Enable GitHub Discussions

[tyleralbee]

Expected behaviour:

GitHub Discussions tab should be enabled for the repository.

Actual behaviour:

GitHub Discussions tab is disabled; this results in questions submitted as issues (e.g. #1640).

Configuration:

Enable GitHub Discussions in settings (see quickstart).

Software versions

• NodeJS: n/a
• node-mssql: 11.0.0
• SQL Server: n/a

Having discussions open is especially nice for discussing things that are tangentially related to this repository (e.g. type definitions from @types/mssql).

[dhensby]

I'm not particularly sold on discussions, it's not clear to me who is meant to moderate or respond to discussions - is it just to be an SO alternative? If so, why not just use SO? If it's for support, I'm not inclined to provide support (again, seems like SO's remit).

Perhaps the contributing / issues template could make it clearer that users should go elsewhere for support, but does adding enabling the discussions feature stop people from abusing issues?

[tyleralbee]

I'm not particularly sold on discussions, it's not clear to me who is meant to moderate or respond to discussions - is it just to be an SO alternative? If so, why not just use SO? If it's for support, I'm not inclined to provide support (again, seems like SO's remit).

I actually don't think discussions are meant to be moderated. There should be a place for discussion on best practices, questions (even if they have been asked before), and conversation regarding the library. StackOverflow isn't the place for free-form discussion of that nature. Not to mention what I feel is the best part: GitHub's search functionality within the Discussions tab can act like a more targeted Google search.

I have responded to and opened discussions in repos that I don't maintain. This library is almost certainly the most popular method of interfacing with SQL Server in Node - you have a lot of developers that are thankful for that. I think you'd be surprised at the amount of people who would provide insightful answers just to help out.

does adding enabling the discussions feature stop people from abusing issues?

It's never going to stop the abuse of issues completely. I would imagine it relieves pressure, though.

[TomMiller-mas]

I have a question about best practices on when to use replaceInput and input. Now I have to make a bug ticket on documentation instead of asking in the discussion section.

[dhensby]

Closing — the maintenance overhead of moderating Discussions doesn't seem justified at this time. Issues remain the best place for bug reports and feature requests.