? For being unfriendly, disrespectful, unproductive, and for any other violating of the Code of Conduct.

Slack Etiquette

Slack can be hectic and overwhelming, so let's do our best to keep it in order. While some behaviour isn't a full on violation of the Code of Conduct, it's still unwelcome. Anything that makes the feed chaotic and hard to follow, interrupts the conversation flow, attracts too much unnecessary attention, or is simply annoying – is better avoided. Think of Slack as a big real-life crowded place. Anything you wouldn't do there – don't do on Slack either.

Here are some tips:

1. If you want to comment on somebody's post – do it in a thread! Don't post a separate comment. This won't spam the feed and will make the conversation easier to follow.

2. Unless it's an image – then don't comment on it directly, but in a separate message, as it will open a new thread each time.

3. If you notice that you're only talking with one person and the conversation concerns only the two of you – consider moving it to a private chat. (Get a room!)

4. Put all your text in one message, and please

don't

post

every

sentence

separately.

5. Avoid repeating the same message, or posting it on multiple channels. This may bring to an opposite result from what you imagined.

You've Got Control

Unlike many instant messaging platforms, Slack actually allows you to edit and to delete your messages!

This is very easily done. Just go back over your posted message and click on the 3 dots on the right. There you will have the option to either edit your text, or to delete it altogether.

Slack Channels

There are Slack channels that are for all the Scholarship students (like #general-announcements), Track-specific channels (like #and-live-help) and regional channels (like #turkey). You are welcome to follow any channel, but we recommend that you follow the channels that are most relevant to you.

Track-Specific Channels

As a first step, please join the channels that are relevant to your track – your general channel (#abnd, #and, #fend or #mws). Also please join the track-specific live help, resources, study buddies, and careers.

ABND stands for Android Basics
AND stands for Android Advanced
FEND stands for Frond-End
MWS stands for Mobile Web

Country Channels

All the countries have a general channel, as well as a track-specific channel. For example, if you are in FEND and speak French, you can join both #france and #france-fend.

General Channels

#general_announcements for all the important updates from us.

#ama-sessions is for AMA Sessions (and for AMA Sessions ONLY!)

#introductions we have some new people here, let them know who you are!

#inspiration share a motivational story, article you liked, a meme - anything that inspires.

#meetups organise meetups and share your impressions.

#music share your studying soundtrack.

#jobs – because that's what we're here for.

#career-change tell about your big move and help others to do it too!

#project-ideas have a cool idea for a project? share it and find co-creators!

#collaborations for creating amazing things together.

#entrepreneurship to pitch your next Unicorn.

#photo-gallery post your scholarship moments (meetups, beers, pets, kids).

#random for anything that has nothing to do with anything.

#tech-news share and discuss the hot tech topics of the day.

#translation_help we have people from over 30 countries here. Use them.

#scholarship-comments tell us what you think about us and what we could do even better.

#women-tech-makers for the ladies.

#lgbt-plus for all the people who identify as LGBT+ and friends.

language-specific channels (#java, #html, #react etc)

....and MANY MANY MANY MORE!

If something here is missing, drop a line on #channel_request – but please FIRST CHECK if this or similar channel already exists!

How to Find and Join a Slack channel

You can join any public channel you want. You don't need to be invited. You may join as many channels as you want, but we advise you to join just the ones that are relevant to you.

Click on "Channels" on the left-side panel of your Slack window in order to scroll through all channels, or search for a channel name. You can select and preview the channel.

If you decide to join, click on the green "Join Channel" button at the bottom of the channel preview.

You can also leave channels by clicking on the "Settings" wheel in the upper right corner.

Private Messages

You can write to anyone you like in a private chat. Just always remember the Code of Conduct!

If you want to write someone, you can click on their profile, and select "Direct Messages". Or you can click on "Direct Messages" on the left-side panel and search for them.

You can create a private chat room with up to 8 more people!

Just select more people from the list. That means that if your group has up to 9 people, you can work on your project in a group chat.

Helpful links to get up and running on Slack quickly

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