Request : create a Node.js community on Slack or Discord

[Aarbel]

Hi Node.js team !

Could you create a public Slack or Discord team ? 🙌
(http://nodeslackers.io/ is not official & down ++ #node.js and #node-dev IRC is so cancerously 2010 ... )

Could be absolutely awesome for the community ! 🎉

Thanks a lot !

[maclover7]

Hi @Aarbel! To clarify, is this intended for community help purposes, or for things related for development within core? There is already the #node-dev IRC channel on freenode where many collaborators/TSC members chat.

[Trott]

@nodejs/community-committee

[Aarbel]

@maclover7 for community help purposes (but it could also be a more comfy environment for core development chats)

Yes i know #node-dev IRC channel, but it's quite messy and it doesn't bring the value of a full community team on Discord or Slack ;)

Goal : make Nodejs even more sexy (Docker has a great Slack / Discord public community team, React / react Native too, Ruby too, etc...)

[bnoordhuis]

For a bit of historic background, core discussion was moved out of #node.js around 2011 when that channel got too big. The bigger the channel, the harder it is to have focused discussion.

[Aarbel]

These kind of tools (Slack, Discord) also help to reduce the amount of non relevant issues posted on github. If needed i could join the @nodejs/community-committee to create them and make them active.

[Fishrock123]

there's like 10 other threads on this buried somewhere

maybe eventually I'll get to doing a writeup on why we should move to Discord (haha, no I won't actually get to it)

[Trott]

This is the relatively-recent discussion about this: nodejs/community-committee#11

[benjamingr]

We already don't moderate IRC particularly well.

The problem with endorsing another space like Slack or Discord is that we'd have to make sure it abides to our community standards. We'd need to be able to enforce that the channel is harassment free and doesn't devolve into toxicity.

Goal : make Nodejs even more sexy (Docker has a great Slack / Discord public community team, React / react Native too, Ruby too, etc...)

For starters - let's not use sexualized language to describe the project 😅 You might be surprised but there are plenty of people who'd really prefer it if we didn't and we respect that.

I think this is something for @nodejs/community-committee to decide on first thing (if we want it) and then we should discuss how we can keep it positive and useful.

[devsnek]

i don't think i've ever seen a slack that has devolved into toxicity, but i think every single discord has probably been there at some point. slack does a fantastic job of making you feel like you're an actual member of whatever thing you've joined because you sign up to the slack server not the slack service. discord is my personal favorite but your interface into discord is the service, not the individual server, which usually leads to spammers and the need for a much larger moderation team, specially when you have strongly defined community standards like node.

All in all i think what whatever is selected needs:

1. a browser interface
2. multiple channels or sections for different topics (core dev, support, steering)
3. permissions and administration (mods, bans, kicks, mutes, etc)
4. chat history+search
   (discord has complete chat history and search for free, slack makes you pay for it)

[benjamingr]

i don't think i've ever seen a slack that has devolved into toxicity

I have. I've seen slacks where abuse was rampant and the environment was plenty toxic. I'm not saying ours will be toxic (it won't) but the platform doesn't make it any harder IMO.

---

(As a side note, I'm +1 on this whole chat thing in general)

[priyank-p]

Hey, on this topic i have a suggestion use zulip.
Reason why, there are actually lot:

• You can have stream discussions private and public
• You can setup lots of integrations and bots example include Jenkins, Travis CI, GitHub and a lot of them
• You have bots like Travis Bot or Commit Bot that can write that posts commits on master and build status.
• Custom Emoji you can upload as images.
• Its on all platforms Mobile, desktop
• Its open source
• Private chat with specific people
• Statistics
• Custom Regex to transform links
• You can install it on nodejs.org server
• APIs for most languages node, python etc.

For a bit of historic background, core discussion was moved out of #node.js around 2011 when that channel got too big. The bigger the channel, the harder it is to have focused discussion.

When you have a stream you can have topic which then go away if they are inactive

To see demo https://chat.zulip.org its a developer chat for https://github.com/zulip/zulip
To see all the https://chat.zulip.org/integrations/.
Even further to test it out you can create nodejs realm at https://zulipchat.com

If you have any question feel free to ask here or at https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/general
and ping me. My name is @cPhost over on zulip too.

[benjamingr]

@cPhost are you affiliate with zulip in any way?

[priyank-p]

@benjamingr no i am not but i am working on tasks because of Google Code-In and so i know all of the team.
Edit: If you have any questions post them up at https://chat.zulip.org/#narrow/stream/general there most people are affiliate with zulip will help you out.

[Aarbel]

So what is the next step for the nodejs help community ? :)

[devsnek]

zulip looks pretty good right now; the sign in with github is a huge plus

edit: you have to create an account with them anyway 😢