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New post type discussion

feature-request add tag

निरंजन

Can we have a post type named discussion? On [this](https://topanswers.xyz/tex?q=1063) question we were discussing a package. Though a bit digressed from the original question, actually it was a very good discussion.

I don't know about other communities, but at least for TeX package developers the discussion post-type would be amazing. The core difference in a "question" and a "discussion" will be there can be no question, just an experimental code and people will discuss on it. Experts can post their opinions on codes of new comers.

It's a bit different than a blog. Blog has comments only. This post-type would need both, comments as well as something like an answer (for time being let's call it *feedback*). Reason for having *feedback* is to allow users to suggest developments, ideas, corrections all together as one unit. User who have opened the discussion will also get different views together. What has happened in the comment box of that question is one user posted 10 to 15 comments which were very necessary and informative, but all of theme were somewhat scattered in the chat box. It would have been much better if all of them were posted as one unit.

What are your thoughts?

Top Answer

samcarter

Instead of the very broad `discussion` or `feedback` how about a `code review` tag instead? A bit like posts on code review, e.g. https://codereview.stackexchange.com/q/188168  just with the advantage that one would not separate them from the community which has the expertise in a certain topic. 

(in principle this could also be a separate post type, but I don't really see any special features it would need, so a tag could do the job equally well)

Answer #2

Jack Douglas

I think this would be best posted as a 'meta' question on tex.ta, but I have some thoughts about 'answers' that you may want to adapt over there.

It seems to me that it might be good to use answer 'labels', perhaps a list with:

* "idea"
* "feedback"
* "example"

Take a look at codegolf.ta to see how answer labels work, including example of how to search, and the features we are planning to add or flesh out:

@@@ question 1032

@Jack & @samcarter I agree with both of you. @JouleV I don't think chat room is accessible after a lot of comments, thus providing separate answers with good and intuitive labels is really a good idea.

I think I would treat this like a normal question with answers. The OP posts their code in the question and then other users can each write their answer with their remarks/improvements/etc. and the chat pane can be used for further discussion/clarifications/etc.

do you mean a 'site' chat room that would exist forever alongside the main TopTex room? If so we'd be very limited in how many we could create. Having a very simple 'discussion' post type may also make sense, as that could effectively be a chat room with a title: no answers allowed at all, and perhaps no post body allowed — just a title?

When there is an answer like a feedback, you will need a separate comment section to discuss about that feedback. Also, linking between feedbacks will not look good. Etc... The best way IMO is to work like an GitHub issue, and we already have that: the chat rooms.

::: quote 1096 49865 0007c3edf8a37486f398db47c0f0a2e9c2e08ed07294f09ae97efd842d5a5cc1 255,239,236 159,57,61 JouleV replying to निरंजन *— a few seconds ago* *in [Disable a command with package option](/tex?q=1063#c49865)* >I believe a chat room would be better. If there is a question, what will the question content says, what are the answers? A chat room is most suitable for this case. :::

2 Answers