reasoning for the communications guidelines and social media voice

story645 · melissawm · noatamir · story645 · commit 58c64b9a85f0 · 2023-11-01T20:49:35.000-04:00
Co-authored-by: Melissa Weber Mendonça &lt;melissawm@gmail.com&gt;
Co-authored-by: noatamir &lt;6564007+noatamir@users.noreply.github.com&gt;
diff --git a/doc/devel/communication_guide.rst b/doc/devel/communication_guide.rst
@@ -4,11 +4,32 @@
 Communication guidelines
 ========================
 
+The Scientific Python community uses various communications platforms to stay
+updated on new features and projects, to contribute by telling us what is on
+their mind and suggest issues and bugs, and to showcase their use cases and the
+tools they have built.
+
+Our communications strategy is foremost guided by our :ref:`mission-statement`:
+
+* We demonstrate that we care about visualization as a practice
+* We deepen our practice and the community’s capacity to support users,
+  facilitate exploration, produce high quality viz, and be understandable and
+  extensible
+* We showcase advanced use of the library without adding maintenance burden to
+  the documentation and show recognition for work that may not be in the
+  “what’s new” section.
+* We use communications platforms to maintain relationships with contributors
+  who may no longer be active on GitHub, build relationships with potential
+  contributors, and connect with other projects and communities who use
+  Matplotlib.
+* In prioritizing understandability and extensiblity, we empower people working
+  with Matplotlib to feel like they are a part of our community and that they are
+  doing valuable community building labor.
+
 These guidelines are applicable when acting as a representative of Matplotlib,
 for example at sprints or when giving official talks or tutorials, and in any
 community venue managed by Matplotlib.
 
-
 .. _communication-channels:
 
 Official communication channels
@@ -148,12 +169,32 @@ Visual media in communications should be made as accessible as possible:
   * Do not make bright, strobing images.
   * More guidelines at https://webaim.org/techniques/images/.
 
+.. _social-media-brand:
 
 Social media
 ============
 
-Please follow these guidelines to maintain a consistent brand identity across
-platforms.
+Matplotlib aims for a single voice across all social media platforms to build and
+maintain a consistent brand identity for Matplotlib as an organization. This
+depersonalization is the norm on social media platforms because it enables
+constructive and productive conversations; People generally feel more comfortable
+giving negative and constructive feedback to a brand then to specific contributors.
+
+The current Matplotlib voice and persona aims to be kind, patient, supportive and
+educational. This is so that it can de-escalate tensions and facilitate
+constructive conversations; being perceived as negative or
+argumentative can escalate very fast into long-lasting brand damage, being
+perceived as personal leads to aggression and accusations faster than an
+impersonal account, and being perceived as friendly and approachable leads to
+higher engagement. Instead of speaking with a directive authority, which can be
+intimidating and lead to negative engagement, it speaks as a peer or educator to
+empower participation. The current voice encourages more input from folks we
+engage with, and also makes it possible for folks who are not in the core team
+to participate in managing the account.
+
+While the :ref:`brand identity <social-media-brand>` is casual, the showcased
+content is high quality, peer-led resource building. Please follow these
+guidelines to maintain a consistent brand identity across platforms.
 
 Persona
 -------
diff --git a/doc/users/project/mission.rst b/doc/users/project/mission.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+.. _mission-statement:
+
 Mission Statement
 =================
 

Original file line number	Diff line number	Diff line change
`@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@`
	`1`	`+.. _mission-statement:`
	`2`	`+`
`1`	`3`	`Mission Statement`
`2`	`4`	`=================`
`3`	`5`