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What to Expect in Virtual Coffee

How to get the most out of all that Virtual Coffee has to offer.

We get many questions like "What to expect once we join Virtual Coffee?" "Where's the link to today's Coffee?" "How to join a Virtual Coffee event?" This article serves as a guide to answer these questions!


Coffees (Virtual Coffee Weekly Zoom Chats)

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We have Coffee on Tuesdays at 9:00 AM ET and Thursdays at 12:00 PM ET that last an hour. This is a good place and time to meet and get to know other members, old and new, through casual conversations.

After some pre-coffee chatter, our MC will make an intro with some background and important announcements while people filter in. Then we'll break the crowd into breakout rooms for more relaxed and intimate conversations.

When we move to the small group conversations, there will be a Room Leader and Note Taker for the room. They'll explain how we do introductions and how to participate. We value our members and the ways they're most comfortable participating.

If you're here to listen and chill? No problem! If you can't turn on your camera or aren't comfortable having your camera or even sound on? Feel free to turn them off! There is no obligation for you to have them on. We want you to be as comfortable as possible in our Coffees.

We drop the schedule in the #announcement channel on Slack every Monday and the day of the Coffee. There will also be an announcement to join the Coffee in the #vc-events channel 10 minutes before the Coffee start, along with the link to join.

  • Head over to the #vc-events channel on Slack.
  • Click the "Join Event" button to join the Coffee.

Now you will be directed to the Coffee's Zoom.

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Do you want to work or learn with people around, need help and a pair program, or only want to hang out with other members? Thanks to Dan Ott, we have a #co-working-room channel linked to our Zoom, so our members can connect anytime! It's open 24/7!

  • Head over to the #co-working-room channel on Slack.
  • Click the green button to be directed to our Zoom room to start a new session or join the ongoing session.

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Our members voluntarily hold events from members to members, and you're most welcome to join!

Every Monday, we drop the week's list of events in the #announcement channel on Slack. We also drop the schedule on the day of the events. There will be another announcement to join the events in the #vc-events channel 10 minutes before the events start, along with the link to join.

You can find the complete schedule of the events on the Events page.

  • Head over to the #vc-events channel on Slack.
  • Click the "Join Event" button to join the event—you will be directed to the event's Zoom room.

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Much of Virtual Coffee occurs on Slack. We have channels in our Slack to accommodate our members, and we encourage you to participate in Slack to get the most out of Virtual Coffee!

See our Virtual Coffee Slack Channels Guide for the complete list of our Slack channels.

And read our tips around Slack in the next section if you need to familiarize yourself with Slack.

➡️ Using Tags

You can tag members (e.g., @name) to notify them about your thread and draw their attention.

But unless you are a Maintainer or granted permission by a Maintainer, don't use @here or @channel. Using these tags will notify everyone in the channel. It might be an afternoon at your time, but that means it's midnight for some members. We want to respect all time zones.

➡️ One Topic, One Thread

Keep one topic in one thread. If you need to add more information to your message or you want to reply to a message, do that in the thread and not create a new message to avoid confusion. Doing this will keep the topics and the conversations in the channels easy to follow by other members.

On a Computer
  • Hover over the thread.
  • Click the speech bubble emoji. (If you hover over it, a tooltip will say "Reply to thread".)
On a Phone
  • Press on the thread.
  • Press where it says "Reply in thread", and start typing.

Or

  • Long press on the thread.
  • Press "Reply in thread", and start typing.

➡️ Bookmarks and Pinned Messages

You can check bookmarks and pinned messages on the top of each channel to find important and helpful links or resources around the community.

➡️ Including Code Snippets in a Message

When you need to share code snippets in your message, you want to ensure it's well-formatted to make it readable and easy to understand. There are code and code block buttons in the text formatting menu. You can also create this formatting with backticks.

Inline Code

Use a single backtick (`) to share technical jargon or a one-line code in a sentence. For example:

If you use `npm`, run `npm list -g` to see all packages you've installed globally.
Code Block

Use triple backtick (```) to share a code block. For example:

```
function greetings() {
  console.log("Hello there!");
}
```

➡️ View Channels Before Joining

You can scroll through a channel's conversation to understand what it's all about and if it's for you before clicking the "Join" button.

➡️ Find and Add a Channel in Slack

If you want to find and add a channel:

On a Computer
  • Click "More" at the sidebar.
  • Click "All channels".
  • Find a channel that you want to join.
  • Click the "Join" button.

Or

  • Scroll down to the bottom of the "Channel" tab on the sidebar.
  • Click the "Add channels" button.
  • Click "Browse channels".
  • Find a channel that you want to join.
  • Click the "Join" button.
On a Phone
  • Press the "+" button in the "Channels" tab.
  • Search in the search bar or scroll down to find a channel.
  • Press on the channel.
  • Press the "Join Channel" button.

➡️ Leave a Channel in Slack

If you decide to leave a channel:

On a Computer
  • Right-click on the channel that you want to leave.
  • Click "Leave channel" at the bottom.
On a Phone
  • Long press on the channel that you want to leave.
  • Press "Leave Channel" at the bottom.

➡️ Notifications

You can choose the notifications you want to receive—all new messages, direct messages, mentions & keywords, or nothing. You can also schedule the time for notifications so they won't bother you during busy or rest time. To do so:

On a Computer
  • Click on your profile picture at the top.
  • Click "Notifications".
On a Phone
  • Press the "You" tab at the bottom.
  • Press "Notifications".

Now you can manage the notifications based on your need.

➡️ Mute Channels

Do you want to stay in a channel, but it's too noisy? You can mute the channel.

On a Computer
  • Right-click on the channel.
  • Click "Mute channel".
On a Phone
  • Long press on the channel.
  • Press "Mute channel".

➡️ Star Channels

You maybe check on some channels more often than others. And every time, you need to scroll to find it. You can favorite the channels that you regularly go to!

On a Computer
  • Right-click on the channel.
  • Click "Star channel".
On a Phone
  • Long press on the channel.
  • Press "Star Channel".

The starred channels will be grouped and moved to the top.

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