If you’re wondering how to set up one of our new forums for your library or project you’ve come to the right place!
For those not aware, we now have a new type of forum - which pretty much any library or project can get.
They’re listed on our new homepage:
(That last link points to this thread.)
And this is what they look like:
They’re not just like a forum, they actually act as a hub for your project/library. Here’s how:
Features:
Here are some details of what’ll be on each forum:
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Middle column:
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- Latest news item is automatically pinned at the top (if posted by a core team member of that project)
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- Latest threads, followed by hottest threads this week, month, year, etc - this’ll make it very easy for people to catch up with projects (particularly useful for those who cannot log-on daily/frequently or those just checking the community out).
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Left hand col:
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- Filter By categories (and when filtered by a category, sub-categories) so people can view learning resources, books, talks etc related to that project.
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- Followed by saved forums
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- Followed by various top lists etc
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Right hand col:
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- Project info with links to the project’s homepage, package, repo, docs, announcement thread and tag on the forum etc.
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- Recently active threads related to that project.
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- GitHub stats (updated daily).
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- Core team members of that project.
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- Pinned threads (only those posted by core team members).
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- Latest project related news (only those posted by core team members).
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- Latest official guides/tuts/tips etc (those posted by core team members).
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- Latest official Elixir news, upcoming conferences, jobs etc.
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- Featured book (if related to that project) followed by related learning resources. Featured book changes every 24 hours (randomly selected).
The beauty of this system is we can create hundreds or thousands of these without any real negative consequences - this is because we don’t need to create hundreds of new sections on the forum, our system simply uses forum tags and supercharges them 
Should you get one set up for your library or project?
It’s completely up to you, however this might help you decide:
- You have (or would like) a community forming around your project.
- You’d like to make use of our automatic news poster (if you use GitHub Releases).
- You’d like a hub to showcase your project’s team members, latest news, guides, threads, etc.
- You just fancy one
As mentioned, there are no major downsides in setting these up, our system takes care of all the stuff that might otherwise be an issue, so it really is up to you. If you do decide to proceed, here’s…
How to set up a new forum
You can currently set one up for:
- Any library that can be used in an Elixir project.
- Any Elixir related project or tool that is aimed at Elixir developers (such as language servers).
If you think another kind of project would be suitable please let us know and we’ll add it to our list of items for consideration/evaluation.
To create a new forum simply post a new thread in this section with the following info:
Title: Name of Library - forum setup thread
Tag: add the new-forum-request tag as well as the tag for your project or libraryBody:
/new forum request
Post the thread and our bot will provide further instructions 
If you have any questions you can post them in that thread, you can also use the /commands and /status flags for help too. Alternatively you can start a new thread in Members Only Sections > Forum Help/Feedback
