How we use Discussions (and when not to)

[ARSH871-bot]

We now have Discussions. Before anyone posts, here is the rule, because the
worst outcome is a fifth place to look for the same fact.

The one rule

If it can be closed by a pull request, it is an issue. If it ends when we
agree, it is a discussion.

That is the whole thing. Some worked examples from our own history:

This	Belongs in	Why
"Explanations regenerate on every page load" (#92)	Issue	Somebody writes code and a PR closes it
"Does a merge-only push void an approval?" (#230)	Discussion	Nothing merges. It ends when four people agree
"The five policy-format questions" (#159)	Discussion	It was a decision request wearing an issue's clothes
"Branch protection is free again — what do we turn on?" (#245)	Discussion	Still open, still not code

Why this matters to us specifically

Three of our closed issues were never really work items. #230, #159 and #245
are debates. Filed as issues they sat on a sprint milestone, counted in the
burndown, and made the board say we had work outstanding when what we actually
had was a question outstanding. #78 did the same thing on a closed
milestone last week and read as if it were done.

What goes where, from now on

• Announcements — sprint records, status updates, anything the team reads
  and does not reply to.
• Q&A — decisions. Ask it as a question, and mark the answer. The
  accepted answer is the decision, with a name and a timestamp on it.
• General — client questions, and anything that does not fit the two above.

What does NOT move here

Design notes stay in docs/design/. Amendment signatures stay in
docs/finding-format.md and CONTRIBUTING.md. Those are versioned, reviewable
and diffable, and a discussion thread is none of those things. If a decision
changes a contract, the discussion is where we argue and the file is where we
record it — the same way a PR conversation is not the code.

One thing this buys us for the PDR

Objective 3.1 is assessed on evidence that we communicated as a team. A Q&A
thread with a marked answer is a cleaner artefact for that than a chat
screenshot: it shows the question, who argued what, and which answer won.