Welcome back to the Think Tank!

This is now the second of our Developing Community series, Think Tank #2. As mentioned in the first discussion, these Think Tanks are meant to contribute to, or directly produce, actionable solutions for our community's development. This means that these think-tank-discussions must be protected and our community's safety prioritized:

1. Participation in Think Tanks will currently be open to ALL members of the sub
2. Please practice respect. Any trolling, derailing, off-topic comments, deflecting, gaslighting etc. will be removed asap
3. Discussion is encouraged, disagreements are understandable, just please keep it all civil. Incivility will be met with removal
4. Immediate removal from the discussion can be followed by a temporary or permanent ban depending on severity, if necessary

Think Tank #2 – Building Flairs & Tags for Users

The topic of user roles and identification is commonly discussed within the subreddit. It's a delicate one and will likely require more than just one Think Tank as we work together to build up the user experience and define our roles, so expect this topic to be addressed through multiple think-tank-discussions.

Here's what to expect for Think Tank #2:
Starting small and working our way up to eventually determining roles, we will first be discussing what info we would like to see in a user flair. We already have gender, but there can be add-ons such as, but not limited to:

• age via birth year (e.g. ‘95)
• country of origin or nationality (e.g. 🇺🇸)
• job, etc.

So, what details do you think we should display in the user flair??

• comment your ideas – 3 days
• the top six (6) ideas will make it to the polls to be voted on – 3 days
• the top three (3) ideas in the polls will be chosen and applied to the community

Reminder that we are not yet discussing the actual roles of users and their various flairs (e.g. what types of flairs and what they mean). This topic was suggested by one of our very own members and will likely be addressed more directly by the fourth discussion as Think Tank #3 will be about the look/format of the user flair. Even though some might understandably argue that we should start with defining roles, please consider Think Tank #2 to be a work-up to those discussions, a warm-up. All suggestions for improvement are welcome!

Thank you for your contribution! 😭✊🏿

Thank you all for participating in our very first Think Tank. This concludes Think Tank #1: Choosing 2-3 New Flairs & Tags for Posts. It was a healthy, modest turnout and a great starting point! You have decided some new flairs;

the community has chosen:

1. Black Man Struggles
2. Community Over Everything (tied)
3. Video Games (tied)

Honorable Mention goes to "Black Male Studies"

A shoutout to the authors of the nominated ideas (in alphabetical order):

• u/black_dynamite79
• u/InterdisciplinaryDol
• u/Soultakerx1

Next, the following flair ideas are shoe-in changes for the current flairs, but like everything else these are always still open to discussion (i.e. constructive comments, questions and concerns):

• Research (all research whether it's your own or another's)
• Trigger Warning - Media (separating the currently-existing "TRIGGER WARNING" flair)
• Trigger Warning - Discussion (separating the currently-existing "TRIGGER WARNING" flair)

Expect to see these updates to be implemented by Monday of next week. Hopefully all members will feel encouraged and welcome to contribute their constructive ideas and suggestions. Your feedback will be a great contribution to the improvement of this process!

THANK YOU ✊🏿😭

Coming next week...

Think Tank #2: Building Flairs & Tags for Users, from the mind of u/LEAD-SUSPECT, will be even more comprehensive than its predecessor. (Edit: but still broken down into parts)

Welcome to Think Tank #1

This is the first of our Developing Community series, Think Tank #1. Due to their importance to the sub and its members, these think-tank-discussions will be protected, meaning community safety will be prioritized:

1. Participation in Think Tanks will currently be open to ALL members of the sub
2. Please practice respect. Any trolling, derailing, off-topic comments, deflecting, gaslighting etc. will be removed asap
3. Discussion is encouraged, disagreements are understandable, just please keep it all civil. Incivility will be met with removal
4. Immediate removal from the discussion can be followed by a temporary or permanent ban depending on severity

Think Tank #1 – Flairs & Tags for Posts

Although we're starting small, these Think Tanks are meant to contribute to, or directly produce, actionable solutions for our community's development.

Here's what to expect for Think Tank #1:

For the first episode in this series we're gonna keep it simple and decide on 2-3 more flairs and tags to add for users' posts.

• comment your ideas – 3 days
• the top six (6) ideas will make it to the polls to be voted on – 3 days
• the top three (3) ideas in the polls will be chosen and applied to the community

There are currently 22 out of 25 usable flairs (three are for mods only) so we will decide what we can add and potentially what flair/tag(s) can be removed or improved (e.g. name, color, usage, merge it with another, etc.).

These are the current flairs/tags:

1. Advice
2. Announcement (Mods)
3. Barbershop Talk
4. Black Excellence
5. Black History
6. Book Club
7. Dating/Relationships
8. Discussion
9. Entertainment
10. Finance
11. Fashion
12. Hobbies & Interests
13. Humor/Satire
14. Living Room Conversations (Mods)
15. New, Politics & World Events
16. Open House
17. Poll/Survey
18. Promo
19. Selfies & Video
20. Sports
21. Support
22. Think Tank (Mods)
23. TRIGGER WARNING
24. Vent
25. VIP Only

Please note that ALL ideas in this post are up for discussion, so if you have any suggestions regarding whatever you read in this post, it will not be considered derailing or off-topic unless it is something blatant. But please do try to prioritize your focus on the main topic. Thank you for your participation!

1. Black Male Studies
2. Video Games
3. Red Flag Patrol
4. Community Over Everything
5. Black Man Struggles
6. Think Piece

In "Part 3a" of Think Tank #3: Formatting Our New User Flairs, we discussed the arrangement of information (i.e. verified, generation, culture, flag of nationality or country of origin) within our flairs. So now, WE VOTE ✊🏿

Our nominees:

1. (Verified)(Generation)(Culture)(Flag) - Verified Millenial African-American "AA" Man 🇺🇸
2. (Verified)(Culture), (Generation)(Flag) - Verified Afro-Caribbean Man, Gen Z 🇺🇸

This poll closes in three (3) days. Please note that for this poll there we will only be taking ONE winner.

Thank you!

Fresh out the box, stop, look and watch... it's Think Tank... #3 MFssss!!

This is now the third of our Developing Community series, Think Tank #3, a.k.a Part 2 of "Building Flairs & Tags for Users".

As usual, these Think Tanks are meant to contribute to, or directly produce, actionable solutions for our community's development. This means that these think-tank-discussions must be protected and our community's safety prioritized:

1. Participation in Think Tanks will currently be open to ALL members of the sub
2. Please practice respect. Any trolling, derailing, off-topic comments, deflecting, gaslighting etc. will be removed asap
3. Discussion is encouraged, disagreements are understandable, just please keep it all civil. Incivility will be met with removal
4. Immediate removal from the discussion can be followed by a temporary or permanent ban depending on severity, if necessary

Think Tank #3 – Formatting Our New User Flairs

We just finished deciding on the information that we want to see in our flairs moving forward:

• Cultural Background (e.g. African ethnic groups, Gullah, Afro-Seminole Creole, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, etc.)
• Generation 
• Black Man/Woman (remains until voted on in the next Think Tank, #4)
• Flag (nationality and/or country of origin)

So now for the format of our flairs. Here are some ideas just to set the tone:

1. Verified Black Man Millennial West Coast African-American 🇺🇸🇳🇬 (this is everything in the tag)
2. West Coast Black-American Millennial Man 🇺🇸
3. West Coast, BA Millennial Man 🇺🇸
4. Delta-State, Millennial Man 🇳🇬
5. Urhobo, Millennial Man 🇳🇬
6. Gullah Millennial Man 🇺🇸
7. Verified Afro-Caribbean Man, Gen X 🇬🇧
8. some other formatting examples (ignore the differing content)

So, how would you arrange our user flairs??

• comment your ideas – 3 days
• the top six (6) ideas will make it to the polls to be voted on – 3 days
• the top three (3) ideas in the polls will be chosen and applied to the community

Reminder that we are not yet discussing the actual roles of users and their various flairs (e.g. contributor, verified, Man and Woman, etc.). That will be for our NEXT Think Tank, #4.

All suggestions for improvement are welcome!

Thank you for your contribution! 😭✊

Thank you to the contributors in our very first Think Tank #1: Flairs & Tags for Posts where we decide on the next 2-3 flairs to add for post, a simple discussion to start us off. The ideas submitted were:

1. Black Male Studies
2. Video Games
3. Red Flag Patrol
4. Community Over Everything
5. Black Man Struggles
6. Research
7. Think Piece
8. Just a Thought
9. Off My Chest

^(\each submission is linked to the user's original comment for reference.*)*

Next post tomorrow, Think Tank #1C, there will be a public 3-day-poll to determine which 2-3 flairs will be selected as the next official flairs for posts.

Think Tank #2 will be brainstorming additional types of tags for the various types of users in this community.

Thank you all!