Covering the community

This page explains what covering the online community involves: what to watch, when to reply, and what to do when something goes wrong.

Almost nothing here is urgent. There is no response time target. If you are not sure about something, ask in #team-builder-relations.

These processes are new, and we still change them often. Read this page as the current state, not as a settled policy.

Community surfaces

Two spaces:

• Discord
• The forum, at posthog.com/forum

This does not include Reddit or GitHub at the moment, but this will change.

Where to look

Slack shows everything. You do not need to open Discord or the forum to see what is new.

The morning digest is the fastest way to see what is open.

How often to check

Two or three times each day is enough.

We aren't alone in these channels:

• Other PostHog product teams are in Discord (but you might need to ping in Slack to help them notice a specific post).
• Members of the Array (hand-picked community leaders) help. Ask them in the #the-array Discord channel, or mention the @champion role.
• Community members often answer each other.

If we answer nothing for two days, that's fine. We just don't want anything going a week without any interactions, especially if a user seems to be blocked on something.

When to reply

Most of the Discord feed does not need PostHog employee interaction, but it's great to chime in when we have something to add.

• Chatter. A person writes "morning hogs", or something like it. Join the conversation, or add a reaction. This is the community working, not a waste of your time.
• A question you can answer. Answer it.
• A question you cannot answer. See if you do not know the answer.

Where to send people

If it's troubleshooting or clarifying how something works, encourage them to ask PostHog AI, as it will have more context around their project. This is the same rule as in community channels.

On the forum, check that the tag is set to the team that owns the product mentioned in the post. The control is below the post, in the moderator tools. The tag puts the thread into that team's support Slack channel, so the team can see it. A tag does not make that team answer. If you want a reply, write in the team's Slack channel too.

If you do not know the answer

Use the answering-community-questions skill in PostHog AI (in the builder relations space). Type /answering and select it, then give it the URL of the thread or the text of the question. It searches our public content, the person's own project data, GitHub, and Slack, and gives you material for your reply. Do not copy and paste a response. Use it to inform what you can say to them, offer troubleshooting advice and help them debug, or help you figure out which team can best help answer the question.

Escalating to a team

Escalate and follow up when a person is truly stuck and cannot continue with their work.

1. Copy the link to the Discord message or the forum post.

2. Get the user's email (if in Discord, ask them to DM you; if on the forum, you can see it in their profile).

3. Create a new support ticket. You can follow a format like this ticket:

   Hey there, we just created a ticket for you on behalf of your community post (LINK):

   [COPY THE TEXT OF THE POST, OR AT LEAST A QUICK SUMMARY]

   We'll take a look and respond here.

Heated topics

Sometimes a group of people disagree with a decision, and the thread gets hot. An example: people want bring-your-own-key, and they are angry that we do not have it.

Do not defend the position yourself. Ask the product owner for that area to write the current thinking in the thread. They know what changed and what is planned. A first-hand answer ends the thread. A second-hand answer extends it.

A hot thread is not an incident. People who disagree with us are still welcome.

Spam, abuse, and hateful content

This is the most urgent thing that tends to happen and needs to be addressed immediately.

Act first, write it down after

If a message contains hateful content, targeted abuse, spam, or leaked credentials, remove it before you do anything else.

• On the forum, hide the reply or archive the thread. See moderator tools.
• In Discord, delete the message. Use a timeout if the person is only heated. Use a ban if the person acts in bad faith.

Then say what you did in #team-builder-relations.

Ban immediately, or use the ladder

Ban on sight for bad faith:

• Hateful content of any kind
• Abuse aimed at a person
• Spam and unsolicited promotion
• A person who says they abused a PostHog endpoint, account, or credit allowance

For anything else, use the four steps in the code of conduct: correction, warning, temporary ban, permanent ban. A first mistake that looks careless starts at correction. A first mistake that looks hostile does not.

Always say why, and how to appeal. Bans and grievances has the mechanics for Discord and for PostHog organizations.

People who help you

Two Discord channels hold members that we selected by hand:

• #the-array
• #forum-cleanup (same members, just conversation focused around content in the forum)

You can rely on these members. They join questions and conversations when they can help.

Routine maintenance

There is almost none, but we may dig into issues if something unexpected happens.

• Point redemptions are self-serve. You can monitor them in the #community-rewards channel. See points & rewards.
• Reports and digests run automatically. Nothing to pull.
• For sending merch, see the merch store page.
• If you see another PostHog teammate responding to a question or engaging on a post, give them a shoutout in #community-kudos.