How to become a Maintainer, Moderator, or Regular

Regulars, maintainers and moderators are special roles users can acquire on our Discourse and/or Discord. If you’ve earned one of these roles, you get a neat Discord role and Discourse badge. If – after 24 hours – you are still missing either, DM a moderator and let us know.

Perks

Each role has its responsibilities and prerequisites, but all are entitled to:

  1. Access to a priority support (what sponsors get),
  2. Exclusive, quieter channels/categories on our Discord/Discourse.

Maintainers

Maintainers are responsible for one (or more) of Doom’s modules. By becoming one, you become a consultant for your module(s) and the ecosystems surrounding them. If you encounter problems or packages need bumping, I rely on you to keep me informed.

In order to become one, you:

  • Should be proficient in the subject matter of your chosen module(s).
  • Must dogfood your chosen module(s).
  • Should be privy to the latest changes in your module(s).

Some proficiency with Emacs Lisp, Nix, and/or Git would help, but it is not a hard requirement.

If you are interested in becoming a maintainer, DM @hlissner to introduce yourself, the module(s) you want to maintain, and tell me why you think you’re qualified for the role.

:warning: Be sure to visit our module development roadmap to see if your module is accepting maintainers–and see what is in the pipeline for your module, if anything.

Moderators

Moderators are our peacekeepers and community organizers, and help folks with technical Discourse/Discord issues. I trust them to ensure that:

  • Folks follow our guidelines wherever possible.
  • Topic titles and posts are as specific as possible (and remain on track).
  • Topics are properly categorized and tagged.

Becoming a moderator depends on seniority and professionalism.

  • Seniority:
    • Be reasonably active on Discourse and Discord (at least TL2 on Discourse and/or 5k total messages on Discord).
    • Be around for at least a year.
    • I, or our moderators, should recognize you.
    • Be knowledgeable about Discourse and/or Discord.
  • Professionalism: When you act as a moderator for our community, you become our representative. I will hold your conduct to a higher standard. Please familiarize yourself with our guidelines, and always be sensitive to the power dynamic between yourselves and our users; do not joke about your powers and do not abuse it to win arguments or lord over others.

If you are interested in becoming a moderator, DM @hlissner to introduce yourself, explain your motivation, and let me know why you think you’re qualified for the role.

Regulars

This role is unlike the others and cannot be applied for. You earn it by being active and helpful on the Discourse or Discord for a long period of time. The exact criteria is different for each platform.

:warning: This role will be automatically removed if you are inactive for too long (usually 3–6 months)

On Discourse

On the Discourse, assignment of this role is automated (except in exceptional cases). The system will promote you to Trust Level 3 once you meet its requirements.

On Discord

On Discord, this role is not automated. Our (Discord) regulars deliberate from time to time to elect new regulars based on user activity on the server. Being a Doom Emacs user is not a requirement, but to be considered for the role, you must have:

  • Been in the server for 6+ months.
  • Sent at least 250 messages in the last 3 months.
  • More than 5k messages in your account’s lifetime.
  • An agreeable and reasonable disposition.
  • A noticeable presence on one or more of:
    • Our help channels or Discourse (answering questions)
    • Our social channels (adding a friendly voice to the room)
    • Our issue tracker (as a contributor)
    • The greater Emacs or open source communities (contributing code, plugins, tutorials, etc)

:warning: Please do not request the role or prompt of our regulars to consider you. If you fit the criteria, it will be difficult for us not to notice you!

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