The Real Python Slack Community

Welcome to Real Python! Dan Bader 06:12

Your membership includes a private Slack community, where you can meet other students and members of the Real Python team. It’s the community feature our members use most, and you can join right away.

To find the Slack community, click Learn Python in the navigation bar, then select Community Chat under Get Help:

That row opens realpython.com/community, where you join the Slack community. Currently, five channels are open to members:

#introductions
#hangout
#coding-questions
#beginners
#community-events

Start in #introductions and say what you’re working on. See you on Slack! 🙂

Important Links:

00:00 Community and interacting with other Pythonistas is a really, really big aspect of Real Python. So next up, I want to walk you through some of the options you have for interacting with other students, the Real Python team, your course instructors, and just in general, meet other Pythonistas.

00:17 So, our biggest community feature is the private Slack community that we offer to all subscribers. Slack is a text-based chat tool that you can access from any browser—or there’s also mobile applications and desktop applications available if you want to make your experience a little bit better—but really, to join that Slack community, you don’t need anything beyond a browser. So, to access the Slack community, you just want to click on your avatar photo here in the top right when you’re logged in, and then select the Slack Community option.

00:47 It will take you to this page. The first time you’re joining the Slack community, you need to set up your account by clicking on the Join the RP Slack Community button. Anytime after that, you can just click on the Access the RP Slack Community button, and we will take you directly to the chat system.

01:03 So, I want to give you a quick overview of how the Real Python Slack community works. On the left-hand side, you see the different channels that we use to communicate on various topics.

01:13 By default, we’re adding you to the #hangout channel, which is kind of a free-for-all, anything, you know, ask any question you want kind of channel.

01:23 We also have an #introductions channel where we encourage you just to say hi, and kind of introduce yourself real quick and so that other people know who you are and maybe, you know, find you because you’re living in the same country or living in the same area.

01:39 It’s just a really nice way to quickly introduce yourself and to give everyone a heads up that you just joined the Slack. So, when you join the Slack community for the first time, we have some automation that will reach out to you and introduce you to how it all works, and also explains to you how to make an introduction in the #introductions channel. Now, anytime you have a question, there’s a couple of options to interact with other people. There’s also private messages, and you can directly interact with people one-on-one and kind of chat back and forth with them. But generally, the best idea, if you have a coding question, for example, is to join the #coding-questions channel.

02:22 I can search for a channel here and join that particular channel. You can see here, that people are asking questions, helping each other out, and are replying to their questions—it’s just a beautiful thing.

02:35 So, the community aspect of Real Python is really important to me. You don’t have to participate in the chat, but it’s a great way to meet others, maybe start a learning group or some kind of accountability group.

02:46 There’s usually a lot going on and a lot of great advice to be had. Most of the Real Python team members and authors are also in there, including myself.

02:55 We have lots of people with a ton of expertise also from within the community. I’ve just been blown away by some of the advice that’s been handed out in these channels. So, we have all kinds of different channels. We have a #careers channel, we have a #coding-questions channel, a #code-critique channel where you can share your code and ask for some feedback, we have topic-specific channels, like a #data-science channel.

03:20 From time to time, we do Q and A sessions where we bring in some subject-matter expert and then just talk about something for an hour or so. So, in this case, we had a decorators Q and A, for example.

03:32 If you don’t know where to post, then just ask in the #hangout channel, or if it’s a code question, in the #coding-questions channel, and in general, people will point you into the right direction. Now, another cool feature that I want to show you is the #coffee-lottery channel.

03:48 When you join this channel—this is something we just started—you will participate in a virtual, well, we call it “coffee lottery”. It really has nothing to do with coffee, but how it works is that there’s a bot in this channel who will randomly introduce two people every Monday every three weeks who are in this channel, to start a conversation with them.

04:07 So, this is a great way for you to meet somebody else in the Python community. All you need to do to participate is to just join the #coffee-lottery channel.

04:15 Then, every three weeks, we will connect you with someone else in the Real Python community and just introduce you two. So, there’s no obligation to jump on a video call or, you know, get on an actual phone call with somebody.

04:29 Feel free to keep it on chat. But if you’re actually in the same area, you know, maybe meet up for coffee or something and chat about this stuff. This is a really fun and easy way for you to meet other people in the Python community, and maybe to start some kind of learning accountability group, make new connections, network a bit, find somebody that’s interested in working on an open source project with you, or just, you know, talk about whatever. Like I said, all you need to do is join the #coffee-lottery channel. This is totally optional.

04:56 Then, every three weeks we kick things off and introduce you to a new person from the Real Python Slack. One important thing I wanted to mention is how to ask good questions.

05:07 So, let’s say you’re posting in the #coding-questions section here. You want to make sure you’re giving people a good context for what your question

05:17 is about. Try to share some background of what you’ve tried so far and try to give people a really good idea of what you’re struggling with. We’re all volunteers in this channel, so it’s really important to keep in mind, you know, there’s real people sitting on the other end here, so make sure you provide as much context as you can to give people a chance to really help you.

05:39 Another thing to keep in mind is that the community aspect of Real Python is really important to us, and it’s something that’s personally really dear to my heart, so keep in mind that there’s actual real people here in this Slack community, in this chat community. Anytime you ask a question you’re, for the most part, interacting with volunteers and people who love Python just as much as you do.

06:03 So please make sure that we keep things friendly and that we’re excellent to each other, and then you’re going to have a fantastic time on the Real Python Slack.

06:11 All right, I’ll see you there!

vtgoat on May 20, 2020

Well, the only question I missed was due to the fact I have always considered a “command line” to be a place, a location, rather than the words of a command. That ought to straighten out some matters in the future. Thank you!

MSimcox on June 11, 2020

This video needs to be updated, the RP Slack Community link is under “Manage Account” then under Join the RP Slack Community

Dan Bader RP Team on June 12, 2020

@msimcox2: The Slack link can be found in a couple of places. The easiest & most visible placement is on the Learn Python menu in the navigation bar under Community.

Dan Bader RP Team on Aug. 24, 2020

We’re now also hosting weekly “Office Hours” Q&A sessions with a member of the Real Python Team.

You’ll meet fellow Pythonistas to ask questions, chat about your learning progress, and discuss Python tips & tricks via screen sharing.

Check out the RP Office Hours schedule and sign up for the next session (we’ve got recordings available too.)

Dan Bader RP Team on Oct. 21, 2020

And we now also have a dedicated page with Tips & Guidelines for the RP Slack Community:

How to ask questions successfully & where to post them
Tips for communicating your problem effectively
Formatting tips for making your code snippets more readable
… and more

Become a Member to join the conversation.