---
title: Moving Open Source Project Mailing Lists to Stack Overflow
teaser:
tags: news,open source
author: Joe Ferris
published_on: 2013-12-09
---

For several years, there have been two ways of getting in touch with us for
feedback regarding our open source projects:

* GitHub, for reporting bugs or submitting patches in the form of pull requests.
* Mailing lists, for general discussion and questions, including ideas for new
  features.

However, over time, we've grown to feel as though the mailing lists are not
pulling their weight.

For one, the mailing lists are very rarely used for actual discussion. They're
hardly ever used for feature requests, either. People mostly post to the mailing
lists to ask for help with specific issues.

For another, very few people answer questions on the mailing lists. Few people
think to subscribe to them until they have a problem themselves, so the number
of people available to help out is limited.

As if that weren't enough, we also have to moderate the mailing lists to prevent
spam. Because they're open to anybody to sign up and post to, they're a tempting
target to spammers.

Lastly, a giant in the field of online help has entered since we started
supporting open source projects: [Stack Overflow].

Since Stack Overflow became popular, more and more people have been submitting
their questions there instead of to the mailing lists. Having GitHub issues, the
mailing lists, and Stack Overflow means that we have three places we need to
look when helping out. However, instead of seeing Stack Overflow as a problem,
we see it as the solution: the community is larger, the infrastructure is
better, and the questions and answers are there.

__Therefore, we're shutting down all our support mailing lists and pointing
users to Stack Overflow instead.__

## We're still there to help you

Stack Overflow is a great community, and we're hoping to leverage their larger
numbers to answer questions faster. However, that doesn't mean we've abandoned
you.

Just make sure to tag your question appropriately when posting it, and we'll be
notified. For example, if you tag your questions with "factory-bot," you can
bet that Josh Clayton or I will come running. We're using [Zapier] to pipe new
questions into our company [Campfire] chat, as well as individually subscribing
to [Stack Exchange filters] for projects we maintain.

[Stack Exchange filters]: http://stackexchange.com/filters
[Zapier]: http://zapier.com/
[Campfire]: http://campfirenow.com

## Which tags

Here's a list of tags for our projects that you might want to subscribe to:

* [Bourbon][bourbon]
* [Capybara Webkit][capybara-webkit]
* [Clearance][clearance]
* [FactoryBot][factory-bot]
* [High Voltage][high-voltage]
* [Neat][neat]
* [Paperclip][paperclip]
* [Shoulda][shoulda]

[bourbon]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/bourbon
[capybara-webkit]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/capybara-webkit
[clearance]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/clearance
[factory-bot]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/factory-bot
[high-voltage]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/high-voltage
[neat]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/neat
[paperclip]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/paperclip
[shoulda]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/shoulda

## Where do I post this

With the mailing lists out of the picture and Stack Overflow part of our
official plan, here's what you should do if you need help or would like to
contribute:

* If you __need help__, use [Stack Overflow].
* If you __found a bug__, use GitHub issues.
* If you __have an idea__, use GitHub issues.
* If you'd like to __ask a general question__, use GitHub issues.
* If you __want to contribute__, submit a pull request.

[Stack Overflow]: http://stackoverflow.com/

We're looking forward to your questions on Stack Overflow. We'll see you there!

* * *

**Note:**

Looking for FactoryGirl? The library was renamed in 2017.
[Project name history can be found here.](https://github.com/thoughtbot/factory_bot/blob/master/NAME.md)