Help repo.

[mikeal]

The mailing list is basically a place where people ask innocent questions and are trolled by people who want to promote a library they wrote.

I've been pushing for a while to build an alternative to the mailing list for people that need actual node help. As a start, I think a repo on knode would be a good start. We could use the issue tracker for people asking questions and eventually build a friendlier frontend that indexed threads and made it easier for newbies to ask questions.

NodeSchool has been using a repo as a discussion forum for a while with a lot of success and they are already getting questions outside the scope of nodeschoo.

What do you think?

[hackygolucky]

I'm a huge fan of the issues workflow with this type of exchange. It allows
for clear delineation of discussion and we can retire them pretty quickly
if need be. Thanks @Mikael this is an awesome idea.
On Jan 13, 2014 4:05 PM, "Mikeal Rogers" notifications@github.com wrote:

The mailing list is basically a place where people ask innocent questions
and are trolled by people who want to promote a library they wrote.

I've been pushing for a while to build an alternative to the mailing list
for people that need actual node help. As a start, I think a repo on knode
would be a good start. We could use the issue tracker for people asking
questions and eventually build a friendlier frontend that indexed threads
and made it easier for newbies to ask questions.

NodeSchool has been using a repo as a discussion forum for a while with a
lot of success and they are already getting questions outside the scope
of nodeschoohttps://github.com/nodeschool/discussions/issues/155#issuecomment-32225561
.

What do you think?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/18
.

[hackygolucky]

Also, I think the github api would allow for us to feature some of these
active discussions on the site. Which would be awesome!
On Jan 13, 2014 4:05 PM, "Mikeal Rogers" notifications@github.com wrote:

The mailing list is basically a place where people ask innocent questions
and are trolled by people who want to promote a library they wrote.

I've been pushing for a while to build an alternative to the mailing list
for people that need actual node help. As a start, I think a repo on knode
would be a good start. We could use the issue tracker for people asking
questions and eventually build a friendlier frontend that indexed threads
and made it easier for newbies to ask questions.

NodeSchool has been using a repo as a discussion forum for a while with a
lot of success and they are already getting questions outside the scope
of nodeschoohttps://github.com/nodeschool/discussions/issues/155#issuecomment-32225561
.

What do you think?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/18
.

[mikeal]

Yup, and on the DL, GitHub is working on a "discussions" feature that will be a good swap out for Issues so we may want to hold off on API integration until that happens.

[hackygolucky]

So keep it simple for now. Word.

On Tue, Jan 14, 2014 at 10:52 AM, Mikeal Rogers notifications@github.comwrote:

Yup, and on the DL, GitHub is working on a "discussions" feature that will
be a good swap out for Issues so we may want to hold off on API integration
until that happens.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/18#issuecomment-32294571
.

[chrisdickinson]

Cool -- should we make a knode/questions repo to get started?

[mikeal]

definitely :)

[mikeal]

could someone make me a collaborator on that one so that I can edit the readme :)

[hackygolucky]

oh shoot! On it. Lo siento.

On Tue, Jan 14, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Mikeal Rogers notifications@github.comwrote:

could someone make me a collaborator on that one so that I can edit the
readme :)

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/18#issuecomment-32317227
.

[junosuarez]

Like. I love websites, and git. But why reinvent the wheel over something like stack overflow?

[hackygolucky]

Because you can go somewhere that has topical relevance to the question
you're asking and it is embedded in the community you want the answer from?

/me shrugs. I get it.
On Jan 16, 2014 11:39 PM, "Jason Denizac" notifications@github.com wrote:

Like. I love websites, and git. But why reinvent the wheel over something
like stack overflow?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/18#issuecomment-32585495
.

[mikeal]

Stack Overflow is pretty particular about the specificity of the questions you ask. You can't, for instance, say "I'm having a hard time understanding async flow control" you can only ask a question like "How do I do parallel IO with require('async')"

While there is certainly a community on Stack Overflow it's pretty weak on node.js expertise. Being that the node.js is heavily invested in GitHub it makes a lot more sense to have community communications be here. It's easy to get people's attention by mentioning people, issues and projects and having the interlinking between projects and people be so easy and encouraged also improves the discourse.

If you look at the NodeSchool discussions repo you'll see what I'm talking about. They've done a great job helping people very new to node.js when they hit bumps in the workshopper courses. I'd like to extend that to discourse outside of just those courses and eventually replace the node.js Mailing List (which is just awful).

[hackygolucky]

+1000 to the Mailing List going the way of the dodo.

On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 10:53 AM, Mikeal Rogers notifications@github.comwrote:

Stack Overflow is pretty particular about the specificity of the questions
you ask. You can't, for instance, say "I'm having a hard time understanding
async flow control" you can only ask a question like "How do I do parallel
IO with require('async')"

While there is certainly a community on Stack Overflow it's pretty weak on
node.js expertise. Being that the node.js is heavily invested in GitHub
it makes a lot more sense to have community communications be here. It's
easy to get people's attention by mentioning people, issues and projects
and having the interlinking between projects and people be so easy and
encouraged also improves the discourse.

If you look at the NodeSchool discussions repo you'll see what I'm talking
about. They've done a great job helping people very new to node.js when
they hit bumps in the workshopper courses. I'd like to extend that to
discourse outside of just those courses and eventually replace the node.js
Mailing List (which is just awful).

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/18#issuecomment-32635663
.

[junosuarez]

@mikeal seems reasonable. Thanks for the thoughtful reply.