GitHub Discussions

Overview

GitHub Discussions is a native, built-in GitHub feature that creates a dedicated space for community conversations separate from Issues and pull requests. It enables transparent, open-ended discussions around projects without the task-tracking overhead of traditional Issues.

Core Distinction from Issues

Issues: Track tasks, bugs, features to close
Discussions: Open-ended conversations that don’t need closing

Discussions reduce management burden on maintainers while providing fluid, discussion-focused environment for community members.

Setup Process (5 minutes)

1. Go to your repository main page
2. Click Settings (under repo name)
3. Scroll to Features section
4. Click Set up discussions
5. Edit welcome post template (optional)
6. Click Start discussion to activate

For organization-level discussions:

1. Organization settings → Discussions
2. Designate source repository
3. All organization discussions flow to one place

Discussion Categories

Custom categories organize conversations by type:

Pre-built Examples

• Q&A: Questions and answers (default)
• Announcements: Updates and news
• Troubleshooting: Problem-solving help
• Ideas: Feature requests and brainstorming
• General: Off-topic and casual chat

Create Custom Categories

• Tailor to your community needs
• Up to 25 custom categories
• Set welcome message per category
• Configure with discussion forms

Q&A Features

Mark Answers

• Community maintainers designate comments as official answers
• Marked answers highlighted at top of thread
• Makes solutions discoverable without scrolling
• Shows community which response solved the problem

Answer Tracking

• Discussions can be marked “answered” or “unanswered”
• Filter discussions by status
• Helps community find resolved issues
• Reduces duplicate questions

Threaded Comments

• Nested comment threads keep conversations organized
• Prevents cross-talk and tangents
• Easy to follow problem-solving steps
• Clean, readable structure

Community Organization Features

Discussion Forms

• Prompt contributors to include specific information
• Standardize data collection per category
• Required fields for structured answers
• Dropdowns, checkboxes, text fields

Labels

• Tag discussions granularly
• Enable community filtering
• Create meaningful data insights
• Organize by topic, priority, product area

Pinning

• Pin important discussions globally (all see it)
• Pin within specific categories
• Increase visibility of key conversations
• FAQ-style pinned posts work well

Linking

• Link discussions to issues
• Convert issues ↔ discussions
• Reference in code comments
• Cross-reference in pull requests

Moderation & Community Health

Moderation Tools

• Mark helpful comments as answers
• Lock/unlock discussions to control participation
• Edit or delete discussions not aligning with standards
• Convert issues to discussions (and vice versa)
• Set repository visibility (public/private)

Code of Conduct

• Automatic linking within Discussions
• Sets community expectations
• Reference in welcome message
• Enforce community standards

Community Guidelines

• Update README clarifying Issues vs Discussions use
• Guide users to right place
• Reduce off-topic discussions
• Educate on community norms

Analytics & Monitoring

Dashboard tracks community health:

Contribution Activity

• Total activity across Discussions, Issues, PRs
• See overall project engagement
• Identify active contributors
• Track growth trends

Discussion Metrics

• Page views (logged-in vs anonymous)
• Discussion view counts
• Popular discussions
• Category-level analytics

Contributor Tracking

• Daily unique contributors
• Reactions, upvotes, answer marks
• Comments and posts per user
• Engagement leaderboards

Privacy & Visibility

Repository-Level

• Public repo → Public discussions
• Private repo → Private discussions
• Visibility inherited from repository

Organization-Level

• Organization discussions public (unless org is private)
• All members see organization discussions
• Centralize communications across repos

Use Cases

Ideal For:

• Customer Q&A and troubleshooting
• Community support for open-source projects
• Announcing updates and roadmap
• Gathering feedback and ideas
• Community brainstorming
• Building developer communities
• Reducing support email burden
• Transparent communication with users

Not Ideal For:

• Bug tracking (use Issues)
• Feature development (use Issues + PRs)
• Private business discussions (use Slack)
• Formal support tickets (use Zendesk/Freshdesk)

Comparison with Alternatives

vs Discord/Slack

• GitHub Discussions searchable forever
• Built into existing GitHub workflow
• No separate platform to join
• Better for async, long-form
• Discord better for real-time chat

vs Zendesk/Freshdesk

• Discussions free, integrated with code
• Zendesk/Freshdesk more professional, formal
• Discussions for open communities
• Ticketing systems for formal support

vs Fider

• Discussions Q&A style
• Fider feature-request/voting style
• Can use both together (discussions + Fider)
• Discussions no voting, Fider voting-first

Strengths

• Native to GitHub: No additional platform
• Zero cost: Completely free
• Integrated workflow: Works with Issues, PRs, code
• Searchable: Discussions archived forever
• Q&A features: Mark answers, threads, categories
• Community first: Peer support not just company support
• Analytics built-in: Track engagement without tools
• Low friction: Users already on GitHub
• Mobile friendly: Native GitHub mobile app support

Limitations

• GitHub-only: Doesn’t help non-GitHub users
• No voting: Unlike Fider, no upvotes/prioritization
• Limited notifications: Can be noisy or miss things
• Moderation overhead: Requires active management
• Search not perfect: Can be hard to find old discussions
• No formal ticketing: Discussions don’t integrate with support systems
• Async only: No real-time chat like Discord

Best Practices

Category Planning

• Think through categories before launch
• 5-10 categories is typical
• Make them clear and distinct
• Revisit and refine after 1 month

Moderation Strategy

• Assign discussion owner/monitor
• Respond to first posts within 24 hours
• Mark helpful answers quickly
• Merge duplicate discussions
• Remove spam/off-topic

Community Guidelines

• Create CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
• Link from README
• Reference in welcome message
• Enforce consistently

Engagement

• Welcome new community members
• Thank people who answer questions
• Recognize top contributors
• Use polls to gather feedback
• Highlight best discussions

Documentation

• Pin FAQs in Q&A category
• Link to official docs from discussions
• Use discussions to identify docs gaps
• Keep docs and discussions in sync

Setting Up Discussions for Support

Category Structure Example

• Q&A: How do I…? Troubleshooting?
• Announcements: Updates, roadmap, maintenance
• Feature Requests: What should we build?
• General: Community and random chat
• Show & Tell: Showcase projects using ours

Welcome Message Template

Welcome to [Project] Discussions!  
  
This is the place to:  
- Ask questions about how to use [Project]  
- Share ideas and get feedback  
- Discuss features and roadmap  
- Connect with community members  
  
**Please read our Code of Conduct.**  
  
For bugs, use Issues. For PRs, follow our contribution guide.  

Discussion Form Example (Q&A)

• Title: What’s your question? (required)
• OS/Environment: What’s your setup? (dropdown)
• Code example: Paste relevant code (optional)
• Expected behavior: What should happen? (text)

Integration with Other Tools

GitHub API

• Pull discussion data programmatically
• Create discussions from scripts
• Sync discussions to other platforms
• Build custom tools

Webhooks

• Trigger external actions
• Send notifications to Slack/Discord
• Create Jira tickets from discussions
• Log to databases

Search/SEO

• Discussions indexable by Google
• Good for long-term searchability
• Drive organic traffic
• Help future community members find answers

Moderation Red Flags

Watch for:

• Unanswered questions (respond within 24h)
• Off-topic discussions (move or close)
• Duplicate discussions (merge or redirect)
• Spam or inappropriate content (delete/ban)
• Low engagement (analyze why, improve UX)

Analytics to Track

• Daily/weekly active discussions
• Average response time
• % of discussions with marked answers
• Most viewed discussions
• Trending topics
• Time to resolution
• Community contributor growth

Growth Strategy

1. Create initial discussions (examples, FAQs)
2. Pin important ones (increase visibility)
3. Promote launch (email, docs, social)
4. Encourage participation (respond quickly)
5. Recognize contributors (highlight helpful members)
6. Iterate categories (add/remove based on usage)
7. Scale moderation (add community moderators)

Cost Comparison

Feature	GitHub Discussions	Zendesk	Freshdesk	Discord
Cost	Free	Enterprise pricing	$15-99/mo	Free
Setup	5 min	Weeks	Weeks	Hours
Integration	Native GitHub	CRM systems	Multi-channel	Custom
Search	Excellent	Good	Good	Message history
Q&A Features	Good	Limited	Limited	None
Moderation	Good	Excellent	Excellent	Good

Ideal For

• Open-source projects
• Transparent companies
• Developer communities
• Developer tools/products
• GitHub-native workflows
• Budget-conscious teams
• First-time support communities

Getting Started

1. Enable Discussions (Settings → Features)
2. Create categories (Q&A, Announcements, Ideas, General)
3. Write welcome message (guide users)
4. Add code of conduct (set expectations)
5. Create pinned FAQ (Q&A category)
6. Promote launch (announce to users)
7. Assign moderator (someone owns engagement)
8. Respond to early discussions (build momentum)
9. Track metrics (monitor health)
10. Iterate (adjust categories, moderation)

Success Metrics

• Active discussions per week
• Response time to first question
• % discussions with marked answers
• Contributor growth
• Page views and engagement
• Time to resolution
• Community sentiment