Absolutely agree there is a need for this. The website is obviously an MVP, but some feedback from someone who is squarely in your target audience:
* I am hesitant to sign up for yet another source of email without more information about the list membership. Do you already have commitment to participate from experienced CTOs with a public presence (such as Camille Fournier who you cite as inspiration)? That would certainly be an incentive to join. If you can't name names, or if you're bootstrapping and don't yet have names to name, then at least some information about the experience level of folks on the list would help: e.g. "15% of our membership has held a technical leadership or management role for at least 2 years".
* You might consider gathering some demographic information along with email address, for example to help address the point above.
* I'd like to know more about the expected participation model. Your description hints at a Q&A model where people submit questions for open discussion by the list membership, but "mailing list" suggests (to me) more of a broadcast model where the list operators submit curated nuggets of wisdom. As founding members of the community, you'll set the tone; as moderators, even more so.
* As you're building a community, I'd want to see a code of conduct - both to know what to expect from the moderators, and to be sure that people from marginalised demographics would be comfortable participating.
* Related to (and probably covered in) a code of conduct, I'd be more inclined to join a community with an explicit ban on advertising ("15% discount on my product for list members"), recruiting ("my team is hiring an iPhone engineer") and market research ("would your company use this product?"). Not that I have a problem with those things, but I wouldn't currently sign up for something that exposed me to more of them.
Thank you for taking the time to post this. It's good advice from someone who is certainly our target audience.
A few answers/questions below:
* Bootstrapping with only a few names that are likely unrecognizable. I'm not the CTO of some random unicorn or vc-backed start-up. It's all the more reason I could use a peer-to-peer mentor. When I posted, there was only two of us who mutually agreed to it being a good idea. Myself? 4 years XP as a CTO and him 3 years 5 months. We started talking back and forth about small problems that plagued us or our teams. As we started helping each other, we realized there are likely many more like us who would benefit from having a peer to talk with.
* I am working on this now. Right now I am manually moderating the applications with only a name and email address to work from. Luckily, if you're a CTO/VP, you're name is pretty well published and indexed by LinkedIn, Google, etc. Lesson learned, if you build it they may come and you are likely going to be stuck with the repercussions of any decisions you hadn't made yet. I really should have asked for more on the form. At any rate, those that I cannot find easily I am replying back asking them to share more about themselves with me.
* Exactly right. At this time, it's a single email-list with a Q&A model and open discussion environment. You drive home a good point. Where I am a founding member and moderator, I need to clearly document our expectations, rules of the mailing list and a code of conduct as to what is appropriate to discuss and what is not. People do not want to be surprised when they are banned and a simple code of conduct can easily inform people and prevent them from posting something we don't want discussed or shared. Some of these may be legal minimums - for example, an anti-trust policy stating we cannot discuss pricing or fix the prices of our products especially where competitors may be on the same mailing list. I'm working on this now. As the group becomes larger, we likely need bylaws to further govern the organization.
* Great point regarding an explicit ban on advertising on the mailing list. That is definitely my intent.
Thank you again for taking the time to review and comment.
* I am hesitant to sign up for yet another source of email without more information about the list membership. Do you already have commitment to participate from experienced CTOs with a public presence (such as Camille Fournier who you cite as inspiration)? That would certainly be an incentive to join. If you can't name names, or if you're bootstrapping and don't yet have names to name, then at least some information about the experience level of folks on the list would help: e.g. "15% of our membership has held a technical leadership or management role for at least 2 years".
* You might consider gathering some demographic information along with email address, for example to help address the point above.
* I'd like to know more about the expected participation model. Your description hints at a Q&A model where people submit questions for open discussion by the list membership, but "mailing list" suggests (to me) more of a broadcast model where the list operators submit curated nuggets of wisdom. As founding members of the community, you'll set the tone; as moderators, even more so.
* As you're building a community, I'd want to see a code of conduct - both to know what to expect from the moderators, and to be sure that people from marginalised demographics would be comfortable participating.
* Related to (and probably covered in) a code of conduct, I'd be more inclined to join a community with an explicit ban on advertising ("15% discount on my product for list members"), recruiting ("my team is hiring an iPhone engineer") and market research ("would your company use this product?"). Not that I have a problem with those things, but I wouldn't currently sign up for something that exposed me to more of them.