<!here> Folks, as some of you may have heard, GitH...

# ktor

[hhariri]

<!here> Folks, as some of you may have heard, GitHub announced support for Discussion forums. On the Ktor team we use SO as the main forum, and then there are peer to peer mediums such as this channel.

How would folks feel about opening up discussions on GitHub?

[Big Chungus]

I personally use this slack as the main point of discusions. I feel that forums are usually not interractive/responsive enough.

[Big Chungus]

Having yet another place where info could be shared (github) will potentially spread the knowledge even thinner between existing channels of communication

[Big Chungus]

Main problem with slack, though is that the knowledge shared here is not google'able (is that even a word?), so it's not easily accessible for the future kotliners.

[Joaquim Ley]

I agree with Martynas. Although I think we could do a “merge” of these, maybe consolidate slack discussions in the GH forums where we can maybe use it a FAQ for complex problems that people seem to ask multiple times. Like a stepping stone for the official docs?

[kpgalligan]

the slack problem of info disappearing is a big issue, and will hurt more as time goes on. I haven't looked at GH discussions, but questions do need to get pushed to someplace more permanent (in general, not just ktor). That, or somebody needs a startup that indexes public (ish) slack communities.

[Big Chungus]

Is there a way of exporting slack discussions somewhere public?

[jeggy]

I would just like that there will only be one.
So if it's GitHub discussions, then this channel would be closed. (How to properly close down a slack channel is probably a hard task also 😛 )

[maxmello]

The google point is very real, I rarely find any information about Ktor / Kotlin through google except when landing on the official documentation pages. I usually search here first, which is kind of less newcomer friendly I guess, because not everybody is here. I do like the more casual nature of slack though; a platform that would combine google-friendly searches with chat-like behavior, a desktop app etc. would imo be optimal if possible

[Big Chungus]

It's basically a choice of spreading the knowledge even thinner between coms channels but making more of it "persistent" or keeping it concentrated and convenient on slack, but not "persistent"

[Big Chungus]

Neither option is perfect

[kpgalligan]

I think there needs to be more discussion on this. It's been on my mind for a while. I don't think it's just a choice between one or the other, for everything, and that's it. Unless slack blocks it, I imagine somebody's built a slack logger that provides searchable, read-only web access. Also, I think tech discussions that are in the troubleshooting realm should be pushed to SO or similar. That falls under "community enforced", and might fail, but still.

[kpgalligan]

Had a long reply, but skipping it. Hard problem. I do think Slack works well if you're solving immediate issues, but a ton gets lost. I have trouble finding things I wrote, never mind things other people wrote.

[Hamza GATTAL]

I think this slack is the main point of discussion for most kotliners.

My suggestion to the ktor team try to improve documentaction because no sources to learning ktor

[hhariri]

@Hamza GATTAL We are working on the docs and soon we’ll publish some of this, but I think this is orthogonal. Even if we had the best docs in the world, people still want to have discussions, etc.

[Marcin Wisniowski]

I think SO is already the persistent discussion place. I've seen Slack communities (maybe even here?) answer many Slack questions with "Post this on SO", wherever someone asks something that would be worth preserving, so immediate or specific problems get addressed quickly, but useful knowledge is redirected to SO. But this depends on actually doing it in this channel (asking people to repost their nice question on SO instead and link it here).

[leandro]

I do too worry about the longevity and discoverability of the discussions inside Slack. Would be in favor of moving to GH, if not only for the reasons above, but also because I believe there are more Kotliners with GH accounts than here, increasing diversity. Moving the discussions to where the code lives is also a big plus for me.

[Big Chungus]

@leandro but we already have SO for that. Adding GH to the mix would just spread the knowledge thinner

[leandro]

That’s a good point, Martynas, every choice has a cost. How are other language/framework vendors handling these diversity of communication tools?