[Qgis-psc] Developer support channels

[Nyall Dawson]

Hi PSC, QGIS dev list members!

I would like to kick-start some discussion on possible channels that
we could use to (hopefully temporarily!!) replace our in-person
contributor meetups.

Kartoza have been doing a brilliant job at connecting with our user
base through their QGIS Open Day initiative. While I've personally
found this to be a good replacement for user conference type events, I
feel like there's a need for a focused QGIS contributors virtual
meetup.

I think one of the reasons the QGIS contributor community has
historically had such a welcoming and friendly feel could be directly
attributed to the in-person hackfest events. I'm sure I'm not the only
one who is feeling the absence of these! (I would seriously love to be
back in Nodebo, hanging out with you all in the woodcutters bar and
trying to hammer a nail into a stump of wood :P )

While it wouldn't be a replacement for these in-person meetups, I'd
love to see a semi-regular "Friday night drinks" style video chat for
QGIS contributors. The intention would be that this is
social/relationship focused, rather than a "QGIS Planning session"
meetup.

Would anyone else be interested in this?

On this note, I would also love to see some form of
contributor-focused text chat room for QGIS contributors. While
there's plenty of chat rooms around for QGIS users, these tend to
attract toward "how do I do this in QGIS" questions. For this reason I
personally avoid them, as I'm looking more for a "random social chat
with other QGIS contributors" channel where I'm not feeling like I'm
there to help users out. Would others be interested in this too?

Thanks for your thoughts!
Nyall