Improve RCWG communications

[hturner]

We need to improve communications so that people know what we're up to

• Set up Twitter account to advertise RCWG meetings and events
• Get https://forwards.github.io/rcontribution/ linked from main R-project site. Get official subdomain?
• Embed Google calendar of meetings and events on website, so easier for people from outside to join
• Proper mailing list so people can subscribe/unsubscribe to event/other announcements
• Add link to R Dev Guide on website
• Add workshops page with links to videos of useR! tutorials and associated materials
• Add external link to R Developer Blog

Also (not a checklist because recurring tasks)

• Advertise RCWG meetings on R-devel Slack and R-devel mailing list
• Report highlights of RCWG meetings on R Weekly (as we currently do on R-Ladies and MiR Slack)

[llrs]

Given that the working group is under the R foundation, shouldn't this be under the R_foundation account? To me it seems like the best way to gather people and it fits under the current account description: "support for the R project. A reference point for interaction with the R development community".

[hturner]

The R Foundation prefer their twitter account to be a low volume account for big announcements. So it is better to keep the accounts separate, with the RF account retweeting particular posts, e.g. first tweet, announcement of bigger events such as #18.

[hturner]

In the last RCWG meeting, someone also asked whether accounts like https://twitter.com/R_dev_news could be made official. Potentially either the RF account or the RCWG account could maintain a Twitter list of such accounts to aid discovery. (I also found https://twitter.com/rstatsNEWS which posts changes in R-devel NEWS only, whereas https://twitter.com/R_dev_news posts when the R-devel blog has a new post as well).

The R Developer Guide has a link to https://twitter.com/R_dev_news but it's not currently displaying correctly (https://forwards.github.io/rdevguide/news-and-announcements.html#twitter). I'll see if I can fix that.

[llrs]

As I mentioned on the last RCWG meeting, I'm totally fine with giving the R_dev_news account to the R Foundation or anyone with an official position. Currently I do not do much as everything is automated, I only need to change the feeds whenever a new R version appears. The service I'm using allows to include a hashtag only if I pay which could help to gather more followers.

I also found the rstatsNEWS account but the last time it posted something was on 2016. I think the service it used was discontinued. (That's why I also added my handle on the description, in case this ever happens).

I send a PR to fix the handle of R_dev_news. I thought it wasn't even mentioned.

[PythonCoderUnicorn]

i keep checking Slack for news and posts but not much happens on there. It would be nice if more people used it

[gmbecker]

Well the fact of the matter is there aren't that many people simultaneously doing things related to this in a way that would make slack useful. We hope that will change, but AFAIK we (or at least I, speaking for myself) are not at all certain how to cause/hurry along such a change.

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[llrs]

The slack was very useful for the GSOC project I had about bugRzilla and the bugs report, it was/is helpful to coordinate between us. I'll soon share the link to the report to have time to address any feedback before the next meeting.
I'll also ask for feedback about the shiny app to find/highlight bugs.

[hturner]

Just to clarify, we are talking here about the R-devel Slack (https://forwards.github.io/rcontribution/slack) - I'm not sure if you are on there yet @PythonCoderUnicorn? Even so, your comment is still valid - there is not as much general activity as we would like, so that's also something to work on.

[hturner]

Proposal for implementation of some of the above:

• Twitter to advertise RCWG meetings and events: "R Contribution Working Group" @R_Contributors
• Link to R Contribution Site in menu on https://www.r-project.org/: "Contributor Community"
• Potential subdomain: contributor.r-project.org (like developer.r-project.org)
• Potential mailing list to get WG meeting invites: rcwg@R-project.org

Let me know if you have any feedback - I hope to get the ball rolling on these points in the next few days.