#Community Help Desk Planning

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

lament hinge
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Hello, all! I'm creating this thread for discussion around more regular CircuitPython "sprints" or whatever we decide to call it, "office hours" etc. I'm going to add the folks who expressed interest, but everyone is welcome to join in this discussion!

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@cedar flint @copper trout @fresh crystal

jaunty marsh
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I think "office hours" or "open door" would sound much less intimidating.

lament hinge
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Agreed.

fresh crystal
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Big fan of this

bitter karma
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I wonder if a sign-up sheet (or named similar) so there would be a way to tell interest and what type of questions may come forward. With a huge just show up if they want to but if they have an area let us know

jaunty marsh
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especially when I'm lower on energy

kindred wagon
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I'd see how the first few go and if there are similar questions, then put together a FAQ

bitter karma
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I mean more of an optional sign-up, expression of interest. I get what you're saying though

kindred wagon
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or just have the right links to learn guides ready

copper trout
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I thinking having a place for folks that want to sign up is good, but also not requiring it. So people are still encouraged to participate if they want even if they didn't sign up.

jaunty marsh
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I know I would

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also if you sign up and don't come, you feel really bad

copper trout
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I do agree with Tektrik's comment in #circuitpython-dev channel as well about reviews on stream. It's probably not something that everyone will be interested in. But being able to offer feedback and answer questions in real time while someone can watch along on YT or Twitch to see what you're looking at and talking about did feel quite helpful for the pycon sprints. I had a few folks watch along with the reviews of their PRs and was able to answer questions and add clarification.

On days that I help with these office hours I'd probably plan to try to be available for streaming reviews / help if I can. I'm also willing to help if anyone else is interested in getting set for streaming to do something similar.

jaunty marsh
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that's a great idea

fresh crystal
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I'm also happy to get set up on my dev laptop for streaming, and streaming reviews or help I give.

cedar flint
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I’m also willing to stream the office hours if we want to do that.

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I think signups make more sense for the people who want to provide help rather than the people who want to receive it. I agree that people could be intimidated by having to sign up to ask for help, but I think we want to make sure there’s a way to communicate “if I show up in the #circuitpython-officehours Discord on Friday at 3pm, there will be someone there who can answer my questions.

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I also think it would be helpful to give people some examples of what kinds of questions they can bring to the office hours, so folks don’t think “oh, my question is too simple/too hard/not relevant for the office hours”.

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My $0.02 in between work meetings. 🙂

fresh crystal
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I would be happy to help organize monthly, and if there's a way to get people to submit entirely optional "requests" or "tickets" either through email or discord early might help. For example if a lot of people want to help out with type annotations, it might be helpful to plan a small stream during that time focused on that.

worldly shuttle
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Hey, I was afk all weekend (had a guest get in part way through the sprint and left yesterday evening) so I missed the meeting. I wanted to chime in that I'd be up for office hours as well. @cedar flint put it well in the meeting--just a time where folks will be around so someone can ask questions of any level without feeling like they're in the way of a larger discussion. +1 to on stream reviews as well, I'd be up for starting streaming again to add to that group. I think the whole process would be benificial--a really nice byproduct of the sprint was me being able to ask questions about things I've learned before but hadn't used lately and had forgotten and I think this would open that up to a lot of folks

kindred wagon
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What if we were to say that the first Saturday of each month has office hours? That would let us keep this momentum going and schedule something for a week from Saturday. The good or bad news is that it is a holiday weekend in the US. I would be willing to help out.

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We could potentially rotate times. If foamyguy is up for it (I don't want to speak for you) we could schedule it for 11am EST, which is still early enough for European evening but it is 8am for people on the west coast.

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And maybe foamyguy could stream reviews? Just an idea

cedar flint
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I’ll be out of town that Saturday, but I’m in favor of the idea generally if we can cover this time.

lament hinge
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Hey, folks! I wanted to let you know that @cedar flint and @fresh crystal will be doing the "official" coordination and hosting. Everyone who is interested in helping out, making suggestions, providing ideas, etc, is completely welcome! Thanks everyone for contributing so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing what becomes of it!

fresh crystal
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I can do this first Saturday 🙂

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I'll happily stream any review and work I do, if anything I'm happy to just talk about the stuff I'd be working on otherwise 😄

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If there are any reviews I'll happily stream them.

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@lament hinge let me know if it makes sense to get something in a blog post, and if there's a desire to stream on the Adafruit channels (otherwise I'll just stream on my personal Twitch account).

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I could definitely do 8am - 12pm, if we think that's a good time frame

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Oh wait, that IS a holiday weekend

lament hinge
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I'll look into it. Blog post probably makes sense regardless. The issue with being on Adafruit channels is being set up for it locally, otherwise one of us has to be around to get you going. Which won't happen. Foamyguy is set up locally, so he could get someone else going as well, I think.

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Maybe don't do it on the holiday weekend.

fresh crystal
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I think I'm out of town that Saturday as well

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I'm also out the following weekend it seems 😅

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So @cedar flint I don't know if you'd want to do the 10th, but I could do this weekend although it's last minute

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Well I guess it's Tuesday, I keep thinking it's Thursday

cedar flint
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I can do the 10th. I’m also available this Saturday before 3pm EST or so.

bitter karma
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I think rotating times/days is at least somewhat important (maybe long term) if you want to reach the most people. Not many but even a Saturday morning/afternoon and a say Thursday evening (randomly picked).

That said if I'm around when these are on I am willing to help out.

kindred wagon
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Ok, let's not lose momentum! So what do you think? Do it this Saturday or does TammyMakesThings want to do it on the 10th but no Tekktrik? A few of us are around to help out on either date and I could probably get a couple more by asking

cedar flint
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The 10th is slightly better for new schedule wise, but I’m okay with either.

worldly shuttle
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the 10th might be slightly better for me as well but there's a high chance I'll be home and near the pc this weekend. I think aiming for the largest group of us for the first open hours might be a good idea so we can sort of start on the same footing and feel it out together

cedar flint
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Agreed.

worldly shuttle
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Between Aug 27th and Sept 10th, at 8 am-12 pm EST, what is the availability of folks?
I don't think this is committing to one, more of a straw poll so we can gauge when we should try for.

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Aug 27: I don't know at present
Sept 10th: I can make this work.
For both I can't be there prior to 9 am EST as I'm in central time

cedar flint
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Aug 27: I can make it work but it’s not ideal for me
Sep 10: Presently completely open.

kindred wagon
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Shall we plan on the 10th then? Gives us time to get the word out and find more folks if they want to join or volunteer to help

cedar flint
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Works for me.

worldly shuttle
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would it be alright to wait a bit longer to pick between the two incase folks are afk and can't schedule? The 10th does give more time to find folks though, I think that's a good point. I just want to make sure more have time to chime in

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By longer I just mean maybe a few more hours

cedar flint
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Fine with me. I’ll block off the 10th on my calendar just to be safe.

bitter karma
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I think the 10th is good to give a bit more time, never a bad thing. I should be about that morning too. I'm central time zone too so wouldn't be up too early

fresh crystal
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I'm out the whole weekend but cheering for everyone! I can pick another one up likely a couple weeks after that

lament hinge
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@cedar flint @fresh crystal I have info about streaming, but I need to eat and head out for the day. I'll post tomorrow to this thread what we discussed today.

kindred wagon
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Ok, just following up on this (sorry!) - did we want to do 8am - 12pm EDT on Saturday the 10th from KeithTheEE's post above? Or is that too early for West Coast (6am - 10am). I think that might be really early for TammyMakesThings though.

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If we pick a time, I'm happy to let Anne know and get it it in the next Python on Hardware newsletter

lament hinge
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@cedar flint @fresh crystal May I create a group DM with the two of you? We can discuss the options, and then post here with what you decide, or post here if at some point in the conversation, getting feedback makes sense.

worldly shuttle
cedar flint
kindred wagon
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I was a project manager in a past life, I'm all about the follow-up, heh

worldly shuttle
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haha follow ups are welcome and needed, I can't believe it's friday already

fresh crystal
lament hinge
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CircuitPython Office Hours Planning

copper trout
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I think I am available for the 10th as well. West Coast 6am - 10am, does seem a tad early, but it's definitely tricky to get a time that is good for everyone. I do like the idea of changing up the scheduling (even if only trading between a few timeslots) to increase chances that there will be at least one in a time convenient for any hopeful participants.

lament hinge
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That would be ideal. Move it around a bit so everyone can be a part of it.

fresh crystal
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Currently I do most of my CircuitPython work on weekday evenings. Happy to convert any of those times into the office hours!

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So happy to also switch around days if that's desirable

cedar flint
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Same. And it’ll get easier for me after the time change when Arizona becomes EST-2 instead of EST-3. 🙂

lament hinge
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Hey folks! It's time to discuss the name. CircuitPython Office Hours has come out of the general planning discussion, but if you have any other suggestions, we're open to it. Feel free to vote for CP Office Hours if you're happy with that, or provide any other ideas for folks to consider. Once it's decided, I want to get a graphic made for it. 🙂 (No rush on this though. We have plenty of time.)

cedar flint
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I’m voting for “CircuitPython Office Hours” because I don’t have a better idea. 😂

lament hinge
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Completely valid!

worldly shuttle
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CircuitPython Newcomer Sprints? Idk, it's hard to capture the goal of the event in a name that's also accessible

jaunty marsh
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Open Door?

lament hinge
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There was concern that "Sprints" wouldn't be as inviting.

jaunty marsh
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Snake Doctor?

worldly shuttle
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I think that is the correct concern. I was trying to shoehorn in "newcomer" or something inviting to see if it sparked a better name from someone else

jaunty marsh
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CircuitPython Emergency Room

worldly shuttle
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I do think circuitPython Office Hours is a pretty good title

cedar flint
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I think @jaunty marsh ‘s suggestions are clever but perhaps not as welcoming for newbies?

jaunty marsh
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yeah, and ER has bad connotations

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might trigger someone

lament hinge
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I feel like I have ideas on the tip of my tongue, but they are not coalescing.

jaunty marsh
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sleep on it

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Help Party

worldly shuttle
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are there any words you particularly like? Bouncing words off of folks usually helps me
Contribution, Showcase, Office Hours, New Developer Q&A, etc

jaunty marsh
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Teatime

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Meeting

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Picnic

runic mica
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If I want to help answer questions, do I just show up at the scheduled time?

eternal kiln
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Snake pit?

worldly shuttle
runic mica
jaunty marsh
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on europython we called it "helpdesk"

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there were time slots and people with knowledge on particular topics assigned to each, you could come and ask for help, but it was on a conference, so it was face to face

lament hinge
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Interesting.

lament hinge
runic mica
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Looking at a thesaurus for the heck of it - I found some fun ones for "meeting", my favorite would have to be concourse
it's not a synonym for the exact context, but it's funny

worldly shuttle
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Is the idea to tackle bugs, or is the idea to help new folks tackle bugs? I feel like those are two subtly different events and I have been thinking this would be aimed at the latter

lament hinge
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Neither. It's broader than that.

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Think of it as a combination of Open Spaces and Sprints. Basically folks of any level can show up, and you'll meet them where they are to help them get started on what they'd like to work on.

jaunty marsh
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Community Helpdesk sounds good to me?

lament hinge
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So, helping install CircuitPython and blink a first LED, all the way across to submitting a PR to the core. All viable.

runic mica
worldly shuttle
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an all questions and projects event. Community is a good word, and Community Helpdesk is really nice
The worst part about mulling things over is the time it takes

lament hinge
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Part of why I asked, even though folks seemed ok with Office Hours, it that in-person office hours can be intimidating to some folks, so I imagined the virtual concept could be too.

copper trout
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plus1 for Community Helpdesk. I think 'Office Hours' and 'Open Door' are nice as well, but so far Community Helpdesk would be my top pick

kindred wagon
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Community Help Desk works for me , I like it (being nitpicky, probably should be two words)

fresh crystal
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Community Help desk resonates with me 😁

lament hinge
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Alright! I think it's decided then!

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Community Help Desk Planning

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Now to figure out what I want out of the graphic 😄

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Something involving "Code + Community = CircuitPython Community Help Desk" maybe. Except stacked so the title is its own font or texture or something.

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I always come in with a vague idea, and our graphics person comes back with pure gold.

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But I need to give him something to work with. 🙂

jaunty marsh
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Help + Desk = Help Desk ;-)

lament hinge
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Hah!

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Thanks everyone for input and discussion on the name! And thanks @jaunty marsh for coming up with the suggestion!

jaunty marsh
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in Poland we have a joke that goes "God did what he could, now you have to call a specialist"

lament hinge
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Nice

worldly shuttle
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There's all of the family of icons: adabot, cappy, hans, etc, they could be gathered near a desk and a whiteboard?

jaunty marsh
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the doctor thing would have been easier to draw

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hmm, maybe Blinka holding a ladder on which the other characters climb?

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not strictly a desk, but it conveys what we want to do

lament hinge
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The full family isn't really CircuitPython specific. So I would hesitate to involve them. Maybe two Blinkas, one helping the other move up by offering her tail. I want the text in there as well. It's meant to be the YouTube splash for the recordings.

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I don't want it to get too complicated because of the potential time needed from our graphics person. I'll think on it. Suggestions are definitely welcome.

jaunty marsh
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just a Blinka with a ladder might be enough

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in the worst case, Blinka behind a counter

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with a hotel bell on the counter maybe

worldly shuttle
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That's a good point about the circuit python family, and the titlecards for youtube videos are their own unique style

lament hinge
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Yep!

lament hinge
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Hey, folks! A quick note. This thread in Discord is set to archive after 1 week of inactivity. (That's the longest setting.) Never fear, though! If you go to the #circuitpython-dev channel, and click the symbol at the top of Discord that looks like a # with a little conversation bubble over it, the list of current and archived threads will appear. You can then click on this thread, and post your message. It will automatically be returned to an active state. Wanted to let you know so you weren't concerned if it disappears, and also so no one felt obligated to "bump" the thread every week. Cheers, all!

kindred wagon
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Just thinking ahead - do we have any kind of communication plan to let people know this is coming? We had a callout in this week's newsletter and I'll submit another one with the hours.

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The banner for CircuitPython Day is still live on circuitpython.org, can we steal that? 🙂

lament hinge
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Oof, is it? Good to know, that needs to come down. I'll find out if it's alright to take that space. That also means I need to get that graphic created ASAP.

kindred wagon
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Sorry to make more work for you! Let me know if there's anything I can do to help

lament hinge
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Well, makes more work for our graphics person as well. Heh. I need to figure out what I want it to look like is the first issue. 😄

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I think I can do the banner first. Because I think it won't be as involved as the YouTube splash.

lament hinge
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Hey folks! Whomever is around and up for it, if you're attending the CP Weekly meeting, could add the upcoming Community Help Desk to in the weeds again to keep folks in the loop.

kindred wagon
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I wanted to email Anne and I forgot. 😦

lament hinge
# kindred wagon I wanted to email Anne and I forgot. 😦

Yeah, too late at this point. 😄 That said, you could still ping her and provide some copy, and she could likely do a blog post, which would also be sent out on the socials. We still don't have an image, I need to mock up a couple of things, and then pass them onto our graphics person. Not until this guide is done though, unfortunately.

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Tell her she can use one of the "code + community = CircuitPython" existing images for now.

kindred wagon
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Will do, I'm updating in the weeds now

lament hinge
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Thank you!

kindred wagon
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I have TammyMakesThings, myself and KeiththeEE (at 9am) coming - if anyone else wants to help, let us know

kindred wagon
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I emailed Anne and sent her a paragraph of copy to maybe use for a blog post:

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The first CircuitPython Community Help Desk is this coming Saturday, September 11th at 12pm UTC / 8am EDT.  The Community Help Desk is for both users and developers.  Come get your questions answered or get help with a project. If you’re looking to help with CircuitPython development, documentation or translations, volunteers will be on hand to help, too.

lament hinge
kindred wagon
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Thanks!

lament hinge
bitter karma
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I should be around Saturday morning (not right at 8am likely 9-9:30).

lament hinge
kindred wagon
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8-12 EST

lament hinge
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Thanks

cedar flint
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I’ll be spending some time today and tomorrow creating an OBS setup to record the audio and video from the Discord, with the community help desk logo thing as an overlay.

cedar flint
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Ok, so question for tomorrow: are we just using the #circuitpython-dev text channel for the Community Help Desk? Or are we using the voice chat too? I’m okay with either (though, I don’t think my voice will hold up to three hours of nonstop monologue 😂 ). Just want to make sure about what I’m setting up to record.

lament hinge
cedar flint
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Ah perfect. Now to figure out how to get OBS to record the right things. 🙂

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Hopefully I can make it record that channel’s text chat as well as the audio.

lament hinge
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You can also use two instances of Discord, web and app, if absolutely necessary

cedar flint
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Yeah. We’ll find out. Fiddling with obs now.

cedar flint
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Is anybody else who's planning to attend the Community Help Desk tomorrow able to record it? I'm troubleshooting right now, but my Mac is all of the sudden not seeing any OBS Audio Output Capture devices, and I'd like to have a backup plan for tomorrow that's better than "tell everyone we're text only for 3 hours"... sigh

worldly shuttle
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I won't be there until 9 am est unfortunately

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That said it does look like my desktop audio is recording through obs

kindred wagon
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I'll be there right away - what do we want recorded?

cedar flint
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I think the text chat and audio from the Community Help Desk voice channel.

kindred wagon
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Ok, I can do that, I just set it up this week, it will be a good test

cedar flint
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Awesome. Thanks so much! I'm not sure why it suddenly stopped working on my Mac, but of course it would have to happen right before our first Community Help Desk. laugh

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And then @lament hinge can help us figure out how to get the recording onto the Adafruit YouTube afterward.

kindred wagon
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👍

kindred wagon
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Kattni confirmed my setup is working - I can record the video and voice chat tomorrow.

cedar flint
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Hooray!! Thanks for stepping in to take care of that!

lament hinge
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I created the #1017944115939385464 thread for tomorrow's text chat. We'll consider creating a new text chat if it seems like there's a significant amount of community interest and the Help Desk is likely to continue consistently. I have concerns about that which we can discuss when we come to it. For now, please use the thread tomorrow!

kindred wagon
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I'm sorry I had to leave early yesterday. Thanks to everyone who was there, sounds like it went well

kindred wagon
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I'm looking at Tuesday's newsletter and it talks about the Help Desk, but it says: It will run every Saturday at the same time - I don't think that's accurate, is it?

cedar flint
kindred wagon
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yup, just wanted to make sure. I'll email Anne

fresh crystal
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I really like the idea @kindred wagon had of a Help Desk during Hacktoberfest. I could do a few during the month. I can do Saturday afternoon on Oct 8th and 29th. I can also do Thursdays since we talked about different times, though they would start at 6:30pm EST at the earliest 🙂

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How did it go at the time slot this weekend?

kindred wagon
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I was there for the first two hours, it was pretty much shooting the breeze. Matt from Micropython joined us first thing. Fun discussions! Soon as I left, I guess some people showed up looking for help.

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I like those dates - try and get people set up for Hacktoberfest and then help the folks rushing to finish before it ends. 🙂 I can be there for both days

fresh crystal
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Did the time of day work, or was later better given that the help section happened in the latter half?

lament hinge
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Moving it around will make it easier for other folks to join who may not have been able to.

kindred wagon
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Times should rotate, imo.

lament hinge
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So sticking to a single timeslot isn't necessary.

kindred wagon
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One reason I like your Thurs night idea, too

fresh crystal
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I can easily do anytime on Saturday, so I guess as long as it doesn't interfere with anything on Adafruit's end.

lament hinge
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Why is there concern? It's not being livestreamed.

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Recorded only.

fresh crystal
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Oh yeah

lament hinge
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Interfere all you want. 🙂

fresh crystal
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Hacktober fest registration starts on the 26th so I'm happy to even do a quick How To on that Thursday the 29th if it makes sense.

lament hinge
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That might make a lot of sense, actually.

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Video and/or a document with screenshots.

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And we can blog it up on the Adafruit blog to get it some visibility.

fresh crystal
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Cool! I can do that, and work on getting a small document together too with stuff.

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I can mark my calendar for the 29th.

kindred wagon
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Let me know if you need any help. I can join on the 29th

fresh crystal
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Sounds good! I'll make sure my OBS is set up, I only ever did it on my windows setup so I'll double check the new install works haha

bitter karma
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If I'm home on the chosen dates/times I'll do my best to be available. As always feel free to ping me if it is an issue you think I'll know something about

fresh crystal
kindred wagon
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I just realized we're 2 weeks away from the next Help Desk - we should figure out hours for that THursday night so I can let Anne know and get the word out in the newsletter. How long do we want to go on a weekday night?

fresh crystal
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That Thursday I was planning on talking about registering for Hacktoberfest, maybe look at some guides for getting startd with Git and Github, how to find issues, and maybe what the process will look like

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I can do 7pm pretty easily, and I figured I'd go maybe two hours, but could go more if it picks up

kindred wagon
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sounds good!

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thanks for the quick response. I'll put some copy together tomorrow and share it here before sending to Anne

fresh crystal
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No problem! Let me know if anything needs to be fleshed out further, good idea to get it going early.

kindred wagon
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Here's what I put together: The CircuitPython Community Help Desk returns on Thursday, September 29th from 7pm EDT to 9pm EDT. Developers will be on hand to help you get ready for [Hacktoberfest 2022](https://hacktoberfest.com/). Volunteers will help get you registered for Hacktoberfest, help with your development environment, and share how to participate in Hacktoberfest by contributing to CircuitPython and its libraries. Help will be available in the Adafruit Discord in both voice and chat.

fresh crystal
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Perfect!

fresh crystal
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I'm going to tell people to reach out in #circuitpython-dev if they have general questions during the Hacktoberfest contribution process, but I'm wondering if it's worth making a thread there for the month. Either sounds good, but just wanted to get opinions ahead of saying anything next week.

kindred wagon
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Well, I like to over communicate, so I would say both. 🙂

lament hinge
fresh crystal
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Good point, I can make one now and just revive it for the stream if that helps!

lament hinge
kindred wagon
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That's a good idea and I can reference that for the newsletter, too

fresh crystal
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Started a thread, happy to edit if I can improve the message

kindred wagon
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@fresh crystal Did you set up OBS to stream on Thursday or for recording chat? Either way, I can help record if needed

fresh crystal
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Oh whoops, I said stream but meant record

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Definitely can't hurt to have a backup if you can/want 🙂

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I'll "stream" it in the Discord voice channel though, and upload a simultaneously recorded video of the same to the YouTube channel

fresh crystal
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Thursday will be the third time in a week I've explained using git and GitHub so feeling well prepped zoop

kindred wagon
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I forgot to ask Anne to blog and Tweet about tomorrow's Help Desk. I don't want to bother her now with the storm here. Sorry about that!

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Though I did get it in the newsletter again

lament hinge
kindred wagon
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Oh cool, thank you! I'll whip something up

fresh crystal
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If anyone is gonna be there tonight, feel free to chime in via text or voice, I'll have chat open in another screen as well I believe

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See you there hopefully!

kindred wagon
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I'll be there

worldly shuttle
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I'm planning on being there as well at least partially

cedar flint
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I’m hoping to be there if I can. We’ll see.

kindred wagon
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@fresh crystal Are you recording Discord chat in OBS?

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If so, do you need the zoom / text settings for uploading to YouTube or would you like me to record chat?

fresh crystal
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I was going to try, is there a specific way to do it?

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I figured I could window capture a part of the window

kindred wagon
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This is what we use for the Monday meeting:

fresh crystal
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I think I got it, that was super helpful thanks!

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I'm gonna share my screen as a test in the channel

fresh crystal
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In a weird twist of perfectionism (which is very much not my typical MO), I re-recorded and re-shot the Community Help Desk so I could get better footage, and also streamline it a bit. I figured it made more sense in this specific case because it's a tutorial. Pinned to the Hacktoberfest thread!

kindred wagon
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@fresh crystal Someday when you have the time, I'd appreciate it if you could show me the ropes on doing type annotation PRs. I read the Python docs on getting annotations (https://docs.python.org/3/howto/annotations.html) but I'm not quite sure where to start. Not urgent.

fresh crystal
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For sure! I think it's a great place to start, and I'd love to do a help desk or stream on it at some point. Part of it is just learning a bunch of common types and when to use them (good ol' memorization!) but I think there's a lot of "rules" that I picked up that I had to pick up as well.

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I'm happy to list them or review some typing PRs during a stream, maybe the latter is better since it will have code attached 🙂

kindred wagon
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cool, sounds like a plan, that's a good idea

bitter karma
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For the annotations the hardest part I find is to make sure they were annotated correctly. If you're not familiar with the library you sometimes just have to look quickly at the usage. I just saw one that was marked as int and had a name that may reflect is but then in the code saw it was actually a function passed as a parameter.

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Actually question @fresh crystal I noticed in a couple PRs the private class functions were annotated (e.g. _privatecall(...)) I didn't see any consensus online or real harm in annotating it, but any thoughts?

fresh crystal
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I assume whatever script foamyguy used to list functions in the issue didn't record private ones, which is fine. The way I've been handling them myself is annotating them, but when reviewing, I'll only ask for them if 1) someone was doing them anyway and missed one or 2) someone has been doing a bunch, I might ask if they're interested in trying (I don't think this one has actually happened yet).

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Type annotations help users, so the public ones are the only ones that matter in that sense, but the private ones help anyone developing, so in my mind not as "big" a priority. I will say that most often annotating them makes it easier anyway (a base function _read_register() might be used a bunch, and annotating that makes annotating the rest easier, since you're effectively building on that known one)

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I'm also curious what other peoples thoughts are though

worldly shuttle
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Do private type annotations add space to the .mpy file for a library?

cedar flint
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I’m fighting the type annotation adoption battle at work lately, and I agree with the idea that Type annotations are intended to help users of the library, so annotations that don’t help are less critical. Most rolls I’ve encountered treat members whose names start with a _ as private whether they’re annotated as such or not. So I’m unsure how much it helps?

fresh crystal
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Well, I'm 95% sure, I actually don't know what happens to string annotations ("ForwardReference" for example), if those strings are stored or not.

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But my understanding is that annotations are ignored entirely

kindred wagon
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Once you show me the ropes, I'll get some quality PRs in. 🙂

worldly shuttle
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Well, if the annotations are stripped out in the mpy file generation, I think it would be sensible, but not required, to add annotations to a private class. I think the goal of the type annotation issue in the first place was so users in an IDE could see the types of the functions they were using, and given the insides of a private classes aren't what they're using I think it's of lesser importance. But I agree that annotated private classes make future development easier, so I think it's worthwhile to add when it's an option, but their addition isn't what the open issue is really about. (feel free to disagree or correct me on that point, I'm guessing there)
Libraries like the SGP40 have a private class which would and will be a nightmare to annotate, but the nightmarish code is is a private class for the voc algorithm. Since that's not a users section of the code I think skipping it is alright.

fresh crystal
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I can't remember, @copper trout did you make a video (or guide) about type annotations? If not, I'm happy to record one.

copper trout
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I have made one with some information. I'll find a link.

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I tried to show the process of finding the correct types. There may be parts of the git process that I glossed over and may be worth expanding upon in a different video. I'll have to take a look through it to remember what all I had in it.

kindred wagon
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The correct types is definitely what I'm after, I'm comfortable with the git process

copper trout
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Ah, actually it looks like I did touch on that topic in a different video.

kindred wagon
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awesome, thank you, I'll give that a watch

copper trout
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In this one I walk through my thought process and show some of the techniques I use to find them.

fresh crystal
cedar flint
kindred wagon
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I switched back to PyCharm because VSCode was missing type errors that PyCharm would catch

fresh crystal
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I should be able to do another stream on the 24th and/or the 31st, thoughts on whether one or more is a good idea? I know we talked about doing one towards the end of Hacktoberfest. If we're light on things to review, I can always do some adabot work or some type annotation PRs myself.

cedar flint
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I’m a fan. I’ll be out of town for my birthday the 24th (my birthday is the 21st) but I’ll be there if it’s on the 31st.

fresh crystal
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Okay, I think I can do the 31st for a very spooky Community Help Desk.

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I'll focus on PR reviews as much as I can

kindred wagon
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Nice! I'll let Anne know for the next newsletter on the 25th and see if they'll help get the word out again

kindred wagon
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@fresh crystal I was going to update the newsletter, but I just realized I don't know what time you want to start on 10/31

fresh crystal
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Oh good point

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Uhhhh

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7pm EST is safe for me

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I can go until 10 too

kindred wagon
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sounds good!

fresh crystal
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I'll do PR reviews, and worst case I'll either work on library issues or my own circlink tool which is CircuitPython related

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Or I'm around to help people live, of course

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Anyone here have anything?

lament hinge
worldly shuttle
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I'd say don't worry about prepping for that, just talk about it as you think of stuff and keep it low key so it's more accessible to anyone coming from Hacktoberfest PRs

lament hinge
fresh crystal
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That's fair, yeah it'll be a chill stream for sure. Probably just coding and candy 🍬

fresh crystal
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Stream candy secured. It's all miniatures but the joke's on them, that just means I can eat more candy at a time.

fresh crystal
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I meant to follow up on this. Pretty uneventful, CGrover stopped to say hi, but I suspect everyone was busy with trick-or-treaters haha

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I think it's worth moving the help text channel as a thread for #help-with-circuitpython since more of the target audience might see that and hop in.

kindred wagon
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Hey folks - we didn't hold a Help Desk in November and the holidays are coming. Just wanted to throw out the idea of maybe planning a session sometime the week after Christmas? Maybe folks need some help if they got any hardware as a gift. Thoughts?

lament hinge
# kindred wagon Hey folks - we didn't hold a Help Desk in November and the holidays are coming. ...

For what it's worth, planning things like this between winter holidays is tough. A lot of folks are out, with family, working, whatever. We don't hold the Community meeting that week either. That said, you're absolutely right about folks getting new stuff for xmas and possibly wanting help. Get feedback from your other Help Desk folks and see what you all come to. I simply wanted to give you a heads up about what we've dealt with in the past.

kindred wagon
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That's a really good point.

worldly shuttle
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If it's between christmas and new years I likely won't be able to attend

fresh crystal
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I could do the week before Christmas

fresh crystal
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Happy New Year y'all! I'm hoping to do a Community Help Desk very soon, I could do within the next few days even. Any thoughts? Hoping to offer help to people who may have received things over the holidays.

runic mica
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If it's no trouble could someone ping me if/when a date is set up? I really want to attend as a helper!