add release notes (#864)

doc/releases.md

@@ -1,5 +1,41 @@
 # Releases
 
+## Version 0.8.1
+
+**August 26, 2022**
+
+The 0.8.1 release is a bug fix release, focusing mostly on improving `.interactive` and the *explorer*. The documentation has seen some improvements too; @MarcSkovMadsen has been improving the docstrings so make sure to check them out.  Many thanks to @jlstevens, @Hoxbro, @maximlt, @philippjfr and @MarcSkovMadsen for contributing!
+
+- Interactive:
+  - Set interactive function to lazy to avoid calling it twice ([772](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/772))
+  - Add support for hvplot kind accessor ([781](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/781), [858](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/858))
+  - Add more tests to `Interactive` and some comments ([812](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/812))
+  - Fixes to the operators implemented by Interactive ([814](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/814))
+  - Propagate `max_rows` ([815](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/815))
+  - Only register the function parameters watchers once ([818](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/818))
+  - Do not re-execute transform on copied clones ([833](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/833))
+  - Internal callback made dependent only when parameters are found ([857](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/857))
+- Explorer:
+  - Make the explorer easier to use ([799](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/799))
+  - Enhancement to Fields tab in explorer ([811](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/811))
+  - Remove the marker styling option of the explorer ([809](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/809))
+- Plot:
+  - Make `rescale_discrete_levels` a plot option ([758](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/758))
+  - Ensure that dataframes with multiple columns are categorically shaded ([759](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/759))
+  - Display a color bar when rasterize is enabled ([782](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/782))
+  - Update the expected DataSet plot title after xarray `2022.6.0` ([795](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/795))
+  - Set categorically shaded when there's more than one variable ([843](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/843))
+  - Clone GeoViews' features ([850](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/850))
+- Documentation:
+  - Add new and improve existing docstrings ([793](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/793), [826](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/826), [827](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/827), [822](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/822))
+  - Update developer install instructions ([794](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/794))
+  - Rework the landing page and add a Getting started guide ([838](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/838))
+- Misc:
+  - No longer use basestring from holoviews.core.util ([757](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/757))
+  - Ensure that repr is initialized on hvplot backend import ([774](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/774))
+  - Add RGB test data ([779](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/779))
+  - Add flatten utility function ([798](https://github.com/holoviz/hvplot/pull/798))
+
 ## Version 0.8.0
 
 **May 8, 2022**