[Autocrypt] handling press contacts for Autocrypt: proposing an Autocrypt press team

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

hey folks--

The Autocrypt project has had a little bit of press recently.

In the event that we get more press in the future, we probably ought to
have a way for journalists to contact us if they're interested.  In
general, i'd prefer that contact be made here on the public mailing
list, but some journalists prefer to work out of the public light until
their articles are published.  If we want press contacts, we should
accomodate them.

i'd be happy if we could set up "press at autocrypt.org" that sends mail to
whichever active member(s) of the Autocrypt project are up for handling
incoming queries.  i'm calling this the "Autocrypt press team".  feel
free to propose a different name if that's too dorky.

But there are several questions about what to do with traffic that is
sent to this address.  I propose a few policies below so that the
members of the project know what's going on.  Feedback welcome!

Proposed Autocrypt Press Team Policy
====================================

Don't hide who is responsible for press at autocrypt.org
-----------------------------------------------------

Everyone in the project (including anyone lurking) should know who is on
the press team.  This doesn't have to be published in some formal place
(though it could be), but if anyone wants to know it shouldn't be a
secret.  We don't need anyone's legal names, but if you participate in
Autocrypt under some nick, you should be OK with people knowing that
that nick is part of the press team.

Always reply from your own specific e-mail address
--------------------------------------------------

When replying to an e-mail that was sent to press at autocrypt.org, members
of the press team should reply from their own address, so everyone can
tell who is having the conversation.

Don't send new mail from the alias
----------------------------------

This alias is for inbound contacts, and shouldn't be used to send
new messages that aren't a reply.

Always Cc press at autocrypt.org when replying
-------------------------------------------

To ensure that active participants can know what's been answered and
what's going on, i think everyone who responds to mail that was sent to
"press at autocrypt.org" should respond with "press at autocrypt.org" in the
Cc.

Maintain an archive of messages sent to press at autocrypt.org
-----------------------------------------------------------

Messages sent to press at autocrypt.org should be stored in a read-only
mailbox that is accessible to the current "press team", in addition to
being forwarded to the recipients.  Messages should be deleted from the
archive after 6 months.

Someone should reply within a day
---------------------------------

If this is going to be a useful address for press inquiries, we also
need to try to have *someone* answer legitimate messages within 24 hours.
i don't know how we guarantee this, suggestions welcome.

Ask if you want to be on the team
---------------------------------

If you want to help take responsibility for the press team, ask the
existing press team.  Anyone on the existing press team should be able
to add you to it if you're an active member of the project.

Propose fixes to this policy
----------------------------

If something is wrong with this policy, propose a fix the way you'd
propose a fix to the Autocrypt spec.  (maybe this should be in git too?)




Any objections or amendments? i don't think we need to bikeshed the
whole thing right now.  I'm hoping we can adopt and implement it and
tune it as we go -- just like we do with Autocrypt itself ;)

Until recently, Holger, Vincent, Björn, and myself were receiving
contact at autocrypt.org, but that has apparently been taken down.  I
propose that the same people are added to a new press at autocrypt.org
alias, and that we try to hold to something like the guidelines
described above.

Note that i didn't mention anything about encrypted mail for this alias.
I think we should put off that more complex discussion until later, as
fun as it would be to have it now :) let's get the alias set up first
with sensible policies, and then we can discuss encryption.

What do you think?

     --dkg

PS this discussion comes out of
   https://github.com/autocrypt/autocrypt/pull/286 which we failed to
   resolve.  i'm hoping we can get clearer consensus on the list first,
   and then we can end up with a simpler/easier change to the website
   itself.
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