DevRel Weekly - Issue 117 - Online Moderation, Event Organization, 2021 Strategies, and more

Welcome! 👋

Hey DevRel Fam. How's everyone holding up? I know it's been a stressful week for many and there's not an end in sight. I'm feeling it myself, hence the delayed issue this week.

I've been reminding myself to get outside for a walk, take breaks when necessary, keep my phone on Do Not Disturb if possible, and generally make sure I'm taking care of myself so that I can in turn take care of others. Speaking of which... if there's anything I can do to help, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Content has been on the lower side this week, but hopefully you'll find some helpful items below. See you next week and in the meantime, hang in there ❤️

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

Inclusive Language Matters

As a #DevRel I try very hard to avoid using terms like 'simple' or 'simply' or 'easy' or 'just' or 'obvious(ly)' because, while it may be simply obvious to me, it isn't for everyone.

This is a hill I will die on.

-David Simmons

Where's Your Community's Sweet Spot?

Find the community sweet spot - the point of overlap between:

What your org needs.

What members want.

What a community uniquely offers.

Without all three, you're going to find it a long slog to make the community work.

-Richard Millington

Are you a Team Player?

Developer Relations is a team sport.

-Aaron

Tangibles 🤓

How Simple Moderation Rules Can Create Worse Communities

We often think that simplifying code of conducts and community expectations will make things easier, but the truth of the matter is simple slogans often fail to protect community members. Carter Gibson walks through a number of examples where taglines don't work as well as how they can be improved.

DevRels in Post Covid-19 World

If you're finding yourself looking ahead to 2021 and wondering how you're going to continue to do valuable Developer Relations work while grounded from home, first, take a deep breath. You're not alone, and many companies have figured out effective ways to connect with their communities from the comfort of their own homes. In fact, many of us have been doing just that (along with travel, of course), since before COVID was a conversation-piece.

If you're looking for tangible information about how to do this, Krunch Data took the time to compile a handful of different articles, podcasts, and interviews with DevRel professionals who have documented their path to success in this odd world we're living in.

DevRel Book Development Questionnaire

I'm so excited to hear that there's another book about Developer Relations coming soon! I'm a huge believer in the fact that we desperately need more resources and am looking forward to reading this reference book from Caroline Lewko and James Parton. They're looking for your opinions on the current state of DevRel content. If you have a free moment, fill out their survey!

Tangents 🐰

What’s the Role of Developer Experience in Programming Languages Research?

This is slightly off-topic for Developer Relations work if you're an individual contributor, but if you're working on strategy or trying to understand the next big thing in your particular niche, you might find it interesting, as I did! In this article, Jean Yang walks through user research, what questions to ask (and which ones are too broad), and how we can better understand and represent our technical audiences.

Events 📆

Developer Relations Events

Kate here: How about them Dodgers!?

Whether or not you're a baseball fan, you should definitely check out the other very riveting events in the DevRel Weekly Events Collection. Here's to hoping we all win the World Series in the sport of our choosing!

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Advocate

Spectral is developing the next generation of a code security platform for developers.

As a Developer Advocate at Spectral, you will write blog posts, best practices, and tutorials, Be the company champion to the company’s community, and maintain a credible and robust presence in social media channels relevant to developers, Security, DevOps, and DevSecOps professionals.

The ideal candidate will have strong writing ability and experience in creating engaging technical blog posts, excellent verbal communication skills, and a passion for participating and building open source communities.

Developer Advocate

Ambassador Labs is solving interesting problems for cloud native developers in the Kubernetes space. We are looking to hire our second Developer Advocate (open to mid-level to senior to lead to leadership level) that cares as much about empowering developers as we do, loves the power of open source and communities, embraces the cloud native phenomenon that is taking over the world. We have grown quickly (3x in headcount) and closed series A and series B funding, all in the last year!

Senior Developer Advocate

At Cube.js, we are building a technology stack for modern analytics. We are a small and dedicated remote-first team with an HQ in San Francisco, funded by top-tier SV investors, working on making advanced analytics infrastructure accessible to all developers around the world. As a Senior Developer Advocate, your main goal is to promote Cube.js, increase its awareness and adoption, and support the overall Cube.js community at large. If this sounds exciting, we'd love to hear from you!

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Relations Jobs

Have you read this blurb recently? If so, you should check out the jobs in the DevRel Weekly Jobs Collection and tell us what you think. Did you find anything of interest? We hope that those looking for work find what they need!