I'm doing research for a possible startup where I'm writing a tool (in Nim) for supporting library repos. I also have a few libraries up on nimble.directory.
So, I figured this forum might be a apt place to ask some open-ended research questions. If it is inappropriate, please let me know. * * * One of the purposes of an open-source library is for other people to use it. The other purpose is also for contributors to help develop it. And while the "users group" and "contributors group" definitely overlap, there are pretty much always more users than contributors. That makes sense. Though I help out regularly with about a dozen libraries, I also "only use" hundreds of other libraries. (Actually, since my main OS is an Ubuntu derivative, I'm probably using many thousands of other libraries indirectly every day.) For the libraries where I'm an active contributor, one of the challenges of users is they often have questions. For a little-used library, the occasional "tech support" question thrown into GitHub Issues is no big deal and easily answered. But for a popular library or project, this can be more problematic. I'd love to hear peoples opinions and solutions for the following. 1\. For the libraries you support; how has communication with users been handled? > (Nim itself, has this forum to help out, of course...) 2\. Any examples of complications? 3\. How often do you encounter the same questions? Is it easy to find "FAQ maintenance volunteers", etc.? 4\. Can you think of other ways communication with end-users could be helpfully improved, increased, or decreased? Example stories?
