Gitter
Wiki ▸ Gitter
Gitter is a Web-based chat room service provider that integrates tightly with GitHub. We use Gitter as a public-facing chat room for certain projects, general chatter, some casual socializing, and welcoming newcomers.
We use different rooms for different purposes. This section offers a brief overview of them. Check for a Gitter page on a given project's own wiki for more information about that project's own room.
The AnarchoTechNYC Lobby is a catch-all room where newcomers can test their Gitter setup, ask for help finding other rooms, and otherwise orient themselves.
Our Gitter chat room is configured to show the following "Welcome message" to users who join. (It looks something like this.)
📝 Please do try to keep this text synchronized with the actual welcome message in the room. :) ❤️
Not all chatters can change the welcome message. If you can't, and you'd like to propose a change to it, you're welcome to edit the text below, or open a new issue ticket with your suggestions:
This is a general purpose chat room for AnarchoTechNYC, your friendly neighborhood anarchist tech collective. Come on in and introduce yourself! Stick around even if you don't get a response immediately; sometimes we're just not at our keyboards.
While you're here, we expect you'll do your best to abide by these social rules, which are designed to facilitate a collaborative and generous environment:
- Be supportive; no feigning surprise. This just means that you shouldn't act surprised when someone else doesn't know something, whether it be technical or non-technical. ("What? You don't know what a pull request is?!" Or "I can't believe you've never heard of Beyoncés Lemonade!!!eleventy!") Everyone has gaps in our knowledge. Is it really so surprising? Use this as an opportunity to support one another develop our skills and expand our horizons instead of tearing one another down by exaggerating other people's ignorance.
- Be proportional; no well-actually's. A well-actually happens when someone says something that's almost but not entirely correct, and you say, "well, actually…" and then give a minor correction. The keyword here is "minor." It's okay to join a conversation mid-way through to offer your own view or correct a fundamental misunderstanding—we're here to learn and grow, after all—but these sorts of interjections are especially annoying when the correction has no real bearing on the conversation. A well-actually is always about grandstanding, not knowledge-seeking.
- Be engaged; no back-seat driving. This just means that if you're going to engage in a conversation, commit to actually having it. Don't just lob advice into the chat and then disappear. If you have to go away-from-keyboard for a while, say so. Better yet, wait until you have enough time to spend helping someone else work through their issue. In other words, fully engage, rather than butting in sporadically.
Learn more about why we have social rules.
The AnarchoTechNYC CTF room on Gitter is a private channel used by the collective's CTF team members. The CTF team is a semi-private cybersecurity study group that coordinates educational hacking challenges and participates in security competitions. It is a beginner-friendly team that focuses on education, autonomy, and skill sharing, not necessarily scoring points or winning prizes.
Our Gitter chat room is configured to show the following "Welcome message" to users who join. (It looks something like this.)
📝 Please do try to keep this text synchronized with the actual welcome message in the room. :) ❤️
Not all chatters can change the welcome message. If you can't, and you'd like to propose a change to it, you're welcome to edit the text below, or open a new issue ticket with your suggestions:
This is AnarchoTechNYC's Capture The Flag team chat channel. We use this room to coordinate activity during CTF competitions and for general cybersecurity practice chatter.
Please remember that this is not really a "secure" channel, so:
- No requests for illegal activity. Please don't make it easy for the State's agents to entrap you.
- No badjacketing. Please do not do the State's work for them. (Read more about badjacketing.)
- Abide our Social Rules. Please, no feigning surprise, no well-actually's, and no back-seat driving. Read more about our three lightweight social rules and general social expectations.
Basically, keep the conversation focused on technical matters. :)
Our work often overlaps with the work being done by our friends in other collectives. Some of these other groups also use Gitter, so you'll find conversations are sometimes fragmented across multiple rooms. A few of these other rooms are listed here for your convenience:
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Act Secure is a loose collection of technologists working to help activists secure themselves before, during, and after actions. Their Lobby is a space for "general schmoozing" and plays host to a revolving cast of technically savvy people able and willing to answer questions or point you towards helpful resources.
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The Better Angels are a wholly virtual anarchist collective whose "general chatter" room is lively and welcoming. Conversations in this room are as political as they are technical, with very low tolerance for "centrist," "(neo-)Liberal," or "right-of-center" views. Nevertheless, as they say in their own welcome message: "Contributors who don't share our exact politics are welcome. Debating the merits of these positions or acting to undermine them is not."
See also: New member orientation guide § Gitter