3 ms·
Stackoverflow current objective is to answer precise technical questions related to programming. Open ended questions are generally frowned upon because they te
by Zarathust 10y ago
Stackoverflow current objective is to answer precise technical questions related to programming. Open ended questions are generally frowned upon because they tend to be argumentative and generate debate, which SO is not well equipped to deal with. In the very beginnings of stackoverflow, the goals weren't as clearly defined and because of the overwhelming need for such a place, it quickly became flooded with any question related to computers. This is why serverfault and superuser were created along clearer rules regarding their respective content.
I am not sure why this question made it through, but "what do they have in common" generates a finite set of answers while "what are their differences" does not. The "real" place to ask such questions should be programmers.stackexchange.com. Unfortunately, it has 30 times less users and frankly, no one really cares about it. Moderators should use "Migrate question to [...]" instead of simply closing it.
I think everyone will agree that a question with 500 upvotes and 150k page views is interesting. The full problem is that SO has not managed to fit it anywhere.