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Web app questions definitely don't belong on SO (unless you're developing them) or SF (unless you're administering them). They might work on SU, but they've bee

by m_myers 16y ago

Web app questions definitely don't belong on SO (unless you're developing them) or SF (unless you're administering them). They might work on SU, but they've been explicitly banned for some time. And Meta is only for discussing the SO network. So no, there's really no other place in the existing network for them.

blasdel 16y ago
The segregation actually isn't so bad the more I think about it -- people with tons of karma from questions about mundane windows sysadmin and inane adolescent theming shouldn't be running roughshod over people trying to figure out how to do something in gmail.
- mwsherman 16y ago
  That's right. The segmentation is about making sure that each site has a critical mass of experts, and enough of a focus that said experts won't be annoyed by off-topic questions. (Of course it's debatable where the line should be.) Joel and Jeff have said several times that "Google is the UI". So the segmentation doesn't hurt the "answer consumers", who'll come in through Google with little regard for which site is which, while benefiting the "producers", who do care.
chc 16y ago
They really seem like they belong on Super User to me. I would think the Stack Overflow founders of all people would see the arbitrariness of treating Web applications and desktop applications as completely different things. Web apps are more like desktop apps than desktop apps are like plugins or computer hardware, yet those categories are allowed on Super User.
- blasdel 16y ago
  SuperUser is Jeff Atwood's hobbyist self-identity manifested as a Q&A site. The allowed categories neatly cover everything he's blogged about on CodingHorror that wouldn't fit into SO or SF first. There are a lot of Jeff Atwoods out there, so it works. You know what would make a really hilarious and likely-successful StackExchange site? One focused on http://BoingBoing.net http://BoingBoing.net -- it'd be all about how best to anagramize a subway map or break functioning consumer electronics by hot-gluing brass gears onto them, but there's clearly already an audience for Cory Doctorow's self-identity (just as there was for Jeff).

by m_myers 16y ago

blasdel 16y ago

The segregation actually isn't so bad the more I think about it -- people with tons of karma from questions about mundane windows sysadmin and inane adolescent theming shouldn't be running roughshod over people trying to figure out how to do something in gmail.

mwsherman 16y ago
That's right. The segmentation is about making sure that each site has a critical mass of experts, and enough of a focus that said experts won't be annoyed by off-topic questions. (Of course it's debatable where the line should be.) Joel and Jeff have said several times that "Google is the UI". So the segmentation doesn't hurt the "answer consumers", who'll come in through Google with little regard for which site is which, while benefiting the "producers", who do care.

chc 16y ago

They really seem like they belong on Super User to me. I would think the Stack Overflow founders of all people would see the arbitrariness of treating Web applications and desktop applications as completely different things. Web apps are more like desktop apps than desktop apps are like plugins or computer hardware, yet those categories are allowed on Super User.

blasdel 16y ago
SuperUser is Jeff Atwood's hobbyist self-identity manifested as a Q&A site. The allowed categories neatly cover everything he's blogged about on CodingHorror that wouldn't fit into SO or SF first. There are a lot of Jeff Atwoods out there, so it works. You know what would make a really hilarious and likely-successful StackExchange site? One focused on http://BoingBoing.net http://BoingBoing.net -- it'd be all about how best to anagramize a subway map or break functioning consumer electronics by hot-gluing brass gears onto them, but there's clearly already an audience for Cory Doctorow's self-identity (just as there was for Jeff).