Onboarding Process (part 2): StakeborgDAO Discord channels

[Iugin]

Test out the new channel structure and onboarding process here:
Test Server

First of all, we want to thank you for the great feedback we received on our first proposal. You exceeded all expectations.

Together we managed to create the first set of values made by the community.

We are coming today with our second proposal regarding the StakeborgDAO Discord channels and how newcomers can have a leaner start in our DAO.

Summary

For context: a few community members formed a working group to develop an onboarding process for new joiners. This new process looks, for the moment, at the areas listed below. In this proposal, we are focusing on point no. 2.

1. Completed: Agreeing on the Vision, Mission, and Values of our StakeborgDAO community
2. Restructuring the StakeborgDAO Discord channels so that newcomers have a leaner start - we are here
3. OnboardingBuddies program - a more personal onboarding option for new members (like a guided tour of our StakeborgDAO)
4. Updating the Community Compass into a one-stop-shop for all knowledge about StakeborgDAO
5. #LearningPath - gamified educational approach for new and old members to help them find their way from members to contributors

We are proposing a joining process that encompasses:

• 4 steps that guide a new user on the path from Guest to Contributor
• only 1 mandatory verification (for the community rules)
• an opt-in part for topics of interest

Motivation

Problem/ Opportunity: Along with the development of our server, the number of channels and categories increased and the structure became more difficult to follow. The current joining process could, therefore, feel overwhelming to a newcomer, as it gives access right away to all channels without any previous guidance and makes finding the right information challenging.

Solution: With this idea in mind, we want to restructure the current discord server to ensure a smooth and intuitive onboarding process that will guide newcomers on the path toward becoming contributors. Furthermore, a clear structure will make it easier to find resources and answers to one’s questions.

Execution

The proposed structure is already in place. The detailed structure of the new server is complete and a first test version has already been created.

You can find it here: Onboarding Test

You should just read through the proposed structure and let us know how we can improve it if you find it necessary. For a first-hand experience, we recommend you try out the new onboarding process on the test server.

Onboarding process overview - from Guest to Contributor

• 1st step: Guest role
  When a new member enters our server, they will receive the “Guest” role that unlocks only 3 channels:

→ Before Diving into the DAO

• #1-welcome

• #2-about-us

• #3-community-rules - here the user needs to verify to change role to “DAO Explorer” and get access to more channels.

• 2nd step: “DAO Explorer” role → user can see most of the channels, as we know them, except for the project/ workgroup ones (Area 51 category).

A “DAO Explorer” can stay at this level and participate in the community’s life. If they decide to get more visibility on the projects that are in the works, they need to go to #2-select-interests.

• 3rd step: “DAO Explorer + (x)” → a user can opt-in for additional roles according to their interests. Based on their selection, users see all previous channels, plus the chosen categories.

In the channel #2-select-interests, the users can pick, from the current options: NFTs, Devs, Media, Social, Education, the topics they want to follow and gain visibility of. Area 51 projects will be split among these 5 categories accordingly.

• 4th step: “Contributor” → DAO Explorer + Selected interests (NFTs, Devs, Media, Social, Education) + project role

To become a contributor, a user needs to discuss with a member of a specific workgroup how he/ she could contribute and ask a mod for writing rights on that respective project channel, as is the case today as well.

For a clearer, more genuine experience of the user journey described above, we ask you to test the Discord Beta version here: Onboarding Test and share your feedback with us in the comments.

By when: we have until 27.04, end of the day, to discuss the new channel structure and onboarding process. At the end of this feedback round, the onboarding team will incorporate the received ideas into a final version and share it with the community. The implementation date of the actual changes will be aligned with the bootstrapping team and moderators, and communicated to the community well in advance.

Resources

The key resource we need right now is your time. Therefore, for our proposal to ultimately achieve its goal we need support from all of you to engage in this discussion and test the server

Success metrics and KPIs

Members who enter and test the Beta server: 60 (calculated as nr of distinct people who set their interests in the 3rd step)

Engagement on Agora: 350 views, 100 likes, 25 replies

Team background

Team members:

Proposal

RaluW#1502 - Project Manager

Matei#9117 - Stakeborg

iugin#0821 -

Discord server:

eugenPtr#1051 - Developer & discord

albertulll#6158 - discord

etf_dao#8199 - Ambassador

robertinolux#1443 - discord

Special thanks

Kalladin#2028 - Ambassador

MTK#0816 - advisor

lgmarian#0556 - Onboarding Buddy

Flepsman(alazar.eth)#1718 - co-Project Manager

GSPing#6834 - Ambassador

PS: For a detailed description of the new channels’ structure, verification steps and onboarding process, here is the link to the master document. There you can find our thought process and how we managed to put in place this entire proposal.

Onboarding Workflow Proposal.docx

2022-04-15T21:00:00Z→2022-04-27T20:59:00Z

[stefz97.crypto]

wow, iugin! congratulations to everyone involved in the onbording team. the test channel is excellent. it’s a very well thought out start where a new user will definitely find their place. I hope it will be implemented as soon as possible. hearty congratulations!

[Raz]

Very well thought through. Big up everybody! No major suggestions to add.

[Ibtisam13]

Congratulations! I am relatively new in the crypto space (a year now), love the community here but I still find it hard to comment and shy away from. I mostly like posts, love the Wednesday quizzes, read the TCI/ TCI Pro reports, youtube videos. I take pride in how smart and elevated the level of disscusions are, so I relate to the newcomers or others in my situations and this proposal is much needed. Thank you, thank you, thank you🙏🏻

[RaluW]

Thank you for engaging with this proposal and sharing a few things about your experience within our community. I really appreciate the fact that you decided to get out of your comfort zone and post a comment this time (and not “only” like the post). To me it shows that you are trying to find a way to contribute to our common growth, but that you didn’t identify it yet. If this is true, I just want to say, don’t worry. Your moment will come if you stay close and continue on this learning path.

[Ibtisam13]

Thank you so much! It’s exactly how I feel, trying to find the place to fit in! Truly appreciate your encouraging words ! I’m here and I’m not planning on leaving!

[alexpaul]

I like the new porposed structure, however, after trying the Discord Server the UX of it all seems lacking to me.

I got confused pretty fast about what the next step is/where I should interact next. I’m thinking it would help if the experience was a bit more gated in a way. Maybe going with a Bot and DMing with him exclusively for unlocking next steps?

It was very easy for me to become confused about what the next step was, what channel I was supposed to go to next, where I needed to react in order to get access to the bulk of the general channels, etc.

One last thing I’d do, is make the channels that are optional send notifications only for @mentions by default. This was a bad experience for me in multiple Discord Servers where I had to go through each channel and mute the notifications myself.

Other than this, I love the idea and I think gating the channels based on interests and the interaction of the newcomers with a Bot is very welcomed. It will help people get to know our community at their own pace and help with the overwhelming feeling of having too many channels send notifications your way all at once.

[RaduHmg]

Congrats Team! very well and clear structured !

As a possible improvement idea i can say that maybe we can consider to make mandatory to pass through #1 → #2 → #3 in the beginning in order for new people to at least take a look at About us section, to check the values of our community.
I would also make this sections as read only, just to prevent some discussion starting over there.

Again a big congrats for setting the bar so high for other teams & contributors !

[matei]

Hi Alex and thank you for your feedback! All channels you have to go through are named in chronological order (so 1, 2, 3 and so on). Furthermore, almost all text featured in any channel mentions where you should go next (also links to the said channel). Any tips on how could we make this smoother?

Gating through a bot would add yet another layer of friction, I don’t know if that’s really what we want. There is, however, an advantage: proving you’re human. But imo you can also notice this by the fact that you have to press a few buttons to validate and choose your interests.

[RaluW]

Hi Alex, thank you for your feedback .
Regarding the suggestion with having the bot DM the user, we considered this option based on the same advantages you mentioned, however, we soon realized it could potentially be an entry point for scammers who could intercept that interaction.

As mentioned by Matei already, by numbering the channels and including the link to the next step, we aimed at guiding the user through the most important information at the beginning of their journey. If you have some ideas of how we can further improve this, please share. Thank you for engaging in the discussion

[Stefanel]

@Iugin

roles

Nice job guys!The discord will be more organized and there won’t be so much spam.

[alexpaul]

@matei @RaluW if we’re not going the bot route then I think things are are clear as they can get .

I went through the onboarding process again, and I think it would help if the text at the end that directong people to the next step would be a bit bigger than the rest and also bolded. When you have a lot of text, it tends to get lost in there.

I’d also make sure that if a person that already did the onboarding leaves the server, he gets all his roles/preferences when he comes back. Right now if I leave the server and come back I have to go through all the onboarding process again(not sure if this is by design or not).

Great job guys! I think this experience will help make getting used to our community a smoother experience for new people.

[RegDaoIst]

Congratz team! Nicely layed out and easy to guide yer’self around the channels, specifically by hiding channels based on everyones interests. I would add my opinion and you guys decide if it should be added or not.

1. social emoji - in channel #2 select-interest - that specific category(social), if it’s checked it unlocks the fundraising club channel. All other roles have good emojis that might make you think of the role just by seeing it. So why not put a better emoji, something that stand out for the channel that it unlocks? I’ll add one just to make my self clear, at the moment it’s emoji is a spark which is confusing.
   
   
2. You guys maybe should limit the emojis when makeing decision. I mean besides the ones that define a category/role someone can come and add likes, laughs, etc. Over time there will be much more than the intended ones that define a role.
   Thats it. It’s just my experience and to sum things up great work done by this team, again!

[JED]

I like that you thought about it because I personally didn’t know how to use discord at all, I basically entered when StakeborgDao formed on discord, if I didn’t enter then I don’t think I used discord even now and I think that will help a lot people.

[Lgmarian]

I think it’s a good ideea with that social emoji, it will be clearer if we change it!
Thanks you RegDaolst!

[ShootingStar]

Congrats. It does look more organised and user friendly​:smiling_face_with_three_hearts:. Thank you all who worked towards realising it. You rock!!!

[Erwin]

" Please click on the emoji to secure your “Explorer” role and unlock further channels " - I’d like to see this text bigger, thicker, slanted.
" Also, click to follow the Romanian channels " - very good this part, foreigners will not need these channels active.
I would block users from reacting with new emoji to 1-2-3.
in my opinion #gm is not necessary, but #the-dao-insider is! We need a new channel for the editors-team. There, those who want to publish articles can contact the team. Where can we put it?

Congratulations on your hard work, I know how much effort it takes to pull off a good iteration of a project!

[RaluW]

Hi Erwin, thank you for testing the new structure and sharing your feedback. We’ll incorporate it in the final version.
Regarding the importance of having #the-dao-insider channel included, we did add the current #xyz-dao-insider channel under the “Media” category. Are you referring to an additional one that you need for the editorial team? If so, what should be its name and do you think it can be part of the same category (Media)?

[Erwin]

Hi Ralu, we would need a channel in which anyone can write. in this channel those who want to publish an article will get in touch with editors-team to be guided and to receive access on xyz platform. So, when someone asks on #general or #brigada-diverse what they have to do to write an article, they will be redirected to the #editors-team channel (I still don’t know what name to give it, it’s a project also inside The Dao Insider).