Okay a few people have DMd me, and I’m feeling some kind of vague friction that feels currently on track to be a dealbreaker so let’s think that through here.
Problems:
I can’t tell offhand who’s good at this, and while I think this is something someone with little experience could turn out to be good at, they often won’t be, and it’s kind of costly to spend a slot on them, especially if I really need someone competent at it.
I often need someone “right now”, and need a way to contact a bunch of people quickly, such that most of them will get the message and one of them will reply quickly, in a way that isn’t too annoying for them but works.
I have a vision of a whole-ass website dedicated to facilitating this but right now want a quick hacky solution.
A group DM would work, but that feels like it’ll produce weird competitive dynamics with who replies first but maybe isn’t as good as the person who replies second.
DMing a bunch of people individually I guess is fine but but then I need to go find them.
A requirement for everyone participating as an assistant is that they have a way of being contacted that they’ll respond to quickly.
I believe the availability side of this is what organizational-level calendars are for.
For the preference side, it’s handy to share a physiological time zone (e.g. having similar availability and “best working hours” regardless of actual geography), precomitting to some minimum waiting period (e.g. “rolling an RNG with anyone who chimes in within 5 minutes” rather than “who’s free?”) to reduce the fastest-hand-raise problem, and if you end up noticing a preference, you can always weight the RNG accordingly.
Okay a few people have DMd me, and I’m feeling some kind of vague friction that feels currently on track to be a dealbreaker so let’s think that through here.
Problems:
I can’t tell offhand who’s good at this, and while I think this is something someone with little experience could turn out to be good at, they often won’t be, and it’s kind of costly to spend a slot on them, especially if I really need someone competent at it.
I often need someone “right now”, and need a way to contact a bunch of people quickly, such that most of them will get the message and one of them will reply quickly, in a way that isn’t too annoying for them but works.
I have a vision of a whole-ass website dedicated to facilitating this but right now want a quick hacky solution.
A group DM would work, but that feels like it’ll produce weird competitive dynamics with who replies first but maybe isn’t as good as the person who replies second.
DMing a bunch of people individually I guess is fine but but then I need to go find them.
A requirement for everyone participating as an assistant is that they have a way of being contacted that they’ll respond to quickly.
I believe the availability side of this is what organizational-level calendars are for.
For the preference side, it’s handy to share a physiological time zone (e.g. having similar availability and “best working hours” regardless of actual geography), precomitting to some minimum waiting period (e.g. “rolling an RNG with anyone who chimes in within 5 minutes” rather than “who’s free?”) to reduce the fastest-hand-raise problem, and if you end up noticing a preference, you can always weight the RNG accordingly.