Welcome to LOAF Discussions!

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LOAF Discussions Guidelines

Welcome to LOAF discussions. This is a space for researchers, developers, and practitioners working with hyperlocal weather forecasting.

Discussion Categories

💬 General
General questions and discussions about LOAF. Use this if you're not sure where else to post.
Good for:

• Questions about getting started
• Clarifications on documentation
• Understanding LOAF's capabilities and limitations
• Comparing LOAF to other forecasting approaches

💡 Ideas
Propose new features, improvements, or use cases.
Good for:

• Feature requests with clear use cases
• Suggestions for new data sources or model configurations
• Ideas for expanding LOAF's capabilities
• Discussion of roadmap priorities

Please include:

• Your use case or research application
• Expected benefit or outcome
• Any relevant references or examples

🏗️ Development
Technical discussions about LOAF's implementation and architecture.
Good for:

• Code architecture questions
• Performance optimization
• Integration with other tools or datasets
• Pull request discussions

🎓 Research & Applications
Share how you're using LOAF in your work or research.
Good for:

• Research applications and results
• Deployment case studies
• Dataset or configuration recommendations
• Validation approaches

Encouraged:

• Links to publications using LOAF
• Comparisons with other methods
• Domain-specific adaptations

🐛 Troubleshooting
Getting errors or unexpected results? Ask here before opening an issue.
Good for:

• Installation problems
• Runtime errors
• Unexpected forecast behavior
• Hardware or dependency issues

Please include:

• System specifications (OS, Python version, GPU if applicable)
• Error messages or logs
• Steps to reproduce
• What you've already tried

Guidelines

Be Respectful
LOAF serves researchers from many disciplines. Assume good intent, welcome questions at all levels, and remember that domain expertise varies.

Stay On Topic
Keep discussions relevant to LOAF, hyperlocal weather forecasting, or the broader Pandoro ecosystem. For general ML or climate science discussions, consider other forums.

Search First
Check existing discussions and documentation before posting. Many questions have already been answered.

Provide Context
When asking questions or proposing ideas:

• Describe your use case or research application
• Share relevant details about your setup
• Include specific examples when possible
• Link to related discussions or resources

Share Results
If LOAF worked well (or didn't) for your application, share your experience. This helps the community and improves the tool.

Hardware Transparency
LOAF emphasizes reproducibility. When discussing performance or results, include hardware specifications and configuration details.

What Belongs in Discussions vs Issues

Use Discussions for:

• Questions and general help
• Feature ideas and suggestions
• Sharing your work with LOAF
• Research discussions
• "How do I...?" questions

Use Issues for:

• Confirmed bugs with reproduction steps
• Documentation errors
• Clear, actionable feature requests
• Build or installation failures

When in doubt, start with Discussions. We'll guide you to Issues if needed.

Code of Conduct

This project follows standard open source community guidelines:

• Be welcoming and inclusive
• Respect differing viewpoints and experiences
• Accept constructive criticism gracefully
• Focus on what's best for the community
• Show empathy toward other community members

Violations can be reported to pandoro@breadboardfoundry.com.

Getting Help

• New to LOAF? Start with the README and documentation.
• Found a bug? Check Troubleshooting first, then open an issue with reproduction steps.
• Have a question? Search past discussions, then post in General or Troubleshooting.
• Want to contribute? Check Development discussions and contribution guidelines.

Thank you for being part of the LOAF community. Your contributions help make hyperlocal weather forecasting more accessible to researchers worldwide.