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Participating

There are all sorts of ways to participate. Here are a few ideas to help you get involved and ensure the community gets the most out of your participation.

  • Did you find an error or typo in the documentation? Please help us out and report it.
  • Do you have a question about the Standards? Please submit your query so everyone will learn the answer. Plus, depending on the question, we may want to add a clarification to the Standards.
  • Catch yourself thinking that something could be better or should be different in the Standards? Act on your instinct and submit your idea so the community can help expand on your thoughts and come up with the best way to improve the Standards.
  • Do you like to write? Help us improve the Standards by suggesting ways to make things clearer.
  • See some house keeping that needs doing? Help us out and just do it. Perhaps link any duplicate issues you find or suggest new issue labels to make issues easier to find. You can also help us to keep on top of issues by suggesting we close any old ones you come across in the repo.
  • Do you like helping others? Review other people’s submissions and provide feedback to improve their ideas. Ask clarifying questions on recently opened issues to move the discussion forward.
  • Do you have the appropriate knowledge and experience? Look through the open issues and discussions to find topics you can participate in. Perhaps you can answer questions and help guide the conversation towards a viable resolution.

Getting started​

One great way to participate in the community is to get involved in discussions about topics of interest to you.

To participate, you'll need to log in to the Health NZ Standards GitHub repository. If you already have a GitHub account, just sign in. If you don't already have an account, you can register by clicking the Sign up button. Once you are logged in, you can start participating in any conversations of interest.

We don't allow anonymous participants so we can hold individuals accountable for their behaviour, and take necessary steps to correct any behaviour that is not in line with our code of conduct and other community guidelines.

The community is supported by well known open source support tools, primarily GitHub. The tool offers many features to support discussion and collaboration in our community, but you may not be familiar with how to use these tools. It's simple to follow discussions and issues once you are familiar with the tools. The internet contains many tutorials on how to use GitHub or you can always contact an experienced colleague to guide you initially. A good place to start is Communicating on GitHub.

Ways to participate​

You can participate in our community by:

Discussions are best used for open-ended conversations, open-form ideas and general dialogue about broad topics. Issues tend to be more targetted conversations about specific details, such as seeking clarification on a specific section of the Standards or suggesting a change to the Standards.

Discussions​

Discussions are an open, transparent and collaborative communication forum for talking about topics of interest to our community. These topics might be questions, ideas or thought experiments. It's up to the community to choose the discussion topics.

With discussions you can:

If you are logged in and can view the repository, then you can create a discussion topic or you can post a comment on an existing discussion. Your input is most welcome.

Searching discussions​

To search discussions, just open the Discussions tab on the Health NZ Standards GitHub repository home page.

Once there, you will have access to a search box to enter keywords or words related to the topics you are interested in. Use this to see what other members are interested in right now.

You can also sort and filter your search results. For example, you might choose to filter your search results to only those discussions with the label help wanted or question.

Commenting on an existing discussion​

Joining a discussion topic is easy once you've found a discussion of interest, simply scroll to the bottom of the page, write your comment and select the Comment button. That's it.

Your comment will be visible to the whole community so please remember the Community Guidelines when creating your post.

Creating a new discussion topic​

Before you submit a new discussion topic, it's a good idea to do a quick search of the existing discussions to check if your topic has been raised before. If it doesn't appear as if the topic was previously discussed, by all means, create a new discussion.

When searching for historical discussions, it's a good idea to make sure your filter settings include 'All' discussion, rather than only the 'Open' ones.

Creating a discussion is simple to do. Navigate to Discussions tab and select the New discussion button then:

  • select the appropriate category for your topic
  • enter a meaningful title to help others find your discussion
  • provide context and detail to help others understand your topic and
  • add labels so that other members can find your discussion through searching and to help clarify what your discussion is about.

Please remember the Community Guidelines when creating your post.

Issues​

You can raise an issue by clicking on the Raise issue button in the upper right hand corner on the Standards website or navigating directly to the Issues tab on the Health NZ Standards GitHub repository home page.

An issue is a more targeted posting than a discussion topic. Scenarios for using issues might include:

  • reporting an error you've found in the Standards
  • asking a specific question about an item in the Standards
  • sharing your struggles with a particular aspect of the Standards
  • seeking guidance from the community about an area of uncertainty
  • proposing a change or a new addition to the Standards
  • suggesting an improvement for consideration
  • sharing feedback about a specific item in the Standards

Using issues is easy and follows similar rules for discussions.

Searching issues​

To search issues, just open the Issues tab on the Health NZ Standards GitHub repository home page.

Once there, you will have access to a search box to enter keywords or words related to the topics you are interested in. Use this to see if others have raised your problem already or to see what other problems members are finding right now.

You can also sort and filter your search results. For example, you might choose to filter your search results to only those issues with the label enhancement.

Commenting on an issue​

Commenting on a issue is easy once you've found an issue of interest, scroll to the bottom of the page, write your comment and select the Comment button. That's it.

Your comment will be visible to the whole community, so please remember the Community Guidelines when creating your post.

Opening an issue​

Before you open a new issue, it's a good idea to do a quick search of the existing issues to check it hasn't already been raised.

When searching for historical discussions, it's a good idea to make sure your filter settings include 'All' discussion, rather than only the 'Open' ones.

If it's a new problem then, by all means,open a new issue by clicking on the New Issue button and:

  • entering a meaningful title to help others find your discussion
  • providing context and detail to help others understand your topic and
  • adding labels so that other members can find your discussion through searching and to help clarify what your discussion is about.

Remember the Community Guidelines when creating your issue.

Remember also to help the Community by making the issue specific and clear with the context and impact of the issue. The template will guide you on information to add in. Adding labels to your issue will help others to find the issue and support you or offer alternatives.

What happens next​

Generally speaking, one of the following will happen after you post, whether you created a new discussion topic, opened a new issue, or commented on one:

You don't get a response​

You can expect a response within 7 days. If you haven't heard anything by then, feel free to post a follow-up.

Someone comments on your post​

It’s expected that that community members will ask questions and provide a new perspective on your post. The whole point of creating a post, whether it's a new issue/discussion or just a comment, is to join the conversation.

Hopefully, these conversations help reach a resolution that works for the entire community.

Becoming a contributor​

If you see a specific area that would benefit from change or enhancement and you are familiar with GiHub pull requests, you can contribute a proposed change.

Once you submit a pull request, your proposed change is available to the community to discuss and may be eventually accepted into the Standards.

These types of contributions are fundamental to the collaborative improvement process and help ensure the Standards evolve to meet the needs of the community. Refer to Contributing for more information.