🎥 Video on the differences between GitHub Issues/Discussions

[mishmanners]

Cc: < insert people who should be aware of this issue >

@adamcogan @wicksipedia

Hi @mishmanners

Regarding: https://www.ssw.com.au/rules/use-github-discussions/

We want to create a short video about the differences between GitHub Discussions and GitHub Issues and when you should use each.

• Talk to TV team to get a PBI on their end
• Write the script
• Record the video
• Test please
• Upload to YouTube once approved
• Link YouTube video to the rule above

[mishmanners]

Script:

Tabs or spaces, Python or JavaScript, Windows or Mac, Issues or Discussions? Everything depends on the situation. Today, we're going to look at GitHub Discussions and GitHub Issues to explain the differences and when you should each.

GitHub Issues was launched in 2009 as a way for software teams to collaborate. Developers and users now had a way to submit bugs, request features, and other issues related to the project. Issues were designed to be a place to talk about a bug, feature, or update, before working on it, and closing out the issue. We know users don't always use a product exactly as intended, and developers were finding themselves having lengthy Discussions around whether they should work on an idea or issue in the first place.

This is where GitHub Discussions comes into play. Launched in 2020, Discussions are a way for developers and the community to have discussions - conversations around features, bugs, and suggestions, outside the codebase. Discussions aren't closed the way issues are, and thus they can serve as a place for maintaining FAQs, documentation, and hosted threaded conversations.

When should you use a Discussion or an Issue? In short, Issues should be a way to track tasks and defined pieces of work. Discussions on the other hand are great for hosting questions, ideas, and a way to collaborate before making a decision. They are also great for community building, hosting conversations around FAQs, show and tells, and more.

If you ever create and Issue that you think should be a Discussion, and vice versa, you can quickly convert and Issue to Discussion or Discussion to Issue. This is also helpful-as an example-if someone has opened a Discussion and a decision has been made, you can convert it to a Issue to complete the work. You can also convert an Issue to Discussion if someone has opened an Issue for a feature request, and it turns into a Discussion about whether the feature should be built, rather than being a task for to implement the feature.

When it comes down to it, it depends on the situation whether you use GitHub Issues or Discussions. Both these products are great ways to collaborate and build projects, and we hope we've given you plenty of information to make a decision on when you should open a GitHub Issue, and when you should create a GitHub Discussion.

Options:

Tabs or spaces, Python or JavaScript, let or const, object oriented, or functional programming, strict/lose or static typed languages, dark or light mode, Windows or Mac, Netscape or Internet Explorer, YAML/JSON or XML, squash/merge or rebase, semicolon or not, git or , branching model?, vim or emacs,

[mishmanners]

From the GitHub blog:

GitHub Discussions vs. GitHub Issues: When to use each
A common question among developers new to GitHub Discussions goes something like this: When should I use Discussions and when should I use Issues?

The short answer: Discussions are great for questions and ideas that require team communication to make a decision, while Issues are defined pieces of work.

The slightly longer answer: In any given project or sprint, you have things you need to discuss and those you need to do. Discussions are for—no surprise here—discussing things. Issues are for cataloguing the work you need to do after you’ve reached a decision about how to move forward.

When to use GitHub Discussions

GitHub Discussions is best suited as a tool to share questions, ideas, conversations, requests for comment (RFC), resource planning, and announcements.
When to use GitHub Issues

GitHub Issues are used to track executable pieces of work with a defined start and end point. These can include new features, fixing bugs, general updates, and tracking for epics and sprints, among other things.
Both Issues and Discussions can help you be more productive and collaborative. But when they’re used together, you can be more efficient by reserving Issues and pull requests for active work and Discussions for conversations, questions, and community engagement.
And there’s another benefit: You can reference a discussion in an issue, which can help provide background and context for a piece of work. You can also convert an issue into a discussion if you need additional information and decisions before a task can be completed.

Other sources:

• https://github.com/features/discussions
• https://github.com/features/issues
• https://github.blog/changelog/2024-10-01-evolving-github-issues-public-beta/
• https://docs.github.com/en/issues/tracking-your-work-with-issues/about-issues