Open discussions, gitter, something

[ktbarrett]

How would this feature be useful?
Issues only have "feature request" or "bug report" format, no question format; so I assume issues are not for questions. Github discussions are disabled. There is no gitter or discord linked. So, where are questions or discussions about nox supposed to occur?

Describe the solution you'd like
I would like to see a gitter or discord. I participate in and moderate a few gitter channels and really enjoy interactive problem solving, tangent discussions, and general sense of community that comes from that.

Describe alternatives you've considered
StackOverflow has a nox tag, but it is solely short Q&A format and can be pretty toxic, but it is searchable. Github Discussions can be free-form or Q&A format, they are searchable, and integrate with Github; however, in my experience people tend to not understand how to use it correctly (maybe this is a UX problem?).

[theacodes]

We can use the Winterbloom discord, since I'm considering moving Nox over to github.com/wntrblm so it's easier to manage the contributors and notifications.

I'll make a #nox channel and y'all can mute notifications for everything else if you want.

https://discord.gg/D35cxRxc

[DiddiLeija]

I'm considering moving Nox over to github.com/wntrblm so it's easier to manage the contributors and notifications.

And... it happened 🥳

https://discord.gg/D35cxRxc

Seems like this invite became invalid (or expired? ¹). @theacodes, could you check if this invite is still functional, and provide a new one if not? That way, more people with intentions of joining will be there ².

Footnotes

1. I suspect the invite expired (but maybe I'm wrong). Maybe a new invite without expire date is the solution? ↩

2. Also, what about mentioning this in the docs? Or maybe in the project's README? Maybe somewhere else? ↩

[FollowTheProcess]

Just further to this, as part of #600 I'm looking at including a link to the discord in the issue form config so it shows up as a method to ask a more general question not covered by the more rigid bug/feature forms. Much like pip do here with IRC:

Is it possible to have a permanent invite link to the discord? If not this approach may not work as intended as we'd have to keep refreshing the link.

[DiddiLeija]

Is it possible to have a permanent invite link to the discord? If not this approach may not work as intended as we'd have to keep refreshing the link.

When creating a Discord invitation, you can select the expire date. Check the example below ¹:

In the red circle, there's an "edit invite settings" button. When clicking it, you'll find a seting to modify the expire date,
or set the invite to be permanent.

I would personally prefer a permanent invite. Since we are humans, we could easily forget to update it 😅

Footnotes

1. My Discord works in Spanish, so please forget that. ↩

[FollowTheProcess]

In that case then, I'll remove the question form from #600 and then when we get the permalink for discord we can put that in the config.yml. I'll put a ref to this in #600 to continue because this issue is closed

[theacodes]

Hey folks, here's a permalink for the discord: https://discord.gg/C5EH3N3fsk

If y'all would prefer github discussions, I can enable that. Just let me know.