Elixir Forum is great. However, are there any more spaces for discussion around LiveView native, in perhaps a more chat-like interface? I saw there was a slack but it appears to be only for LiveView Native team members. Any LiveView native discords? I think it would greatly help people with learning and discussion considering the framework keeps changing as it is not stable yet.
Specifically, I am a Phoenix LiveView developer and experienced in the webstack but SwiftUI is totally new to me. I am sure I am not the only one, and being able to discuss with others will really help accelerate adoption of LiveView Native.
Then why not use the forum as there are many advantages to using one over a chat room… you’ve even mentioned one of the biggest reasons yourself:
Forums are great because:
The conversation is split over multiple timezones (so more people can get involved).
Answers to any questions asked can not only help that person, but people the next day, week, month or even years into the future.
Answers to any questions are quickly accessible via a simple google (very important for adoption and onboarding).
This forum places great emphasis on SEO (the forum team does a huge amount here, such as with titling and tagging of threads).
Conversations on a forum persist, so every thread counts towards the activity of a project - which attracts more users (so great for adoption).
Asking questions on a forum helps prevent drain and burnout - as the core team and other members don’t have to answer the same questions over and over and over again.
Forums are easier to moderate while at the same time allowing the community to grow as there’s a good chance a mod can take action on unwanted content/conduct before any related parties get to see or react. This can save a project or community from imploding.
Using this forum helps show more buzz and activity for Elixir (so helps Elixir)
Asking questions (and for them persisting) help show other community members or those thinking about joining that they weren’t the only one with what they might have thought was a ‘daft’ question. This helps onboard people and get on board people who might have otherwise felt too intimidated or out of their depth.
Elixir related projects can get exposure from within an existing large community (via this forum).
Forums are better for projects that grow (proper categorisation and tagging helps ensure knowledge/content/news is more browsable and accessible, thus more enjoyable and less frustrating to use or get the info you need).
Forums are publicly accessible/viewable.
And lots more.
There have been many threads and posts highlighting the benefits of this forum over the years (some we mention in our updates, some others mention in their updates, and some people mention ad-hoc, whether that’s via PMs or posts on the forum or elsewhere). Of course forums (or even this forum) may not be to everyone’s taste, but from the perspective of a project (especially one that wants to grow sustainably) then forums usually offer them the greatest benefit.
I will add that chat rooms are great for the initial stages of a project (and is part of the reason we added them here) particularly where the core team need to discuss things in real time to iron out project goals/details, but for pretty much everything else forums are better. The biggest appeal of a chat room from a user’s own perspective is that things don’t persist, hence attractive to people who don’t want others to see lapses in their knowledge - but as mentioned above this does not help the community.
If you want to help a project grow, not much comes close to a forum
@spritefullake we have the liveview-native channel in Slack which is available for everyone. We have our internal LVN slack channel in the @DockYard slack and I’ve debated moving this into the public space.
