(contributing:community)=

# Community communication channels

```{note}
Our community is distributed across the world in various timezones, so please be patient if you do not get a response immediately!
```

We use different channels of communication for different purposes. Whichever one you use will depend on what kind of communication you want to engage in.

## Discourse (recommended)

```{note}
[Discourse] is open source.
```

We use [Jupyter instance of Discourse] for online discussions and support questions.
You can ask questions at [Jupyter instance of Discourse] if you are a first-time contributor to the JupyterHub project.
Everyone is welcome to bring ideas and questions at [Jupyter instance of Discourse].

We recommend that you first use [Jupyter instance of Discourse] as all past and current discussions on it are archived and searchable. Thus, all discussions remain useful and accessible to the whole community.

## Zulip

```{note}
[Zulip] is open source.
```

We use [Jupyter instance of Zulip] for online, real-time text chat; a place for more ephemeral discussions. When you're not on [Jupyter instance of Discourse], you can stop at [Jupyter instance of Zulip] to have other discussions on the fly.

## Github Issues

[Github issues](https://docs.github.com/en/issues/tracking-your-work-with-issues/about-issues) are used for most long-form project discussions, bug reports and feature requests.

- Issues related to a specific authenticator or spawner should be opened in the appropriate repository for the authenticator or spawner.
- If you are using a specific JupyterHub distribution (such as [Zero to JupyterHub on Kubernetes](https://github.com/jupyterhub/zero-to-jupyterhub-k8s) or [The Littlest JupyterHub](https://github.com/jupyterhub/the-littlest-jupyterhub/)), you should open issues directly in their repository.
- If you cannot find a repository to open your issue in, do not worry! Open the issue in the [main JupyterHub repository](https://github.com/jupyterhub/jupyterhub/) and our community will help you figure it out.

[Discourse]: https://www.discourse.org/
[Jupyter instance of Discourse]: https://discourse.jupyter.org
[Jupyter instance of Zulip]: https://jupyter.zulipchat.com/
[Zulip]: https://zulip.com/