Where to ask/discuss questions about using JavaFX

[Nir Lisker]

To address some of the points made here:

However, we do not control the moderation of SO, and it's also not a great
> environment for discussions.
>

SO clearly states that the questions there should not be discussions as
it's against the idea for what the site is for. So "not great" is an
understatement :)
Some broader questions, which are sometimes opinion-based, can be asked on
the sister site SoftwareEngineering (SE)
<https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com>, but that too is not a
place for full fledged discussions.

6. ?


There is a JavaFX subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/JavaFX/), I'm not
very active there, but I look at what's there every couple of months or so.
It seems to take everything from questions (coding help like SO, design and
architecture questions like SE, toolings and technologies suggestions
like Software
Recommendations <https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com> etc.); links to
news items, blog posts, mailing lists, personal projects, and videos;
discussions about JavaFX itself like it's future... Basically, anything
about JavaFX.
It's not a very active subreddit currently - about a post every 2 days.

> 2. Keep it on Stackoverflow
>
>   * Not realtime-capable (no "chat")
>

StackExchange websites actually have chats <https://chat.stackexchange.com>.
They keep full history, there is search and decent tools. You are free to
open your own, in any language, and they are not closely moderated. See the
FAQ <https://chat.stackexchange.com/faq>.

I also don't think we should either endorse or discourage usage
> of stackoverflow, although the signal to noise ratio there isn't as good as
> I'd like.
>

The signal to noise ratio on SO is a known and much discussed problem on
Meta-SO. It leads to a lot of frustration from both askers and answerers.
SO is meant for a small subset of programming question types (maybe 3 or 4)
contrary to some belief that anything software related goes there.

On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 7:31 PM Phil Race <philip.race at oracle.com> wrote:

> A mailing list would (I think) be best but where to host it is tricky.
>
> I think we have been very tolerant of usage questions on the lists,
> and it has been manageable (low volume, reasonable questions) for 10 years.
> But I would not want to see openjfx-discuss endorsed as the place to go
> to ask newbie questions (and up) that aren't related to developing the
> platform itself.
>
> The openjdk projects and their mailing lists in general aren't used for
> that and
> if we tried to open up a mailing list for usage questions under openjdk
> I don't
> know how well that would go down with the openjdk admins etc.
>
> I also don't think we should either endorse or discourage usage of
> stackoverflow,
> although the signal to noise ratio there isn't as good as I'd like.
>
> If a mailing list is established it probably should have a name like
> "openjfx-forum"
>
> -phil.
>
> On 8/13/19 4:06 AM, Johan Vos wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Recently, the question has raised again about what tool should be used by
> > JavaFX developers to discuss the *usage* (patterns etc) of JavaFX (not
> the
> > JavaFX Platform development itself).
> >
> > There are a number of technologies facilitating discussions.
> > Many people ask questions on StackOverflow, and many answer questions.
> > However, we do not control the moderation of SO, and it's also not a
> great
> > environment for discussions.
> >
> > The OpenJFX mailinlists and the issue trackers are great for discussions,
> > but those should be limited to the JavaFX platform itself (i.e. not for
> > asking best patterns for layout etc).
> >
> > This leads us to the question where such discussions (between JavaFX
> > developers) should take place. There are a number of options:
> > 1. A mailinglist (e.g. this one, openjfx-discuss, or another one)
> > 2. Keep it on Stackoverflow
> > 3. Gitter
> > 4. A Slack channel
> > 5. IRC
> > 6. ?
> >
> > Since this is a discussion that comes back every now and then, it would
> be
> > good to centralize the pro's and con's of the different options, and
> > hopefully even to come to a conclusion.
> >
> > Note that this is not about an "official" JavaFX developer discussion
> > forum. We just need a pragmatic approach where developers can discuss
> their
> > questions and suggestions.
> > While it is possible and very welcome of course for OpenJFX committers to
> > be active in these discussions as well, it should mainly be driven by
> > JavaFX developers.
> >
> > - Johan
>
>