Newsletter/Outgoing Publication/Social Media - beyond Discord and HF website

[hobbs-Hobbler]

(If this issue is not appropriate for this repository, I can re-post this elsewhere. There is an argument for it belonging to the main-website repository, but alas, I'll start here.)

There is a growing but not urgent need for outgoing communications from Hubs Foundation that go beyond the features already offered by Discord and the Hubs Foundation website. This issue is intended to start and keep our discussion on the types of media and purposes for each media that HF decides to use.

Here is an initial suggestion:

Each media form inherently does some forms of communication well and some forms of communication terribly.
If feasible, the media form should be selected to match a need and not simply for the media's sake.

Media

Here are two of many possible media examples:

Newsletters tend to be text-based-- that is the majority of the communication is text, although images can be easily included. Newsletters are similar to newspapers. The concept with newspapers is that they contain news information, but information can wait until the reader takes the time (reasonably within 1-30 days) to open and read the document. Newsletters are also good for archiving information in that they keep text-searchable information, but that information tends to be "news"-like: short, fact-based, lacking context or perspective. (Longer, more filled-out text media are things like opinion-piece articles, how-to instructions, books, and libraries. Shorter text media includes things like post cards, emergency texts, building digital banners, tweets, text messages, and DMs.)

Videos are image-based and they tend to be very good at 'moving pictures' or showing processes or narratives (first, middle, last). They tend to be on-demand for the viewer mostly now, but broadcast television used to be live and not saved. Videos can contain sound and text optionally. Videos are bad at displaying long-form text passages and bad at displaying detailed visuals like full diagrams.

So how would these media be used correctly and incorrectly?

A bad use of a video would be to broadcast a brief news announcement (and worse is to spend a long wasted amount of video time covering the announcement).

A bad use of a newsletter would be to describe the steps to a process or relay a lengthy story.

The point is not to place the wrong form of communication into the wrong media. Thus, we should not "create videos" simply because we have a video-hosting account, nor should we paste long how-to instructions into a Direct Message.

Need versus Want

I included "Social Media" and "not simply for media's sake" phrases in this issue. There is currently some concern about social media and each platform's viability and responsibility. This opening issue will not delve into the details on that, but the point is that platform could be selected that does not just broadcast to an audience, but that some thought is given to:
A. The audience that could benefit from hearing about Hubs Foundation is (already) there. This means HF does not start accounts at platforms where there are no known artists, developers, or educators interested in open source WebXR projects.
B. The platform has a mission that aligns not-antagonistically with Hubs Foundation. This is more difficult to define without naming names but that's just want this Issue is meant to open the discussion about.

The conclusion from these suggestions might imply that a social media account on one platform might be a bad idea, but be a good idea on another platform. Thus, this is not a suggestion to put a Hubs Foundation account on every platform in a rah-rah-sis-boom-bah effort to raise awareness about Hubs. Rather, this is a suggestion that HF could join (and leave) various platforms at will, but that there should be a documented need that contains a known audience and a review of the platform's mission.

[hobbs-Hobbler]

After discussing this issue at the Documentation Session on January 7, 2025, I would like to add two clarifications:

1. The end result of this Issue is expected to be discussion. Specifically, discussion on questions like this:

• Commenter A: Hey, I think Hubs Foundation should open an Instagram account.
• Commenter B: OK, let's talk about this. Describe the existing audience interested in open-source webXR (possibly in the form of artists, developers, or educators) on Instagram and provide Instagram's mission statement so that we can look at it.

NOT on discussion like this:

• Commenter A: I'd like to post this social media message that Hubs prevents alien abductions.
• Commenter B: Does it though?

2. Nothing here is asking for a policy solution. That's why I included the "at will" statement. Platforms' reputations change in a wink of time so HF should be free to join or exit a platform immediately without feeling like 'having our platform-X account and posting to it is something we must do' that a policy might someday engender.

My thanks to @Exairnous for determining that this Issue better lives in our .github repository because the topic is over-arching in nature.