I suspect people are using it partly to deliver a more regular and visible heartbeat.
Going to a project’s discord that has active messages feels like the thing is alive, and getting engagement from the maintainers or project owners feels more connected than replies in issues.
GitHub issues is mechanically better but is (properly) spare in comparison.
Creating an issue, (which occupies a number that can not be taken back), is heavy compared to a chat message.
Discussions are GH’s answer to this but I think those muddy the waters. Having Discussions enabled on only some repos makes them unreliable. And each repo has different criteria for what should go in a discussion.
As much as I avoid Discord, I don’t think the chat based medium is going away. If anything, I could see GH finding a way to enter that fray.
Going to a project’s discord that has active messages feels like the thing is alive, and getting engagement from the maintainers or project owners feels more connected than replies in issues.
GitHub issues is mechanically better but is (properly) spare in comparison.
Creating an issue, (which occupies a number that can not be taken back), is heavy compared to a chat message.
Discussions are GH’s answer to this but I think those muddy the waters. Having Discussions enabled on only some repos makes them unreliable. And each repo has different criteria for what should go in a discussion.
As much as I avoid Discord, I don’t think the chat based medium is going away. If anything, I could see GH finding a way to enter that fray.