Repository: azavea/raster-vision

Issue:
Switch from Gitter to another tool for usage questions
## 🚀 Feature

Currently we use [Gitter](https://gitter.im/azavea/raster-vision) for usage questions, but it's not well designed for this use case. I would like to switch to [Github Discussions](https://github.com/azavea/raster-vision/discussions/landing), [Stack Overflow](https://stackoverflow.com/), or [Discourse](https://www.discourse.org/). 

## Motivation

Gitter is designed more as a chat system, and we need something where people can make posts that can be open/closed, and later searchable to avoid repeat questions.

## Pitch

We should spend a small amount of time comparing the different options, make a decision, and then implement the change. Github Discussions seems like the most straightforward option.




Discussion:
Something like this can be tried: https://community.opendronemap.org/
My review of the options wasn't exhaustive, but I have a slight preference towards using Github Discussions, but an argument could also be made for Discourse. Stack Overflow is limited to questions and answers and has strict rules, so I'm ruling that out. 

Discourse is used by [PyTorch](https://discuss.pytorch.org/) and a lot of NumFocus projects, has a very extensive [feature set](https://www.discourse.org/features), and has a [free hosted option](https://free.discourse.group/) for open source projects. It can also be used independent of a Github repo, which can be good for a multi-repo project or more general community. However, this doesn't apply to us.

Github discussions has the advantage of being integrated into Github which we're already using. It has a smaller [feature set](https://github.com/features/discussions), and doesn't have some of the gamification and content moderation features that Discourse has, but seems good enough for the scale and activity level of this project. It has threaded, searchable  conversations which is the main feature I'm looking for. For example, [xArray](https://github.com/pydata/xarray/discussions) is using Github Discussions.

Here is a comment from an issue about Dask deciding to move to Discourse about why to prefer Discourse over Discussions that seems relevant: https://github.com/dask/community/issues/194#issuecomment-952333127

cc: @AdeelH 
I did a quick look at what other PyTorch Ecosystem projects use for a forum, and there seems to be a mix between using issues, Discussions, and Discourse. Here are some that use Discussions: 
* https://github.com/microsoft/torchgeo/discussions
* https://github.com/Project-MONAI/MONAI/discussions
* https://github.com/facebookresearch/pytorch3d/discussions/categories/ideas
All of this makes sense. I'm in favor of GitHub Discussions too.
A problem with Github Discussions is that there's no way to specify a template for asking questions like we already do for issues. This is a big limitation in my opinion, and I would rather just use Github Issues for everything because of this. See https://github.com/community/community/discussions/2838

We could just keep everything as is, except remove Gitter as an option for asking questions.


Resolving patch:
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -106,8 +106,8 @@ def __getattr__(cls, name):
         ProjectLink('Project Website', 'https://rastervision.io/'),
         ProjectLink('PyPI releases', 'https://pypi.org/project/rastervision/'),
         ProjectLink('GitHub Repo', 'https://github.com/azavea/raster-vision'),
-        ProjectLink('Gitter Channel',
-                    'https://gitter.im/azavea/raster-vision'),
+        ProjectLink('Discussion Forum',
+                    'https://github.com/azavea/raster-vision/discussions'),
         ProjectLink('Issue Tracker',
                     'https://github.com/azavea/raster-vision/issues/'),
         ProjectLink('CHANGELOG', 'changelog.html'),


Test patch: