Try out gitter.im, the new chat for GitHub users

Features and Ideas
1

I just want to inform you about gitter.im since I noticed that there is not diaspora channel.

PLEASE NOTE: This discussion is not about making a decision about whether or not gitter.im should be used as a permanent communication channel. It is about TRYING it out in order to get it known. It can be set up with a few clicks and also be removed with a few clicks.

I would like to suggest opening a diaspora channel on
gitter.im - not as a replacement, but as an addition to the existing IRC channels.

Gitter is a “chat for GitHub”, nicely integrated with it… Channels in gitter are based on GitHub repos/accounts (in our case the url of the channel would become https://gitter.im/diaspora/diaspora).

Gitter offers a free hosted chat-service for public GitHub repositories. It’s extremely easy to “install": just sign in with your GitHub account (one click) and chose a repo: This can be any of your private or public repos on github. That’s it. What you get is a long-term chat (that saves all messages) where everybody with a GitHub account can join.

A short overview about some features:

Activity Feed: each channel has an activity feed on the right, which contains all activities on the GitHub repo (for example new issue, new pull request, new commits etc.). Each referenced Issue/Pull Request ID is a link like we are used from GitHub issues. Additionally it is possible to bind in third party services like TravisCi into it in order to get notified about build statuses.

GitHub flavoured markdown: images are displayed directly in the chat; code can be pasted including syntax highlighting, issues can be referenced like #123; users can be mentioned like @username etc.

Notifications: you can define whether you want to get notified on each message, on each mention or totally turn notifications off. Other than IRC you don’t have to be online to receive notifications. Missed messages can be sent to you via email so you don’t have to wonder whether or not someone has read your message.

Search and Logging: the whole chat history is logged and can be searched at anytime. This is not only useful for the direct usage of the chatroom, but also when people are searching for topics on google that have been discussed in the chat before, since the logs are indexed by search engines => additional resources for users

Gitter is accessible from everywhere through the browser, but it also offers an App for MacOS and iOs (Android is following). For those who love their irc client: they can connect to Gitter through IRC: https://irc.gitter.im/

Badges on GitHub Repo: you can add a Gitter-Badge to your repo’s README next to those of TravisCI and CodeClimate and give users the ability to directly jump into the chat without having to install an IRC client first.

Also there is a Developer API which includes a REST API, a Streaming API and Faye endpoints you can subscribe to.

I see more and more open source projects using IRC as well as Gitter. https://gitter.im/rails/rails has more than 330 active members at.

We are using it for a customer-project since the early Beta. We tried IRC before as well as campfire, but Gitter quickly became our main channel and decreased the amount of Emails we are writing as well as the number of issues for asking questions, since you can leave private messages, no matter if the user is online or not.

I know that most of you are used to IRC, but as I said earlier: we can use both. IRC for those who like IRC and Gitter for those who like Gitter.

I don’t see a downside of offering users an additional channel, especially since this could decrease the number of newbies popping up in the IRC to ask a question. People will tend to directly click on the Gitter badge in the GitHub Repo if they have a question instead of setting up IRC.

What do you think? Is it worth making two mouse clicks and giving it a try? It can still be closed later if it is disturbing or not beneficial enough.

Note: This discussion was imported from Loomio. Click here to view the original discussion.

2

Is it worth making two mouse clicks and giving it a try?

Go for it :slight_smile:

3

All that writing and not even a discussion? :stuck_out_tongue: :wink:

The owner/admin of github.com/diaspora has to set it up.

4

D* needs as much exposure as possible. Go for it.
Maybe IRC is not the universal chat tool for everybody. :slight_smile:

5

maybe it really isn’t, even though hard to believe :wink:
Since I am new here, I have no clue how long this process of setting the chat up takes here. Will this Discussion now go through an extensive discussion until it is been voted on? I am already refreshing https://gitter.im/diaspora/diaspora in 15 minute intervals :slight_smile:

Btw: I just googled for “loomio+gitter” and looks like they also discovered Gitter and they seem to be impressed:

wow this is fun
@jonlemmon you think we should add this to our github ?
jonlemmon November 16 2014
@s01us yeah, I think it’d be a good idea… it’s just so accessible. Seems way more practical than an IRC server

Probably they would also be interested in a loomio-gitter-integration for displaying activities from loomio in the gitter activity feed.

6

The owner/admin of github.com/diaspora has to set it up

Ah right, I missed that bit :slight_smile:

7

I don’t really want to watch yet another communication channel, especially if it has such a gigantic overlap with one we already have.

8

@jhass you don’t have to. it is optional

9

I recently talked to the guys from loomio about integrating loomio with Gitter.im. This would display new activities on loomio in the chat sidebar which would be great because most people are either on github or on irc or on loomio. This way you can keep track of the chat, github activities and loomio activities in one place.

I guess the next step is to create a proposal… since I am new here maybe someone else should do it…?

10

I guess the next step is to create a proposal… since I am new here maybe someone else should do it…?

You can do it, Virginia!

11

Proposal: try out gitter.im for chatting

I suggest trying out the new “chat for GitHub” on http://gitter.im additionally to IRC.

The advantages I see:

The chat is connected to the GitHub repo so all activities on GitHub are shown in the activity feed in the sidebar.
It has a TravisCI integration so the activity feed also contains information about build statuses.
Also a Loomio integration is planned to be added so the activity feed would contain activities on Loomio as well.

This way we would have one place where we get informed about most of the activities around diaspora.

Outcome: N/A

Votes:

  • Yes: 5
  • Abstain: 2
  • No: 10
  • Block: 0

Note: This proposal was imported from Loomio. Vote details, some comments and metadata were not imported. Click here to view the proposal with all details on Loomio.

12

If we had to create an additional communication channel I would prefer something closer to the Open Source and Distributed model of Diaspora. That could be a chat room on a jabber server.

13

@nikosroussos I suggested gitter.im because it brings a benefit to the workflow by collecting all relevant information (TravisCI build status, github activities and soon loomio activities) in one place. Also you can just login with your github account so newbies can jump in to the chat directly by clicking the gitter badge on the diaspora github repo.

A jabber would bring no benefit over irc: users would have to install a client, sign up/connect etc.
Also you would have to maintain it.

I don’t see why a distributed and open source chat would be better.

14

@jhass what exactly do you mean with “overlap”? do you mean that you don’t want to have a second chat client opened besides your irc client?

15

More specifically I don’t want a second client open for the same type of communication.

16

Another problem is that we already confuse people with what to discuss where, adding another channel won’t help there.

17

On a third point, you should extend the voting period a bit for this one, I try to always include at least two weekends. Loomios default is way too short unfortunately.

18

More specifically I don’t want a second client open for the same type of communication.

You don’t have to have a second client open. You can join the Gitter chat through IRC as well and it will appear in your IRC client just as an additional channel. See https://irc.gitter.im/
Alongs with all its benefits over IRC I believe it could even replace the freenode channels without any disadvantage for anyone. For developers it is a much more powerful chat than IRC through markdown support, image uploads, build statuses, search functionality etc.

Another problem is that we already confuse people with what to discuss where, adding another channel won’t help there.

I talked to the guys from loomio about integrating loomio with gitter. Seems to be really easy. in Gitter you have an activity feed at the sidebar where you would see activities in Loomio so I think this and the ability to use in irc could actually help a bit. But even if it won’t help, it won’t make it worse.

It would help getting all the different communication channels known through the activity feed and since he can just click on the gitter-badge in the readme he can directly join the chat by signing in with his github account and could use it through his browser, no matter at which device he is on. For joining IRC he might have to setup an IRC client first. Not every developer, especially those of a newer generation, are using IRC.

On a third point, you should extend the voting period a bit for this one, I try to always include at least two weekends. Loomios default is way too short unfortunately.

Good to know, thx. changed it

19

the negative feedback surprises me a bit, since the proposal is not about a final decision for or against using Gitter permanently, but about having a short look at it, despite of whether or not you decide on using it afterwards.
When I signed up here for informing you about Gitter after haven been directed here from the IRC, I was surprised that suggestions on having a look at something have to go through a bureaucratic procedure and thought of it as default procedure.

I would have not expected people being against trying something out since I thought that the part of “being against is” would follow after having a look at it.

In the title of the survey I wrote “try out Gitter.im for chatting”, but in the title I used “Use” instead of “Try”.
Did this mislead to the assumption that this poll was intended as a final decision for or against Gitter?

That was not my intention. I am no contributor and not even a user of diaspora and might be the most inactive person in he chat. So I don’t see myself in the position of telling you what you should use for communicating.

If your feedback is caused of this misunderstanding, I feel really bad and sorry. Your reaction would make sense to me since I couldn’t come up with a better explanation on why else so many people at once would be against trying something out.

20

Let me explain my decision. Disclaimer: this is my opinion and not a statement from the projects team.

We use IRC and mailing lists at the moment and I feel pretty good with that. I don’t think we need another channel of communication as it won’t replace what we are using right now because those services are easy and convenient for us to use. We also worked the situation out for newcomers, so I don’t feel like that’s much of a problem.

We tried stuff like uservoice in the past, a lot of fancy ‘decisions’ were made but nothing really happened. We have a forum right now, but a huge portion of our active developers are not looking into it. I expect the same from a new chat platform.