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I understand that SO's rules prohibit "what is the best tool for this job?" type questions. Yet, a closed SO question is almost always the first Google result.

by nix0n 9y ago

I understand that SO's rules prohibit "what is the best tool for this job?" type questions. Yet, a closed SO question is almost always the first Google result. What is the correct place to find this type of info?

JamesBarney 9y ago
I would really like to know this information. Stack overflow at one point was the most useful software site on the planet. I stopped using Google back in 2011 because everything I ever wanted was there. But since they decided to nix 95% of the useful questions I rarely go there anymore.
mark-r 9y ago
My understanding is that those questions are disallowed for two reasons: one, they devolve into a kind of popularity contest, and two, the answers get stale faster than most others. But I'm with you, they can be incredibly informative and helpful. It took a while for those types of questions to fall out of favor, so the ones you find through Google invariably date back to when the site was fresh.
IshKebab 9y ago
I agree it is stupid. There are other stack exchange sites but it takes about 5 minutes to read through their FAQs to work out where to go - Software Enginering? Superuser? Nope you need Software Recommendations. Obviously. A tiny meta-site where nobody will ever see your question. Why do they need to separate clearly popular and related questions onto a graveyard site? Sure they might go stale quicker, but I have a load of questions and answers from Android 2ish that are totally irrelevant now and they are allowed to stay apparently. Stack overflow doesn't have any solution for any answers going stale so I don't think they should use that as a reason to pick on questions that pretty much everyone except the pedantic editors think are fine.
- nix0n 9y ago
  Thank you IshKebab, https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ is the answer I was looking for.
dredmorbius 9y ago
One option might be to set closed questions to no-index.

by nix0n 9y ago

JamesBarney 9y ago

I would really like to know this information. Stack overflow at one point was the most useful software site on the planet. I stopped using Google back in 2011 because everything I ever wanted was there. But since they decided to nix 95% of the useful questions I rarely go there anymore.

mark-r 9y ago

My understanding is that those questions are disallowed for two reasons: one, they devolve into a kind of popularity contest, and two, the answers get stale faster than most others. But I'm with you, they can be incredibly informative and helpful. It took a while for those types of questions to fall out of favor, so the ones you find through Google invariably date back to when the site was fresh.

IshKebab 9y ago

I agree it is stupid. There are other stack exchange sites but it takes about 5 minutes to read through their FAQs to work out where to go - Software Enginering? Superuser? Nope you need Software Recommendations. Obviously. A tiny meta-site where nobody will ever see your question. Why do they need to separate clearly popular and related questions onto a graveyard site? Sure they might go stale quicker, but I have a load of questions and answers from Android 2ish that are totally irrelevant now and they are allowed to stay apparently. Stack overflow doesn't have any solution for any answers going stale so I don't think they should use that as a reason to pick on questions that pretty much everyone except the pedantic editors think are fine.

nix0n 9y ago
Thank you IshKebab, https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ is the answer I was looking for.

dredmorbius 9y ago

One option might be to set closed questions to no-index.