Slack

[Geoff Evans]

Hi,

Is anyone interested in chatting on a free instance of Slack regarding premake?  I find that slack's github integration is really nice for keeping afoot of what's happening in the repo, and it looks like google groups is now locking down thread replies if there aren't replies for a month or two.  If you are, then send a private reply to me with the email address you want an invite sent to, and if there are enough interested parties I will prop an instance and connect it to github.

-geoff

[Tom van Dijck]

I don't think we need yet another way to connect, as is clear by the inactivity on this forum, there is indication that even two channels is too much.

So maybe just keep everything in one place.

The github issue tracker is sufficient to discuss problems. issues, suggestions, etc... just tag your post appropriately, and I'm sure it'll work.

[Geoff Evans]

Personally, I wouldn't consider lack of comms on mail lists (if you could call google groups that at this point) as evidence to avoid rich chat. IME they are good at different things. Some other community-driven projects use rich chat services like slack and discourse to help bridge onboarding / front-line support.  Sometimes accomplishing those goals by opening issues in peoples' trackers can be... awkward.

Anyway, just 2c, and my experience only.

-geoff

[Thomas Desveaux]

I think the google group and the GitHub tracker answer the same need (Premake related development) and that's why the group is deserted.

I'd be in favor of removing the link to the group from the Readme since we don't really look it up.

As for another communication channel, I'm in favor of Slack or another alternative. I never used Discourse but it looks to be more like a forum?

I think a chat would answer to another type of communication that GitHub issues are not designed for.

IMO, a chat would contains smaller support requests than the issue tracker that I wouldn't mind looking it up if I have 10-15 minutes of free time.

And if larger questions comes up, we can always redirect people to the tracker.

Another thing is enabling people to contribute.

Posting a first issue / PR on a repo is always a big step (at least for me). I think it would ease this process if people can interact in a less "heavy" environment first.

[Manu Evans]

Have a Slack if you like, perhaps some people might find it useful as a Q&A space... but I think a practical issue is that most of the core contributors are sporadic, and tend not to keep on top of the stream.

From that perspective, logged issues on github are useful, because they're all just there when you go looking for them.

I agree this forum should be deprecated... if there's anything interesting on here, I for one certainly don't know about it!

[Joao Matos]

Hey Geoff, I think this is a great idea.

A lot of open-source projects communities are moving to Gitter for their real-time communications. Maybe that can be considered instead of Slack?

I am fine either way, let us know when the instance is created and I'll join.

[Thomas Desveaux]

From that perspective, logged issues on github are useful, because they're all just there when you go looking for them.

The way I see this is not as a replacement in any way to the github issue and the slack or whatever should ALWAYS push relevant discussions to github.

I think we need something to create a community around Premake (especially since the core contributors are not that available ATM).

I'm sure there is people that are willing to contribute in some way and having a less heavy way to communicate than issues would help getting them started.

[Tom van Dijck]

> as evidence to avoid rich chat.

I'm sorry if that didn't come over very well, I wasn't really using it as evidence to avoid them..

I was using it as evidence to point out that there is very very few people active in this community with the ability to help you, and they (myself included) have a lot of other things on our plate, and thus very little time to keep track of multiple channels of communication. Signing up and logging in to slack, or whatever service is just another thing to keep track of, which will simply be forgotten, fall into similar despair as this google forum, or some might not even know about them in the first place.

Whatever help is available, it's on a "I have some time, and I feel like answering" kind of basis. 

Slack is not really designed for that kind of interaction, because "real-time" is the expected use. 

Apparently people have also used stackexchange in the past: https://stackexchange.com/search?q=premake

who knew....