Gatekeepers are everywhere, not only in the tech industry.

Gatekeeping excludes and restricts access to resources and, in turn, prevents opportunities.

Today, we have both human-generated and AI-generated spam all over the internet.

Restricting access is inevitable. At the same time, we should allow more people and be genuinely inclusive.

How to avoid gatekeeping?

• Ask questions and manually moderate while adding members to a community. Do not just settle on a captcha.
• Do not restrict access based on IP address, location, race, operating systems, or programming languages. Instead, allow them to be a member after screening, and even vet them at your community’s beginner or junior level.
• While welcoming everyone, you should also act against those violating community policies and guidelines.
• Be a mentor, not a gatekeeper. If you encounter a newbie, guide them or point them in the right direction.

We need mentors, not gatekeepers.

For the record, I will highlight Courtney Robertson, a WordPress Training team member, open-source developer advocate and teacher.

I have always admired how resourceful she is. Be a mentor and guide, and build your authority by genuinely helping others. Be like Courtney!

I have never experienced gatekeeping in WordPress and Drupal communities.