What is Grove?
Grove is a climate-focused public forum that aims to bridge the information gap in the areas of climate, ecology and environment. It is an initiative by the Rainmatter Foundation to bring together organisations and individuals, curious and passionate about climate action, to discover and support each other, build a public knowledge repository, initiate conversations, and be an evolving resource of climate solutions.
Why do you need to be on Grove?
We believe that climate action needs to be collaborative. Grove is your platform. It’s your chance to share your work, vision, ideas and questions with a like-minded, climate-conscious community as well as leverage the resources and expertise of the larger community. It is a space to document partnerships, share resources and establish a transparent, supportive process with Rainmatter for the benefit of all.
What goes on Grove?
There are multiple categories you can post under. These include but aren’t limited to Rewilding, Collaboration, Funding, Events, Updates, etc. Like the conversations, these categories are also evolving. Find one that feels relevant to you, and start a new topic under it.
A few pointers to get you started:
- Organisational information: Do introduce yourself and/or your organisation and its efforts and specify the goals/outcomes your organisation is chasing with Rainmatter support. These introductions would go under the ‘Updates (Rainmatter Partners)’ category. Have the subsequent updates posts as a thread so that the updates posts are visible in chronological order. i.e Reply to your original topic with updates. Do not start a new topic for every update.
- Event Information: Upcoming programs, events, talks, workshops, sessions fall under this category. Share relevant information such as the background, context, coordinates/ URL, registration link, creatives, etc. to make the content accessible to the audience.
- Published articles in popular media as well as scientific articles.
- Questions: Grove envisions to be a Q&A platform where people and organisations can get answers to their questions from people with experience, eventually creating a valuable Q&A repository. Identify the relevant category and ask questions, or help answer them.
- Products and services: Organisations and individuals offering services and products across different areas can add immense value in our fight against climate change. Add these to our Products and Services category to help spread the word.
- *Green opportunities* : Jobs, internships, volunteering opportunities go under this category. Please keep it periodically updated as your requirement is evolving/ fulfilled…
How do I start my first Grove thread?
Register yourself on Grove through a simple process and start with introductions! Register with your email ID and create an account, wait for an activation link from our team, pick a username and build your profile.
To get started with posting, say Hi, and let our community know what you do. Here are a few points to help you get started -
i) Headline: After you start a new topic, do add a catchy headline to indicate what the post is about. This is critical for the forum members to open a post to read and make use of it.
ii) Category: Make it easier for the audience to find you by picking the appropriate category.
iii) Words and Visuals: Create your Grove post. Provide accurate data, set context, and add a sentence or two on the relevance of the information you are posting, and who might be the best audience to consume this information. Screenshots, graphs, photos and videos are good to have in a post since these aid comprehension and serve as hooks to bring back reader attention, especially in long posts.
iv) Audience and call-to-action: To give your audience direction on how they can make the most of the information you are posting, have a call-to-action and/or list out one or two steps for them to take a specific action after reading this post.
v) Files/attachments: Reports and PDFs tend to be off-putting. Request to write out a short 3-sentence summary of the report when attaching reports/PDFs. This is important so that readers do not ‘switch off’.
vi) Collaborations: Do use Grove as a platform to share information/news, post questions or ask and seek collaborations. These can be distinct threads.
vii) Feedback: Do write to us ([email protected] and [email protected]) and let us know if you are facing specific obstacles in posting and/or would like new categories.
Make the most of Grove
i. Be a seasoned contributor!
It’s simple really - the more you post and engage with the community, the more the trust builds, and the more perks you get on the platform. Are you ‘basic’, ‘member’ or ‘regular’, only time (and effort will tell!).
ii. We’re building a culture of using a forum around climate conversations. Please keep in mind -
- Engage with the community
- Always keep the conversations kind
- Forums are built on trust : Verify the information being shared
- Reach out to the team in case of any queries or feedback.
iii. A glossary of common forum terms for the uninitiated:
- Admin.: Short for “administrator”, someone who manages the forum
- Archived: A old, unused topic that has been put in the #deprecated category
- Badge: An achievement you earn by doing something.
- Bump: Short for ‘bring up my post’, used to bring attention to a post to which there has been no reply with the intention to get it back to the top.
- Tag: Tag someone (@username) so they get a notification on their profile.
- Topic: Your topic is the main subject of discussion.
- Thread: Each post under a topic is a thread.