Would be really nice to have a Labwc Discord

[GuiFlam]

I think it could be really cool if there was a Labwc discord where we can have discussions, share configs, etc. I think it's the only thing that needs improvement, other than that I really enjoy this project!

[danielfrrrr]

labwc has a channel on the Linux Gaming Dev server, which can be used if a server of its own isn't created:
https://discord.gg/linuxgamingdev

Johan Malm is even on that server, but I don't think he uses Discord much.

[johanmalm]

I'm pretty easy on this.

Here are some thoughts to get the discussion going and set some expectations:

1. I think it's great if there are different media that users can go to for discussions, help, sharing, etc.
2. I think "we" currently do a reasonable job at responding to GH issues / discussions and IRC between a small numbers of the most active contributors.
3. My sense is that there is not much spare capacity though and that most of the active GH/IRC communicators are also those who do a lot of the code contribution/review/merging. In my experience with other projects, there are often a greater proportion of people around who like to spend time responding to the types of issues that general users might have - and to share configs and such like. I'm not sure why that is, but it's quite possible that our GH+IRC channels have too much of a "dev" feel.

I think there are two things to consider before just saying: yeah, let's do it...

a. Setting one up is easy - and adding a link to the README is even easier. But, the minute it exists, there will (rightly or wrongly) be an expectation that people respond. So if we go on the assumption that I probably would not have the head room to cope with another medium, then who would? Now, there is of course some chicken-and-egg in this argument, because if a discord channel is started a community might grow and it might just be a bit slow to start with. --EDIT-- So in brief, it would be good if one or two "new" people fancy having a go at leading the charge 😄
b. The plaforms/media a project uses to host code and communicate is indeed an important part a projects values and operating model. From time to time we (the most active contributors) discuss the use of github and IRC, and (I think I'm right in saying this on behalf others) we are relatively happy with the current setup, but it can be emotive and there are many angles to this. So whilst I don't mind trying this myself, I'd like to hear from one or two others that it sits right with them too.

Just a couple of reference points:

• There was a discord channel (or server or whatever it's called) that @misyltoad setup a couple of years ago. Last time I looked it wasn't that active though.
• BunsenLabs, Mabox Linux and Raspberry Pi have forums with activity relating to labwc that might be of interest.

[danielfrrrr]

Something that might motivate other contributors to take up this idea: you could connect the Discord server to the IRC channel with a bridge bot, so you could talk to people on Discord via IRC and vice versa, with the disadvantages of not seeing the Discord emojis and images. But you'd still need an administrator on the Discord side, obviously.

[Consolatis]

• BunsenLabs, Mabox Linux and Raspberry Pi have forums with activity relating to labwc that might be of interest.

There is also an in-official subreddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/labwc/ and an in-official matrix room at labwc:matrix.org.

From my side I am only active at IRC and semi active on matrix and GH. While I don't see any issues with in-official communication platforms, linking those from the documentation or Readme (without a disclaimer about it being in-official) indeed might make people expect answers from the labwc team there.

To sum up, I think its fine to link other communication outlets from the Readme but IMHO we should categorize them properly to manage user expectations and also steer e.g. issues to github.