Unicorn Meta Zoo

Welcome to the Unicorn Meta Zoo, a podcast by members of the Stack Exchange community team. If you want to avoid spoilers, jump straight to the audio.

We are talking about how we handle difficult users.

Ancient laws did not work this way. They were paradigmatic, giving models of behaviors and models of prohibitions/punishments relative to those behaviors, but they made no attempt to be exhaustive. Ancient laws gave guiding principles, or samples, rather than complete descriptions of all things regulated. Ancient people were expected to be able to extrapolate from what the sampling of laws did say to the general behavior the laws in their totality pointed toward. Ancient judges were expected to extrapolate from the wording provided in the laws that did exist to all other circumstances and not to be foiled in their jurisprudence by any such concepts as “technicalities” or “loopholes.”

If that’s not the right link, it’s still fascinating. ;-)

Juan remembered that Abby mentioned that difficult users are not always “negative”, but couldn’t remember the other word she used. Listening back, I can’t tell what word he forgot. Maybe “problem”?

Since this podcast was recorded back in April, if you are having a conflict with one of us right now, we weren’t talking about you. After many years of interacting with members of the community, we’ve accumulated plenty of experience with just about every sort of person you can imagine. So any similarities to specific individuals are entirely coincidental.

Take a listen and respond in the answers below.

Welcome to the Unicorn Meta Zoo, a podcast by members of the Stack Exchange community team. If you want to avoid spoilers, jump straight to the audio.

We are talking about aspects of leadership in our communities.

“This is the no touching podcast.” This is certainly correct since none of us are even in the same state. If anyone ever asks you to explain a double entendre, change the subject immediately as every word out of your mouth will instantly take on an unintended sexual meaning.

My title really did change to Community Product Manager. It’s mostly ceremonial.

“Unfortunately, as you probably already know, people” could be a leadership motto. It’s tempting to blame folks for problems we have as Community Managers. On the other hand, we benefit from leaders empowering others to accomplish our goals. I am forever in their debt.

Take a listen and respond in the answers below.

Welcome to the Unicorn Meta Zoo, a podcast by members of the Stack Exchange Community Management Team. If you want to avoid spoilers, jump straight to the audio.

Back in May, I interviewed Nicolas while we both were in NYC for a meetup. Nicolas has been instrumental in helping out international Stack Overflow sites to be among the most active on the network.

Jon Ericson interviewed several community managers at our most recent meet-up. There were three questions:

We’re running these interviews for the summer (or winter, if you are in the southern hemisphere) and we’ll be back to the regular format next episode.

Take a listen and respond in the answers below.

Welcome to the Unicorn Meta Zoo, a podcast by members of the Stack Exchange Community Management Team. If you want to avoid spoilers, jump straight to the audio.

Back in May, Jon interviewed me (Catija) while we were both in NYC for a meetup. Serendipitously, I get to share it with y’all on the one-year anniversary of my first day working for Stack Exchange. The interview was a lot of fun to do and I hope you enjoy listening to it!

Some users have generously volunteered to transcribe episodes on the podcast wiki.

Jon Ericson interviewed several community managers at our most recent meet-up. There were three questions:

We’re running these interviews for the summer (or winter, if you are in the southern hemisphere) and we’ll be back to the regular format around August.

Take a listen and respond in the answers below.

Welcome to the Unicorn Meta Zoo, a podcast by members of the Stack Exchange community team. If you want to avoid spoilers, jump straight to the audio.

An interview with Cesar M, our newest community manager.

Some users have generously volunteered to transcribe episodes on the podcast wiki.

Jon Ericson interviewed several community managers at our most recent meet-up. There were three questions:

We’re running these interviews for the summer (or winter, if you are in the southern hemisphere) and we’ll be back to the regular format around August.

Take a listen and respond in the answers below.

Welcome to the Unicorn Meta Zoo, a podcast by members of the Stack Exchange community team. If you want to avoid spoilers, jump straight to the audio.

We are talking about the attributes of a healthy community.

Some users have generously volunteered to transcribe episodes on the podcast wiki. I’m extremely grateful for users who helped fill in some of the previous episode’s transcript:

This episode makes me think we need a real audio editor to get rid of plosives. It’s not an easy signal processing problem.

Take a listen and respond in the answers below.