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Support NERDs: Onboarding & Moderation

Support NERD Requirements

💡 So you want to be an optimistic NERD ‘ey? Well your in the right place! Below are the requirements and process involved in becoming a support NERD.

⚠️ This document is a work in progress, and will evolve. Check back occasionally.

First off, lets check you are doing this for the right reasons. Check your assumptions at the door please:

❌  Being a support NERD will NOT give you eternal fame and glory.

✅  Being a support NERD will help the community grow in a safe and supported way.

✅  Being a support NERD will help Optimism continue to be the coolest and kindest community.

Becoming a supNERD

🚀 Optimism support NERDs are highly values aligned with Optimism and are of course highly Optimistic! Support NERDs provide support to the Optimism Discord, helping users with questions, and pointing people in the right direction.

The journey to become an supNERD follow the following steps:

🚀 wannabe-NERD → NERD-in-training → support-NERD

🚀 You should believe in the optimistic values: Open, transparent, in support of public goods (if you have not heard about our RetroPGF, go check it out! (opens in a new tab)).

  • Support NERDs are good at community building, and making the Discord feel inclusive.
  • NERDs will NEVER DM USERS. Keep all support in public threads.
  • Don’t spread negative energy. This does not mean that you should try to remove people asking hard questions. But don’t be a dick.
  • Talk about Optimism! A tweet now and then never hurt, just make sure you are accurate.
  • Try help and promote new projects on Optimism! It will also help you give better support if you play around with the dapps on Optimism so you know how they work, and where things might go wrong.

Step 1: wannabe-NERD

wannabe-NERD → NERD-in-training → support-NERD

To ensure that our support NERDs are only the highest quality nerds we have the following requirements before you can start a NERD trial

  1. Fill in the wannabe-NERD form (opens in a new tab). This helps us know all our NERDs and their languages. L2 is global after all 🌍🌎🌏 NERDs (opens in a new tab)
  2. Be in the Optimism Discord for at least 2 months. We need to know you are serious 👀
  3. Be actively offering support in the Discord for at least 2 months. How can you offer support:
    • Answering questions that you know the answer to.
    • Tagging the support-nerds to answer questions you don’t know the answer to.
      • ⚠️ Giving bad/incorrect/misleading answers to users instead of tagging the nerds will count against you.
    • Reporting scams, bots or spam.
    • Keeping the discord “clean” (channel hygiene)
      • Asking users who post questions in general to post them in user-support, same for developer issues in developer-support
      • Answering user questions in a thread on their original message.
        • Steps to answer messages in Discord threads (iykyk)
          1. First click on the three dots above the message (don’t worry if yours does not have as many options)
          2. Click Create Thread
          3. Name the thread after the user problem
          4. Make sure to tag the user and let them know to post any updates in the thread!
    • If you speak a second language, helping out in that language channel (if we have it) is fantastic ✨
  4. Read the descriptions of all the channels. This will help you know what channels are for what.
  5. Read the pinned messages. They are pinned for a reason 😌
  6. Read the user support docs →
  7. Read the developer docs (if you are technical) →

Things you can do to help

  • Introduce yourself! Mention your timezone, country, languages you can speak, when you will be online and what your strengths are (i.e technical, design, research, etc)
  • Find other ways you can help! Translating documents, connecting resources, provide research, find helpful resources, make PRs on the docs. There is so much that can be done!

Step 2: NERD-in-training

wannabe-NERD → NERD-in-training → support-NERD

✅ So you have passed the background requirements. Congrats! Follow these steps to go from a wannabe-NERD to a fully fledged support-NERD 🤓

  1. Post proof of meeting the requirements in the #wannabe-NERD channel. If you speak a second language and would like to offer support in this language, please include this in your message.
  2. A support-NERD as well as an Optimism team member will check your contributions within the Discord to see if you have offered enough support. You will be notified either way.
  3. If you have offered enough support (three (3) months) you will be given the nerd-in-training role. You will need to have the nerd-in-training for an additional two (2) months, during which you will need to continue offering support.
  4. After that, should your support be high enough quality an existing NERD will nominate you.
    1. Your nomination is voted on by support-NERDs
    2. You need a majority (50%) to ratify your nomination
    3. Then you are a support-NERD!

Things that will make you lose your NERD status

⚠️ Being a NERD is a privilege. If you abuse the power and reputation that comes with it you will loose the privilege.

  1. If you scam a user, or send spam in any channel → This will make you loose your wannabe-NERD role and get you banned for life from ever becoming a nerd, as well as banned from the Discord.
  2. Being rude to users → This will get you kicked from the NERDs, and also temp banned from the Discord for 3 days. Don’t be a dick.
  3. Giving false/fake information → If you send a user bad information, or malicious information, you will loose your NERD rights and get banned (or temp banned) depending on how bad the info was.
  4. NERDs are told sensitive information. If you leak... 💀 → Occasionally NERDs get to hear news and updates before it is public. If you leak private information given to NERDs you will loose NERD role and be bared from ever becoming a NERD again.
TechNERDs: Dev supportNumbaNERDs: Community analytics