So I hit a blocker, how can I solve this problem? I do a cursory look over the implementation to see if I can figure it out, but it's an unfamiliar codebase. So I check the docs and there's nothing except a "join the Discord community" link. So I open Discord, install updates, do the custom email-based 2FA dance, agree to the changed T&Cs, dismiss a Nitro banner, agree to the server rules, and join #general. I write up my question with all the context I can and post it. No reply. So I crack out the debugger and step through the library/framework/etc one line at a time figuring out what's going on. I set up my own editable copy so I can add logging and try some fixes, eventually after a few hours I find that X just doesn't support Y, or that I have to pass in the value encoded in Base 47 or Latin 1. Three days later at 1am I get a dismissive response on Discord telling me to refer to a conversation that happened 2 weeks previous to me signing up.
Chat massively shifts the burden on to users both in terms of figuring stuff out themselves, and in terms of providing support to each other. It's no substitute for documentation, particularly in the world of asynchronous working. We think it's good for async working because you can reply asynchronously, but it's not because you can't unblock asynchronously.
In ~8 years of working with Django (split over the last 12 years), I think the only time I used a debugger on Django code was when I found a security vulnerability and needed to be certain of some very low level details. In ~5 days (over a month) of a hobby project with a project that encourages Discord for documentation I've had to use the debugger 3 times to figure out what's going on.
So I hit a blocker, how can I solve this problem? I do a cursory look over the implementation to see if I can figure it out, but it's an unfamiliar codebase. So I check the docs and there's nothing except a "join the Discord community" link. So I open Discord, install updates, do the custom email-based 2FA dance, agree to the changed T&Cs, dismiss a Nitro banner, agree to the server rules, and join #general. I write up my question with all the context I can and post it. No reply. So I crack out the debugger and step through the library/framework/etc one line at a time figuring out what's going on. I set up my own editable copy so I can add logging and try some fixes, eventually after a few hours I find that X just doesn't support Y, or that I have to pass in the value encoded in Base 47 or Latin 1. Three days later at 1am I get a dismissive response on Discord telling me to refer to a conversation that happened 2 weeks previous to me signing up.
Chat massively shifts the burden on to users both in terms of figuring stuff out themselves, and in terms of providing support to each other. It's no substitute for documentation, particularly in the world of asynchronous working. We think it's good for async working because you can reply asynchronously, but it's not because you can't unblock asynchronously.
In ~8 years of working with Django (split over the last 12 years), I think the only time I used a debugger on Django code was when I found a security vulnerability and needed to be certain of some very low level details. In ~5 days (over a month) of a hobby project with a project that encourages Discord for documentation I've had to use the debugger 3 times to figure out what's going on.