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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Jun 23

Can AI moderate open source communities to keep conversations productive? I created a quick GitHub Action that looks at issues/PRs/comments and can take moderation actions (warn, hide, lock, etc.) based on AI's evaluation of the content. Ideas/feedback welcome. github.com/benbalter/ai...

GitHub - benbalter/ai-community-moderator: An AI-powered GitHub Action that helps moderate community interactions by enforcing contributing guidelines and codes of conduct.

An AI-powered GitHub Action that helps moderate community interactions by enforcing contributing guidelines and codes of conduct. - benbalter/ai-community-moderator

github.com

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Apr 9

Archived more than 4,000 inactive Slack channels today with a quick GitHub Action Copilot and I whipped up. I hope to open source “Slack Stale Archiver” after it’s been running for a bit. Encouraging people to post their favorite animated GIF to keep the channel active has been the best part so far.

Abstract image of a broom sweeping chat message icons.

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Reposted by Ben Balter

Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · Mar 25

Blog entry: Why I work in the open.

I’ve long worked in the open, overwhelmingly for one reason: it increases enormously the surface area for success.

Why I work in the open.

I've long worked in the open, overwhelmingly for one reason: it increases enormously the surface area for success.

waldo.jaquith.org

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Feb 13

Slack channel name squatting is the new domain squatting.

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Feb 4

I see the "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" is making the rounds again in some circles. Thought it was timely to share this post again on my updated take: ben.balter.com/2016/01/15/h...

How to derail any meeting

How a WWII field manual can help modern knowledge workers identify those inadvertently sabotaging your organization today.

ben.balter.com

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Jan 30

If you do a lot of writing and are looking for a grammar, style, and spell checker that doesn't send what you write to a third party service, I wrote up instructions for how to setup and use the open source LanguageTool locally on your machine.

ben.balter.com/2025/01/30/h...

How to run LanguageTool on macOS

How to set up a free and open-source grammar, style, and spell checker that can be run locally on your machine without sending data to a third-party services like Grammarly, preserving the privacy of ...

ben.balter.com

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Dec 14

It’s not exactly the same, but ben.balter.com/2020/08/31/b... could be a starting point.

Budget for the hidden “internet tax”

Trust and safety (abuse protection) is a critical part of your product, and it’s a cost of doing business on the internet. It’s a hidden “internet tax” that you’ll need to pay, whether you want to or ...

ben.balter.com

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Dec 5

I’ve blocked it from my memory. `@waldo.net` 😂

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Dec 4

I still have an irrational fear of @mentioning people in private Slack channels, ever since that one time that I @mentioned the CEO, accidentally clicked the wrong button, and ended up inviting him into the channel. At least he laughed at the creative channel name? 🤷‍♂️ Now I’m a backticks-only person.

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Reposted by Ben Balter

Nicolò Ribaudo @nicr.dev · Nov 23

Developers, do you want to verify yourself here but don't have a personal domain? You can use your GitHub account! 🦋🐱

I temporarily renamed myself to @nicolo-ribaudo.github.io :)

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Reposted by Ben Balter

Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 16

Reorgs are the organizational equivalent of turning it off and back on again.

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 18

At this point, let’s just circle back after the new year.

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 18

I wish I were that cool. I used github.com/marcomaroni-... to import my posts from the other site and Bluesky supports backdating posts for just this purpose.

GitHub - marcomaroni-github/twitter-to-bluesky: Import all tweets exported from X/Twitter to a Bluesky account.

Import all tweets exported from X/Twitter to a Bluesky account. - marcomaroni-github/twitter-to-bluesky

github.com

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 17

Maybe we should take this offline.

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Reposted by Ben Balter

Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 16

Why everything should have a URL http://bit.ly/1MoMnQI

Why everything should have a URL

By naturally capturing and exposing process and sharing it as widely as is appropriate for the subject matter, URLs render organizational context time and location agnostic allowing knowledge to move more freely within an organization on an asynchronous, discoverable, and opt-in basis.

bit.ly

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 16

10+ years later and I still don’t have an answer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Aug 26

Is there a polite way to say "no, I don't want to jump on a quick call. Can't you just type up what you'd say and email it to me? async yo"?

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Reposted by Ben Balter

Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 16

Always be answering questions with URLs.

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Reposted by Ben Balter

Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 16

If you liked it then you should have put a URL on it.

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Reposted by Ben Balter

Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 16

Submitted a pull request to the closest thing GitHub has to an org chart. Merged or not, more companies should vet big changes in the open.

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 14

Back in my day, we had to implement that ourselves! ben.balter.com/2011/01/11/w...

GitHub - benbalter/WP-Emphasis: One-click implementation of the New York Times open-source emphasis script for highlighting and permalinking text.

One-click implementation of the New York Times open-source emphasis script for highlighting and permalinking text. - GitHub - benbalter/WP-Emphasis: One-click implementation of the New York Times ...

github.com

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Oct 29

If you’re at GitHub Universe, come say hey! 👋

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Oct 4

Remote since day one, GitHub learned a lot about how to communicate across time zones. We created an internal “how we communicate” doc, which we’re sharing with the world today. TL;DR: we use GitHub Actions and OpenAI to solve for information overload. PR’s welcome! github.blog/2023-10-04-h...

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 16

Remote work requires communicating more, less frequently, because async communication involves less frequent, but richer communication. There is less talking about the work and more doing it, allowing the system to optimize for throughput and flow. https://t.co/R3J5pCjUho

Remote work requires communicating more, less frequently

Remote work requires communicating more, less frequently, because asynchronous communication involves less frequent, but richer communication, meaning there is less time talking about the work and more time doing it, allowing the system to optimize for throughput and flow.

ben.balter.com

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 16

Exactly 10 years ago today, I 🚢'd my first GitHub feature, GeoJSON rendering. The base layer has since moved from MapBox to Azure Maps, but the feature is still rendering more than 7 million maps a year across more than 27 million .geojson files. https://t.co/1NiPrgsW0o

There's a map for that

Not long ago, we began rendering 3D models on GitHub. Today we’re excited to announce the latest addition to the visualization family – geographic data. Any .geojson file in a…

github.blog

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Ben Balter @ben.balter.com · Nov 16

Practice inclusive scheduling. When working as a distributed team, be mindful of cultural differences, time zones, encouraging breaks between meetings, and connecting as humans. https://ben.balter.com/2023/05/19/practice-inclusive-scheduling/

Practice inclusive scheduling

When working as a distributed team, be mindful of cultural differences, time zones, encouraging breaks between meetings, and connecting as humans.

ben.balter.com