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There is a Stack Exchange staff member with the role "Community Evangelist", as mentioned here:

Community Evangelist person

This person is not part of the Community Management Team, where their role is explained.

What exactly is this role? What is its scope/meaning?

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    Uh. I'm guessing it's intended, but "evangelist" sends off a weird vibe, to say the least. Cultural difference maybe, but it's not something I would like my professional accounts titled with
    – Jenayah
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 14:41
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    @Jenayah it's historical role, at least 9 years, when everything was very different. Still, this role stayed unchanged, while everything else around it changed, hence I finally decided to ask. :) Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 14:42
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    @Jenayah It is used in a techological sense here. See en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_evangelist. I know the term "Java Evangelist" from years back. It's pretty established.
    – Tufkamt
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 15:01
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    Conspiracy theory: Current job titles are all part of a massive yet secret LARP. Evangelist is equivalent to cleric in DnD. Other character classes include rockstar (instead of bard), ninja (rogue/assassin), and wizard. Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 15:07
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    Tim's profile says more: meta.stackexchange.com/users/50049/tim-post?tab=profile Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 15:14
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    My Half-Troll Spammer is going to use one of his Level 1 spell slots to cast Advertise targeting All Natural Keto as a Meta Stack Exchange question. He has a class trait providing Advantage against red flags. Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 15:41
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    @Andrew hey, I'm the Wizard! Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 16:43
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    Someone should really come up with a Stack Exchange: The RPG. Quest for rep, loot badges from dungeons, stuff your Bag of Holding full of available flags, cast them at spammers and Trolls, and rescue Jon Skeet. Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 17:08
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    I'll be the big bad dragon.
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 17:09
  • @RobertColumbia But.... you don't rescue Jon Skeet... Jon Skeet rescues you Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 17:26
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    @RobertColumbia And the ultimate point of the quest is to find the Golden Hammer and rescue the Rainbow Unicorn who is being held hostage by the Ultimate Badass Sock Puppet. Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 20:03
  • @RobertColumbia: No joke, we have actually had more than one actual proposal for those on RPG.se meta (alas, mainly from users that didn't understand how disruptive and costly their proposals would be to the site). Commented Jun 12, 2020 at 20:39

1 Answer 1

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I'm still carving out and building out the role. It's similar in scope to what's known as a Technology Evangelist in the industry, but we don't really do "typical" roles here when it comes to community. I do a lot more.

I've served a lot of roles within the company all centered around the community (I'm on my 7th year now). Prior to that, I was an elected Stack Overflow moderator. After serving out my four year demotion to management and regaining the ability to become an individual contributor again, I wanted to get back to a role where I focus mostly on Stack Overflow, and making sure we keep everything that makes it amazing as we head into the future.

Some of the stuff I do:

  • Serve as a historian for the company. Why did we do [x] that way? What problem did [y] solve? What could go wrong if we do [z]?
  • Serve as an outreach / facilitator for organizations that want to develop their presence on the site the right way. I help engineers from big software and hardware companies learn how to participate and support folks on SO (and other sites).
  • I listen closely to people when they talk about using the site.
  • I still work on products, new features, prioritization and strategy.
  • I'm cross-team primarily. I help the community team interface with other parts of the organization. This means I have a lot of meetings.
  • I work on user outreach, inclusion, user research, special projects, and other things.
  • I still work pretty closely with the community managers, and even developers on the community side of things. I don't have direct reports anymore, but I'm still someone that people come to.

Eventually this role, like other roles I've had in the past, will probably split into several roles. The duality of focus between keeping up on everything going on with the platform and products, and keeping a really good eye on what the community is doing and outreach initiatives will, sooner than later, become three or more full-time jobs.

This is also not exhaustive, but a pretty good overview. I don't know if "evangelist" is the best word, but it's the closest we could come while still keeping something that stood a shot at being recognized :)

If I'm honest with myself, I'm still pretty much a unicorn yodeler.

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    So you are the new Shog9?
    – Luuklag
    Commented Jun 13, 2020 at 10:04
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    @Luuklag Shog10? I thought that was supposed to be Shog9's firstborn.
    – VLAZ
    Commented Jun 13, 2020 at 15:07

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