Contributor Orientation

This page covers some vital information for new Contributors or those wanting to become Contributors. It will outline all the common questions on what being a TripSit Staff member means, and how to work as a contributor. Please check all the following points and return here or ask another staff member if you have any questions.

History

The Tripsit Network was founded by Techno_shaman (Teknos) in reddit.com/r/tripsit on September 26, 2011. It progressed into an IRC channel on September 2, 2012 and continues working to increase its focus around harm reduction and providing a safe community for the world's Psychonaut community.

It has since grown into a website, live web radio and social network. So far, we have helped countless people in many ways. MAPS featured Tripsit in the Spring 2014 Bulletin and we have had several news articles written about us. We are always expanding our network and working on developing a real-life presence at festivals and concerts.

Staff Duties and Guidelines

Conduct

We expect for TripSit Staff members to be positive, kind, respectful and professional in their dealings with members whether regular or other staff. We want all the staff to feel safe and comfortable speaking their mind about things that might be bothering them in our weekly meetings, and as such, we ask that you treat one-another with the same courtesy and respect we expect you to show to the non-staff user base.

Core Duties as a Contributor

Contributors are the entry-level position for the TripSit Department of Psychonautical Informatics and are very important part of our network. You are here because you want to help enable the world to make smarter decisions in their lives, to help create a reliable source of easily digested unbiased information, persuasive articles on topics such as health, harm-reduction, drugs etc. Your primary methods of helping out are explained below.

Remember the golden rule of contribution; No Information is always preferable to incorrect information!

Factsheet Maintenance

A large part of a contributor's main duty comes down to factsheet-maintenance. The tripbot factsheet database is an indispensable tool in our never-ending mission to open easily digestible drug information to the world. The information itself is of as much importance as the tools used every day to access it, providing both users and staff with the quick facts they need to help each other stay informed and stay safe.

The fact-sheet API is in the process of being integrated into Erowid's Vault as a second-opinion/reference-point on Dosage for many new research-chemicals, and has the potential to expand even farther. For these reasons it is of utmost importance that we keep up a high standard for accuracy and maintain a consistent standard of quality, formatting and relevance in the factsheet database.

You will use the commands outlined in Editing Factsheets to perform fact-sheet maintenance.

A list of all currently existing factsheet entries is available here.

Direct any questions not made clear in the document to another staff member, or #content.

Wiki Article Writing, Editing, Maintenance

The TripSit Department of Psychonautical Informatics has put together a wiki on all things harm-reduction and TripSit related, and we need your help! Wiki articles gain contribution from staff, and are usually open to input from regular users when they are entries for drug information, or guides. TripSit-network and policy documentation outline pages are not open to the public.

Generally, when we produce a new Wiki page, we first decide among the team which Wiki page will be created. Upon decision, an editor will create a TitanPad document with a template, and open it for contribution among staff members and regular users. We expect regular contributions to wiki pages that are in progress, and help in the editing and reviewing process for articles already published.

Once a Wiki page fills out, we (content team) review it together and, on completion, we publish it to the site. Feel free to link wiki-pads to regular users who you feel would like to help or have relevant knowledge in the subject area! Between newly published pages, and the large body of articles that have already been published, constant maintenance is needed to be sure that the information presented is correct and complete. We edit directly on the wiki once an article is published.

All wiki changes will report automatically in the #content channel for collaborative review.

For help on the Wiki syntax you can see mediawiki documentation here and here.

Any questions still unclear can be directed to #content or to an Editor directly.

Subreddit & IRC Involvement

While the TripSit Department of Psychonautical Informatics is not primarily concerned with public user conduct, you will still be expected to familiarize yourself with the network policies and procedures as outlined here.

Regardless of their specific roles here, all staff will be expected to set a good example, recognize misinformation, request citations when needed, and ~report trolls whenever possible. As a contributor we expect you to jump in and make any corrections you feel are of relevance to harm-reduction ideology when engaged in social chatting on the network. This goes for the Subreddit as well; information is exchanged a lot on the r/tripsit Subreddit, often without ever making it to the IRC-net. If you are looking for something useful to do, or are just browsing the Subreddit and notice a place where your advice or knowledge could be used, to speak up.

As a staff member, you will be setting an example and will thereby become something of a representative of our network. As such, you should dedicate yourself to providing accurate information, dispelling misinformation and furthering the causes of harm reduction on the network. All our staff must be role models and regular contributors. All of the staff help supervise and advance some part of the TripSit network. We expect them to devote a reasonable amount of time to TripSit projects, including the Wiki, TripSit IRC channels, TinyChat, and future TripSit projects. Contribute Contribute Contribute! We want you on the team! We want your thoughts!

Communication and Resources

Communication is extremely important and as such, our team communicates in several different ways.

IRC

Required Contributor Channels

All staff members are connected to at least these channels:

• #content: Our main hub for discussions of current content, and a place for logging content changes. This room is open to anyone however, as a contributor we expect you to use this channel to discuss anything you are unsure of or wish to add or edit. You should also use this channel to keep up with updates to the wiki and factsheets as they happen by reviewing your logs wherever possible (Tripbot reports all wiki and fact-sheet data changes here)

• #teamtripsit: This is our primary staff communication channel. Please put this on your auto-join to discuss events on the network with other staff. Do not be afraid to reach out and ask questions! This is a channel for all staff to discuss network issues. #tripsit issues take priority here and social chat will need to stop if a TripSitter needs assistance. You may be asked to move non-staff related social conversation to #tripsitvip or #home if it is quiet.

Other Channels

• #nexus: Where we hold our weekly meeting. You need to be here only for meetings or upon upper staff request.

• #drugs: This channel is not your main priority but you are welcome to help guide the conversation here. If you see misinformation being exchanged done histate to jump in and say something. This channel is by far the network's busiest channel.

• #tripsit: Our flagship channel for immediate assistance. Please idle here and when you see someone with a question and no Tripsitter(s) are already on it, try to respond accurately. A Tripsitter may ask you for advice or information, try to respond accurately, and keep in mind that no information is better than inaccurate information. Remember: KIP! (Keep it positive!)

Weekly Meetings

We hold weekly meetings every Sunday at 17:00 UTC. The pad for the current month is found on TitanPad

Other

TitanPad

TitanPad is our document-handling platform, hosted here. We have a large number of documents here on different subjects. The main document that we use is the monthly staff-meeting pad. In this document, we encourage all staff to put their thoughts on the different happenings of the network. Please check the month and go to the corresponding pad.

• Only staff members have access to the TitanPad List and to create new TitanPad Documents (aka 'pads') by default.

• Most Wiki-related pads are open to the public, so we can get more people to help.

• Only make a pad password protected if you have consulted with one of the admins about the contents of the pad. Administers have access to password-protected pads.

Emails

We offer all Staff members a @tripsit.me email address if they want one. Contact reality to get set up.

/r/tripsit Subreddit

A fair amount of information exchange happens on the /r/tripsit Subreddit, so if you are looking for something productive to do, check there for questions to answer or elaborate on. You will receive flair upon request and as such, your commentary/opinions will likely carry more weight at a glance to newcomers.

Tripbot Commands

The following section will explain the commands you will need to know as a Contributor and when to use them. You can find more information about Tripbot's various commands here or by asking another staff member.

Factsheet Formatting

The [tripbot.tripsit.me/factsheet Tripbot FACTSHEET DATABASE] was created and is maintained primarily through direct commands over IRC, however there is also a brand new beta web-interface editing option (currently the web-interface editing feature has limitations, and as such commands are still useful.)

These commands work anywhere Tripbot is found, however we ask that you keep the bulk of editing command usage in PM with Tripbot for cleaner documentation and logging of Tripbot's notifications in #content, and to deter any potential trolls from taking notice and creating more work for us.

Editing Factsheets describes the factsheet modification syntax. You can also ask questions about this in #content.

Report

Syntax: /msg tripbot ~report #room <user> <report-message>

As a contributor your primary focus is on content quality control and misinformation-clarification rather than user behavioral adjustment and moderation. If you do witness flagrant rule-breaking or ongoing misinformation arising from a particular person or group you are to use the ~report command at your discretion. This command will send a notice to everyone voiced in the #room reported to.

Example: /msg tripbot ~report #content trees is being a jerk.

Also, please encourage regular non-staff users to employ use of this command, as the moderation team relies on reports to know when things are not right.

Web Interface Account Management

Tripbot as a web-interface located here.

Your username is myuser@tripsit, and you can set a password by issuing the '~setwebpass mypassword' command.Please PM Tripbot when issuing this command to keep your password confidential. Contact reality if you have any issues.

Applications and New Staff

If you or someone you know wants to join Team TripSit, as either of our entry-level positions (TripSitter on the moderation-side or Contributor on the content side,) direct them to this page.