At Common Fate, we decided to open source our software for one simple reason: users have the right to know what’s running on their machines and in their environments. We don’t believe that our software development processes can or should be insulated from our users, their experiences or their critiques.

So, the next obvious step was to create an RFD repo. Broadly, our RFD process will follow the same philosophy as NWG’s RFC 3:

The content of a note may be any thought, suggestion, etc. related to the software or other aspect of the network. Notes are encouraged to be timely rather than polished. The minimum length for a note is one sentence. These standards (or lack of them) are stated explicitly for two reasons. First, there is a tendency to view a written statement as ipso facto authoritative, and we hope to promote the exchange and discussion of considerably less than authoritative ideas. Second, there is a natural hesitancy to publish something unpolished, and we hope to ease this inhibition.

We want to emphasize the fact that we welcome all discussion and feedback on our tools, our development process or any other aspect of how Common Fate functions as a company.

We’re also particularly keen to hear feedback from people in demographics that have been sidelined and discriminated against in tech, since we understand that such users are often wrongly lead to believe that their opinions are not as valuable as others.

When to start an RFD

Here are some examples of when we might open an RFD:

• Adding or changing a company process
• An architectural design decision impacting the existing software or proposed a new feature
• A change that affects the way people use our tools, especially if it could break integrations or impact their workflow
• Changes to our public-facing strategies, such as the way we write content, manage our social media or do developer advocacy

Of course, we also welcome our users to open RFDs for any ideas, suggestions, concerns they may have.

If you have an idea for a discussion but don’t know if it might be too trivial or silly — just post it! We want to hear from you. Our Developer Advocate isn’t afraid of looking dumb when he makes our Twitter posts, so you shouldn’t worry either.

Participating in RFDsAll our open RFDs will be in the Discussions tab of our RFD Github repo. Check out the pinned discussion for info on how to start your own RFD.

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