The Rubin Community Forum is the primary venue for user support and community science discussions for everything related to Rubin Observatory. All Rubin staff are encouraged to help resolve reported issues and to engage in science discussions. It is helpful for users if they know when they are talking to Rubin staff.
This topic provides recommendations for how to set up a Forum account to be recognizable as Rubin staff.
Join the appropriate staff group(s).
Review this advice on how and why to join a Forum group. Navigate to the Forum groups page and request to join one or more of the groups for Rubin staff teams that you work in (e.g., LSST, LSSTDM, CST, SQuaRE).
If the “Request” button does not appear, click on the group to see who is the group owner. Contact the group owner to request to be added to the group. Contact can be made via Forum direct message, Slack, or email.
Have an idea for a new staff group? Contact one of the Forum administrators.
Update your preferences (account and profile settings).
In the upper right corner click on the profile picture, then on the icon of the person. The pop-up window will show the account options: click on Preferences to go to the user-adjustable preferences page.
The left-hand side bar there shows the various options for account preferences. It is recommended to update a few of the Account and Profile preferences, as described below. Others, such as Notifications or Interface, are up to you. After making changes, always remember to click the “Save Changes” button.
Account: It is recommended to change your profile picture from the default. It does not have to be a picture of you, but a custom image will show that your account is active. Under Title, choose your primary staff group (e.g., LSST, or LSSTDM). This will always show up next to your name, clearly identifying you as a member of a staff group. Flair is optional; choose any Flair icon offered by group memberships. For example, CST uses the helping-hands icon.
Profile: It is recommended to write a brief About Me statement, and to update your Timezone and Institution. Location, Web Site, Profile Header, User Card Background, and Featured Topic are all optional – but generally the more personalization, the better context for Forum users engaging with you.
How do users see the account and profile information?
When Forum users click on your profile picture as it appears next to a post you’ve written, they’ll see your staff group affiliation and aspects of your profile (e.g., the About Me statement) in a pop-up window.