This repository contains information about joining Octacity and serves as the entry point for membership applications.
Octacity is an open-source community organized around eight main teams. Members participate in the community’s internal organization, contribute to long-term projects, and share responsibility for their team’s work.
Public contribution does not require membership. Anyone may contribute to Octacity repositories that explicitly accept outside contributions.
Joining Octacity involves three stages:
- Application
- Review by the founder and team leaders
- Interview
Submitting an application does not guarantee membership. Applications are evaluated according to the applicant’s interests, expectations, availability, communication, and potential fit within the community and its teams.
Membership applications are submitted through this repository using the membership request issue template.
The application is intended to help us understand:
- Who you are
- Why you want to join Octacity
- What areas interest you
- How you would like to contribute
- Your current skills or experience
- What you would like to learn
- How much time you expect to contribute
- Which team or projects may suit you
Previous experience is useful, but it is not the only consideration. Applicants may be experienced contributors, students, beginners, designers, researchers, technical writers, coordinators, or people interested in other areas of open-source work.
Do not include private or sensitive information in your application. Membership requests may be visible publicly through GitHub Issues.
Applications are reviewed by the Octacity founder and relevant team leaders.
The review considers whether the applicant is a suitable fit for the community and whether there is an appropriate place for them within one of the teams.
There is no fixed scoring system or checklist that automatically determines acceptance. Reviewers may consider:
- Interest in long-term participation
- Willingness to collaborate
- Communication and reliability
- Relevant skills or learning goals
- Alignment with available projects
- The current needs and capacity of teams
- Understanding of open-source collaboration
- Respect for the community’s principles
A team leader may support an application when they believe the applicant would fit their team. The founder also reviews applications and may decline an application when necessary, including cases where a team leader is otherwise willing to accept it.
This process exists to protect the long-term health of the community and ensure that new membership is appropriate for both the applicant and Octacity.
Applicants who pass the initial review may be invited to a short interview.
The interview is not intended to be a formal technical examination. Its purpose is to:
- Get to know the applicant
- Discuss their interests and expectations
- Clarify their application
- Explain how Octacity and its teams operate
- Identify suitable teams, projects, or responsibilities
- Determine whether membership would be a good mutual fit
Technical questions may be discussed when relevant to the applicant’s interests or the needs of a team, but membership is not based solely on technical ability.
After the review and interview, an application may be:
The applicant is invited to the Octacity GitHub organization and assigned to an appropriate team.
The exact team and initial responsibilities may be discussed with the applicant before the invitation is sent.
The applicant may be suitable for Octacity, but there may not currently be an appropriate team, project, or available capacity.
A deferred application may be reconsidered later.
The application is not accepted.
A declined application does not necessarily mean the applicant lacks technical ability. The decision may be based on fit, expectations, communication, current team needs, or the direction of the community.
Octacity is represented by eight main teams.
Accepted members join one of these teams based on:
- Their interests
- Their preferred contribution areas
- Their skills and learning goals
- Current projects
- Team capacity
- Discussion during the interview
- The decision of the relevant team leader and founder
Team placement is not necessarily permanent. Members may collaborate with other teams, contribute to repositories outside their primary team, or move between teams when appropriate.
Joining a team does not restrict a member to that team’s repositories. Cross-team contribution is encouraged throughout Octacity.
Octacity membership means becoming part of the community’s internal structure and accepting ongoing responsibility for its projects and collaboration.
Members are expected to:
- Participate consistently according to their availability
- Communicate clearly with their team
- Follow through on responsibilities they accept
- Treat other contributors respectfully
- Follow the Code of Conduct
- Contribute to projects or community work
- Document important work and decisions
- Ask for help when needed
- Support other members when possible
- Consider the long-term maintenance of their contributions
Membership does not require constant activity or a fixed number of weekly hours. However, members should communicate when they are unavailable and should not repeatedly accept responsibilities they cannot complete.
Membership is not required to participate in Octacity’s public projects.
Public contributors may:
- Report bugs
- Suggest improvements
- Join public discussions
- Improve documentation
- Submit pull requests
- Contribute to repositories that accept outside participation
Public contribution does not automatically grant membership. However, previous contributions may help reviewers understand an applicant’s interests, communication, and way of working.
People who are not ready to apply for membership are welcome to begin by contributing publicly.
Before submitting a membership request:
- Read the main Octacity README.
- Review the available teams and projects.
- Explore repositories that interest you.
- Read the Code of Conduct.
- Consider how you would like to participate.
- Make sure you are interested in long-term collaboration rather than only receiving a title or organization badge.
You do not need to understand every project or know exactly which team you should join. Team placement can be discussed during the review process.
When submitting your application:
- Answer the questions honestly.
- Be specific about your interests.
- Mention what you want to contribute and learn.
- Share relevant work when available.
- Explain your expected availability realistically.
- Do not exaggerate your experience.
- Do not share private documents or sensitive personal information.
Short answers are acceptable when they provide enough information for reviewers to understand you. Longer answers are welcome when additional context is useful.
Applications are reviewed according to the availability of the founder and team leaders.
Submitting multiple issues or repeatedly contacting reviewers will not accelerate the process. Important updates or corrections may be added as comments to the original application.
All applicants and members are expected to follow the Octacity Code of Conduct.
Applications may be declined or closed when they contain harassment, discrimination, deliberate misrepresentation, spam, hostility, or behavior that conflicts with the community’s principles.
To begin the membership process, create a new issue using the membership request template.
Before submitting, make sure you understand that:
- Applications are reviewed based on fit.
- An interview may be required.
- Acceptance is not guaranteed.
- Team placement is decided during the review process.
- Public contribution and membership are separate.
- Membership includes responsibility, not only access to the organization.