Discussion Guidelines
The Node-RED project hosts a discussion forum and Slack workspace as places to connect with the wider community, get help and share ideas.
We aim for all project spaces to be welcoming and supportive spaces. To help keep it that way, we have
some guidelines we ask everyone to follow, as well as some tips specific to the forum and slack.
0: Code of Conduct
We have a Code of Conduct that applies to all project spaces. We expect everyone participating in the community to abide by the code of conduct. Please take the time to read it.
Please be respectful of other community members. Remember that many of the people who contribute to the open source
community and project are not paid to do so. They are here out of choice to help the community.
1: Pick the right place to post
For general ‘How do I?’ type questions, the forum is usually the best place to start. It has the largest active audience with a very broad range of experience.
For more detailed technical questions about the code or internals, the Slack workspace may be a better place to start. Just be aware the core developers are mostly in European timezones so you may not get an instant response.
Here are some of the useful Slack channels to help get you started:
#using-node-red If you’re new to Node-RED then most people will start here.#share-your-work lets you show the projects or nodes you’ve created & announce talks and events related to Node-RED.#docker is for people using Node-RED under docker#dashboard-ui is for talking about the Node-RED dashboard nodes.#creating-nodes is if you are looking for help with writing a new node for Node-RED#core-dev is all about the inner workings of Node-RED, either if you’re contributing to the project or looking to embed Node-RED in another application.#jobs for hiring people to work on Node-RED, both freelancers and employees. Job posts outside of this channel will get deleted.
Stack Overflow has its own set of guidelines for what makes a good question.
We sometimes get questions asked in YouTube video comments or on Twitter. Those are monitored by a very small group of people so don’t always get a response as quickly as you may want.
Do not raise a GitHub Issue unless you have an issue to report - and be sure to fill-in the template you’re given.
2: Do not double post
Whilst there are a few places you could ask your questions, please try to keep the conversations in one place. Avoid double-posting questions to the forum, slack and StackOverflow at the same time.
Be patient - depending on the time of day it may take some time to get a response.
3: Format your code/flows when posting
If you want to include code or flows when you post to the forum or slack, please take the time to format them properly. This helps keep your post readable, and avoids flooding the channel.
In the forum, use the </> button in the formatting toolbar. Alternatively, wrap your code/flow with three backticks (```) on a newline before and after.
In Slack, attach your code/flow as a text snippet.
4: Avoid tagging/@-ing specific people
Unless you have a question for a specific person, please do not tag people into your posts just to get attention.
In Slack, do not use @here or @channel.
5: Do not direct message users
In general, keep conversations in the public spaces. If you direct message a question to another user, you are missing the opportunity of having the wider community help.
If you find yourself being direct messaged for assistance without your consent, then please let us know.
6: Do not spam
Please don’t post commercial messages to the forum or slack unless there is a clear and obvious connection with the Node-RED project.
If you want to promote an event, there is the #events category in the forum - but it must have a direct relevance to the Node-RED.
If you’re to hire someone to work with Node-RED, there is a #jobs channel in slack.
7: Use threads in Slack
If there are multiple conversations going on in Slack, use threads to reply to previous messages. This helps to keep the conversations organised and coherent.
Other places
If you have a specific question to ask, you can also head over to
Stack Overflow and use
the tag node-red.
The project is @NodeRED on Twitter, which we use
for general announcements and links. You may also want to follow @red_nodes
which provides a feed of nodes published to the flow library.
The project used the Google Groups based mailing list, but
that is now a read-only archive..
We ran our first community-wide survey in March/April 2019. The results are
available here.
User Groups
