# Ok to use Discourse for package-specific tech support?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379>\
**Category:** Meta Discussion\
**Tags:** question, discourse\
**Created:** [July 27, 2021, 2:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379 "2021-07-27T14:43:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 14\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![miles](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/miles/32/29112_2.png) [@miles](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/miles)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 2:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/1 "2021-07-27T14:43:58Z")

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I am one of the developers of the Julia package ITensors.jl [GitHub - ITensor/ITensors.jl: A Julia library for efficient tensor computations and tensor network calculations](https://github.com/ITensor/ITensors.jl). Currently we run our own support forum (link here: [ITensor Support Q&A](http://itensor.org/support/)) but we have been thinking about directing our users here in the future. One reason is that there could be more crossover discussions about related packages and Julia programming. Another is that the Discourse forum software is much better than what we’re using.

My question is: would it be _welcome and appropriate_ to direct our users to ask very specific, tech support type questions here? We would provide a link & instructions to post their questions in the Quantum domain with the itensor tag.

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**Author:** ![Oscar\_Smith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oscar_smith/32/25343_2.png) [@Oscar\_Smith](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Oscar_Smith)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/2 "2021-07-27T14:46:57Z")

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Absolutely! About half of the questions here are package specific.

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**Author:** ![Sukera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Sukera](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Sukera)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 2:52pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/3 "2021-07-27T14:52:56Z")

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People asking package specific questions usually tag them, e.g. with `Makie`. It’s definitely welcome.

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**Author:** ![miles](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/miles/32/29112_2.png) [@miles](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/miles)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/4 "2021-07-27T15:26:28Z")

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Thanks for the helpful answers! 👍

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2021, 8:11am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/5 "2021-07-28T08:11:25Z")

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In the repo or the docs, you may also want to list the Discourse usernames of people who can/should be pinged (`@...`) with questions.

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**Author:** ![miles](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/miles/32/29112_2.png) [@miles](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/miles)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2021, 3:51pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/6 "2021-09-01T15:51:37Z")

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As a follow-up question, if we start directing our (ITensor) users to post here, they will very likely start asking questions that are not very related to Julia. For example, we frequently get questions about best practices for doing numerical calculations for physics problems, and sort of broader philosophy like that.

If that happened, would those questions get marked as off-topic or become otherwise discouraged by the moderators here?

Thank you

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**Author:** ![Oscar\_Smith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oscar_smith/32/25343_2.png) [@Oscar\_Smith](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Oscar_Smith)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2021, 3:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/7 "2021-09-01T15:59:26Z")

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Numerical calculation algorithms are almost always on topic here.

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**Author:** ![vchuravy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/vchuravy/32/8_2.png) [@vchuravy](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/vchuravy)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2021, 3:22am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/8 "2021-09-11T03:22:41Z")

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We are also happy to create a category that you can direct users to

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**Author:** ![miles](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/miles/32/29112_2.png) [@miles](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/miles)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2021, 2:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/9 "2021-09-13T14:58:30Z")

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That’s great to hear, Valentin. May we request a new topic called “Tensor Networks” ?

We were considering directing our users to the Quantum category (or maybe the Numerics category), but tensor networks are their own area of specialized knowledge and are being explored heavily not only for quantum physics, but for machine learning, PDE solving, and so on. Julia already has at least two tensor network packages (ITensor and TensorKit, and you might count TensorOperations too).

We could discuss more if the forum mods are open to this. Maybe it would be better to have the category also include low-rank methods such as hierarchical matrices too.

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**Author:** ![vchuravy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/vchuravy/32/8_2.png) [@vchuravy](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/vchuravy)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2021, 5:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/10 "2021-09-13T17:30:50Z")

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Yeah finding the right balance between specificity and generality is challenging.

If the Quantum domain isn’t to busy we could start with adding tags for tensor networks

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**Author:** ![mbauman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mbauman/32/31082_2.png) [@mbauman](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mbauman)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2021, 5:54pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/11 "2021-09-13T17:54:42Z")

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I’m of the opinion that we have too many categories as it stands and would love to see ways of generalizing some of them so people are more confident about finding the right place to post.

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**Author:** ![miles](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/miles/32/29112_2.png) [@miles](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/miles)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/12 "2021-09-13T20:13:28Z")

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Depending on the consensus of the forum maintainers, we are also ok with using the existing categories (probably either Quantum or Numerics or both) and mainly emphasize to our users that they should use the “itensor” tag when posting a question.

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**Author:** ![mbauman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mbauman/32/31082_2.png) [@mbauman](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mbauman)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2021, 8:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/13 "2021-09-13T20:30:34Z")

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I think that’d be a great solution for now — if it becomes overwhelming (in either place) we can always create a new category and move things based upon that tag.

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**Author:** ![mkitti](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mkitti/32/12459_2.png) [@mkitti](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkitti)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2021, 10:41am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ok-to-use-discourse-for-package-specific-tech-support/65379/14 "2021-09-26T10:41:12Z")

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I think having it would be fine. I would also consider Github Discussions:

> **[GitHub Discussions documentation - GitHub Docs](https://docs.github.com/en/discussions)**
>
> GitHub Discussions is a collaborative communication forum for the community around an open source or internal project. Community members can ask and answer questions, share updates, have open-ended conversations, and follow along on decisions...