Simple Summary

This proposal suggests changing the primary domain of our Google Workspace from "decentlabs.io" to "decent-dao.org", with the transition process beginning on the evening of June 16th.

Abstract

The proposal entails a significant change to our Google Workspace setup which involves making "decent-dao.org" the primary domain and converting "decentlabs.io" into an alias. An alias domain means that emails sent to your "decentlabs.io" address will still be delivered to your new "decent-dao.org" inbox. This transition has implications for our email and Google Workspace usage, potentially causing a temporary disruption in service during the transition weekend.

Motivation

The primary motivation behind this change is our organization's rebranding efforts. Aligning our primary Google Workspace domain with our new brand identity will strengthen our brand consistency and will better represent our organization in all our communications.

Specification

The transition process will start on Friday night, June 16th, Eastern Time, and may extend over the weekend. During this period, access to email and all Google Workspace services is expected to be disrupted. All users should be prepared for the disruption, including exporting calendars to save a copy of their scheduled events and being prepared to reconfigure third-party email clients. The reason for exporting calendars is that during the domain transition, there's a possibility that existing calendar events may be affected or lost. By exporting, you will have a backup that can be restored, if necessary. Adam will be the point of technical contact for any issues that arise during this transition, while Delma will handle all other inquiries.

Rationale

Switching to the new domain name aligns our digital presence with our new identity. The downtime over the weekend has been chosen to minimize disruption to normal working activities. By keeping "decentlabs.io" as an alias, we ensure continuity in communication, since emails sent to the old domain will continue to be received at the new domain. Although there will be a period of adjustment, the long-term benefits in terms of branding and consistency make this change beneficial.

Considerations

The key considerations during this transition include potential downtime, email deliverability issues, and the need for individual users to adjust settings on their end.

A particularly important consideration is potential disruption to calendar events. The impact on existing events is uncertain; it's possible that events scheduled during the transition period might be lost or attendees might not be notified of changes. This risk is the main reason we're advising everyone to export their calendar events before the transition.

Furthermore, individual users may have a potential need to manually set up the ability to send mail from the "decentlabs.io" domain in the future. In this case, there are manual steps that can be taken to allow the Gmail client to send mail from a user’s “decentlabs.io” address.

According to comments on the internet, the ability to “Sign in with Google” will not be affected on third-party websites and should still work as expected, despite the new domain.