# Can we have a General Discourse Chat section please?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-have-a-general-discourse-chat-section-please/40473
**Category:** Site feedback
**Created:** [3 maart 2016 om 00:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-have-a-general-discourse-chat-section-please/40473 "2016-03-03T00:57:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [4 maart 2016 om 12:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-have-a-general-discourse-chat-section-please/40473/21 "2016-03-04T12:34:36Z")
> [@downey](#):
>
> If only there were a way to mute/hide categories these days…
Thing is, I moderate meta, I read every single post on meta. I do not want that to change. I do not want a “sub community” in meta I avoid regularly.
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### Author:  [@AstonJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/AstonJ)
#### Post date: [4 maart 2016 om 12:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-have-a-general-discourse-chat-section-please/40473/22 "2016-03-04T12:52:22Z")
I understand your concerns Sam (hence suggesting a trial first).
The category would be ‘General Discourse Chat’ so the topics would need to be about Discourse 🙂 and of course if you think some are not suitable they can just be removed.
Also it is totally ok for you _not_ to read everything on the forum, especially if posted in a section such as the one proposed. That’s why we have mods 😄
Having said all that, I’m totally ok with what you prefer, but I really do think it would be a good idea not just for the community here, but because I guess you use Meta and the activity here to help define features and the direction of the software - and adding this community element would benefit the ‘community’ side of Discourse as platform too.
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [4 maart 2016 om 12:55 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-have-a-general-discourse-chat-section-please/40473/23 "2016-03-04T12:55:33Z")
> [@AstonJ](#):
>
> That’s why we have mods 😄
In this case I am going to side with Sam - the Discourse team are the mods here, there isn’t really anyone else. So if they don’t want to deal with moderating a General chat category, there aren’t any more mods who can.
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [4 maart 2016 om 15:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-have-a-general-discourse-chat-section-please/40473/24 "2016-03-04T15:26:41Z")
Guys, here is **work**. Is a place to talk about Discourse code, send PRs, fix bugs, create features.
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [4 maart 2016 om 15:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-have-a-general-discourse-chat-section-please/40473/25 "2016-03-04T15:41:16Z")
I’m not a fan of introducing an “idle chit chat” category here, but I do think something may be missing - a place where the community is exchanging more ideas about how best to use discourse to build a community of engaged users.
Some of these end up in the “support” category, but they can get lost in the mix of “hey, I’m having a problem with the software here, help”.
There’s a `community-management` tag. Maybe it’s too specific for some of the topics we have in mind?
I think we should try to:
1. Better describe what the missing category is and what kinds of topics belong there.
2. Come up with a tag we think covers that in a nutshell
3. Make an effort to tag new and existing articles appropriately
Then we can circle back to the question of whether there is really a missing category.
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### Author:  [@AstonJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/AstonJ)
#### Post date: [4 maart 2016 om 15:53 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-have-a-general-discourse-chat-section-please/40473/26 "2016-03-04T15:53:29Z")
> [@mcwumbly](#):
>
> I think we should try to:
>
> Better describe what the missing category is and what kinds of topics belong there.
> Come up with a tag we think covers that in a nutshell
> Make an effort to tag new and existing articles appropriately
>
> Then we can circle back to the question of whether there is really a missing category.
Or just create the General Discourse Chat section and from the topics posted in that see if a different approach is needed. But truthfully (and at the risk of repeating myself) I think we just need a General Discourse Chat section - I don’t think a tag (or even a number of tags) would be sufficient because in order to tag things they first need a complementary parent category (which is missing in this case).
Another solution would be to rename uncategorised as ‘Everything Else’ (would not be my first choice though).
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [4 maart 2016 om 20:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-have-a-general-discourse-chat-section-please/40473/27 "2016-03-04T20:51:42Z")
At SitePoint - a web dev forum - we have a Community category (nee General Discussion, nee General Chat)
It is more “relaxed” in that posts can be off-topic, short, humorous etc.
There have been discussions about eliminating it in the past precisely because of low quality posts and increased moderation burden.
It was decided that having a Community category has at least two “Pros”
- a place where the newbies can “dip their toes in”
- a place were established members can “take a break”
Many, if not most, if not all of our longest running topics are in the Community category.
**BUT** , as said, it all depends on what kind of forum the Admin(s) want it to be.
Does Discourse meta need topics like
“what did you eat for lunch?”
“post a funny picture”
etc. etc.
Although most topics here are “on-topic” I don’t get the impression that all posts must be strictly serious and business only.
Nor do I feel that members can’t get a feeling of “belonging” or “knowing others” (albeit with the limits imposed by text-only interaction) without there being a “hang out” category.
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### Author:  [@AstonJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/AstonJ)
#### Post date: [4 maart 2016 om 22:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-we-have-a-general-discourse-chat-section-please/40473/28 "2016-03-04T22:27:33Z")
> [@Mittineague](#):
>
> Does Discourse meta need topics like “what did you eat for lunch?” “post a funny picture” etc. etc
I’m not suggesting an Off-topic category for discussions about things not relating to Discourse - I agree that for this site, that would be too much of a burden for the mods/admin and could prove problematic (politics/religion etc).
I think we just need somewhere to talk about Discourse related stuff that while might be a bit lighter hearted, is still very much on topic for the site 🙂
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