The need for mantra

Committees SAC SAC mailing list
1

As discussed in this email and in the incubation committee meeting today.
The need for mantra is burdensome. It is burdensome for users asking for
one and also for those who have to address them and 80% of the time there is
no point to the ask.

Main issues are:

1) People ask for an osgeo id simply to introduce themselves to the
community and their interests and for some reason think they need an osgeo
id to do so.
2) People ask for mantras cause they want to download QGIS software and
think they need one.

Then there are some people that really need OSGeo ids cause they need to
publish a QGIS plugin.

Jody thought maybe using discourse in some way to field these might help.

I created a Introduction category with a template to just test this idea
out.

If you notice if you create a new topic in this category, it will prefill
with a template.

Anyone else that asks me to give them a mantra without sufficient
information to do so, I'm going to force them to fill this out to prove
their need and if they do, I'll just private message them on discourse with
the mantra.

This is of course an experiment, but I figure is frictionless way for people
to introduce themselves to us and if it doesn't work for mantra, at the very
least, it will be easier to filter out from those folk who use the "General"
category to introduce themselves. I'm going to move all the intro messages
out of general and into this category.

Discourse Admins - please fill free to edit the category template - which is
located here -
https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/introductions/edit/topic-template

Thanks,
Regina

2

Thanks, that is an interesting experiment for sure!

I like discourse mechaisms for slowly/automatically building trust and establishing a person is … well a person.

As for the onboarding process, we started this conversation about OSGeo ID and “mantra”, so we are looking very technical intimidating list of questions (weblate etc…).

I think if we look at this from a “Introduce yourself” / “why do you want to join OSGeo” perspective then the initial questions could be smaller, easier to respond to, and less intimidating.

But we can work on the template as we go, thus far I think this shows a lot of promise.

Do you need an OSGeo Account?

Requested OSGeo Account service permissions: (remove any that do not apply):

  • Website: Create a member profile to join OSGeo Foundation

  • Wiki: Edit wiki pages

  • QGIS Plugin: Publish your own QGIS plugin (Note: Installing a plugin is available to everyone and does not require an OSGeo account)

  • Code: Create a repository or contribute to a repository on git.osgeo.org

  • Google Summer of Code: Join as a participant

  • Website: Add a project to the OSGeo project directory

  • Translate: Translate a project on weblate

  • GeoForAll: Participate in GeoForAll initiative

Reading the above list, some things like GeoForAll and Add a project could be better handled by their respective discourse forums?

3

Jeroen,

My main concern is with having bots or rogue users and just accounts that people forget about and clutter our system or get compromised.

OSGeo Ids provide you access to core things, much of which most people don’t care about when starting off.

Does having an account to a website (or OSGeo) really make you feel more attached to that org especially when you don’t understand what you can use that account for?

For me, as a user, it’s yet another account I need to remember and manage. if I don’t need one, I’d prefer not wasting my time creating one. As an OSGeo SAC team member, I’d prefer people understanding what they need one for before they ask for one.

We have a lot of things that don’t require OSGeo accounts – discourse, mailing lists, downloading software which is probably 90% of what people care to do when they first interact with OSGeo.

I feel like there are two steps users take

Step 1: I’m just passing by want to know what you are about and if I should bother getting further involved

I think it sends a bad message if people think “Before we talk to you, you have to register with us”. We need to get rid of that mindset.

Step 2: I’m now excited I want to get deeper in your organization – e.g. weblate translation, editing the wiki, publishing things, maybe becoming a project member or community lead.

I’d rather people get to Step 2 before they get accounts because accounts created with purposeful intent are less likely to be compromised or bloat our directory.

I’d also like to learn more about people in step 1 – what their interests are etc – so we can welcome and guide them, which is the main reason I added the “Introductions” section to discourse.

If you create a profile about yourself on OSGeo website, no one knows about you unless they are searching the osgeo.org site for people. No one knows you are new and looking for direction.

If you do it on discourse/introductions – those who are interested in learning about new people can subscribe to the category and say “Welcome” and give some proper guidance if the new person is interested in the things they are interested in.

I would also like project members to give mantras to people if they come across someone that needs one. E.g. if you have someone who says they are interested in translating your project documents, you can just give them the mantra. You don’t need them to email mantra-request to get one.

From: Jeroen Ticheler jeroen.ticheler@geocat.net
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2026 2:17 PM
To: Regina Obe lr@pcorp.us
Cc: OSGeo Incubator Committee Incubator@lists.osgeo.org; System Administration Committee Discussion/OSGeo sac@lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Incubator] The need for mantra

Hi Regina,

While it is useful for people to know that they do not need an OSGeo ID for everything, I think our idea was that it is a nice thing to have for people as the 1 thing that links them to OSGeo (just an account). People say they wish to volunteer, but when trying to get an ID, they fail and leave. You would need an ID if you wanted to work on a WIKI page, other stuff that is community work. And I feel we should avoid that hurdle to be high or even existing. We definitely want to avoid bots, but regular people?

Or am I misunderstanding your idea of preventing people creating an account if they just wanted to even download QGIS and later happen to be involved?

Cheers,

Jeroen

On Wed, 14 Jan 2026 at 19:34, Regina Obe via Incubator <incubator@lists.osgeo.org> wrote:

As discussed in this email and in the incubation committee meeting today.
The need for mantra is burdensome. It is burdensome for users asking for
one and also for those who have to address them and 80% of the time there is
no point to the ask.

Main issues are:

  1. People ask for an osgeo id simply to introduce themselves to the
    community and their interests and for some reason think they need an osgeo
    id to do so.
  2. People ask for mantras cause they want to download QGIS software and
    think they need one.

Then there are some people that really need OSGeo ids cause they need to
publish a QGIS plugin.

Jody thought maybe using discourse in some way to field these might help.

I created a Introduction category with a template to just test this idea
out.

https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/introductions

If you notice if you create a new topic in this category, it will prefill
with a template.

Anyone else that asks me to give them a mantra without sufficient
information to do so, I’m going to force them to fill this out to prove
their need and if they do, I’ll just private message them on discourse with
the mantra.

This is of course an experiment, but I figure is frictionless way for people
to introduce themselves to us and if it doesn’t work for mantra, at the very
least, it will be easier to filter out from those folk who use the “General”
category to introduce themselves. I’m going to move all the intro messages
out of general and into this category.

Discourse Admins - please fill free to edit the category template - which is
located here -
https://discourse.osgeo.org/c/introductions/edit/topic-template

Thanks,
Regina

Incubator mailing list
Incubator@lists.osgeo.org
https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator

4

Are the ones in grey the ones you want to keep?

The ones not in grey – GeoForAll is a pretty high reason why people ask for mantras. We don’t have a discourse category for it to my knowledge, but if we did that could be a good place to put it and if someone is managing GeoForAll – they could send the user a discourse chat note with the mantra.

Google summer of code, yes we do have category for that, so I feel we can remove that. They’ll introduce themselves anyway and so it would be clear and they can be given their accounts once they are accepted. That is rarely done when they first introduce themselves.

5

No I was just trying to use the markdown formatting to work on the text.

  • start with the activity or permission, rather than have it mid sentence

For GeoForAll, Add a project, Google Summer of Code, and so on, …

I was more thinking folks could introduce themselves in that forum. And ask for an OSGeo User ID there. The Google Summer of Code organizers can know the mantra and set the applicant a direct message with the phrase to use.

6

So how is the experiment going? Is it going to be a workable approach?