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SE is not meant to be a replacement for reddit or traditional forums. If you want to have discussion by all means have discussion. Just don't do it on SE becaus

by bp_ 14y ago

SE is not meant to be a replacement for reddit or traditional forums. If you want to have discussion by all means have discussion. Just don't do it on SE because SE wasn't made for discussion. Just because echo doesn't read from files doesn't mean it's useless. If you need to read from files you just use cat instead. Sure, you can coerce both to do the other's job, but it'll be messy and only work half the time and other people will be annoyed at you. Different solutions for different needs.

SteveJS 14y ago
It's not the software it's the community. Here's the exact same software with a community that tolerates a list: http://mathoverflow.net/questions/4994/fundamental-examples http://mathoverflow.net/questions/4994/fundamental-examples That said the community+software is good at what it does. I can be sad it's intolerant of lists without needing to disparage it further.
- bp_ 14y ago
  It's really the software. It isn't made to host lists. Votes on lists are historically on the item (OMG YES JQUERY!!!!!), not on the answer (You should use jQuery because a. b. c. d.), and that isn't how the rest of the site works. Besides in a Q&A network, a "list question" has "list answers" where every "answer" is a "list", rather than an item of that list. Even that doesn't really work because that's not historically the way the site is actually used. See also the following for the rationale: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/01/real-questions-have-answers/ http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/01/real-questions-have-an...
dbecker 14y ago
The problem is that the quality of participants/knowledge on the discussion sites simply isn't as good as SE. No knock on SE. Quite the opposite. But I frequently have questions that aren't SE style questions, and I wish I knew where to take them for such intelligent and informed responses.
- kmontrose 14y ago
  The theory (a very sound one, based on internal observation) is that the strict "answers, not discussion" format is what attracts and retains high quality participants. I really strongly believe that it's an either/or proposition, you either get discussion or you get quality answers to questions. Discussion "sucks the air out", so to speak. And since there are already so many places for discussion on the internet, it's better for us to focus on Q&A.

by bp_ 14y ago

SteveJS 14y ago

It's not the software it's the community. Here's the exact same software with a community that tolerates a list: http://mathoverflow.net/questions/4994/fundamental-examples http://mathoverflow.net/questions/4994/fundamental-examples That said the community+software is good at what it does. I can be sad it's intolerant of lists without needing to disparage it further.

bp_ 14y ago
It's really the software. It isn't made to host lists. Votes on lists are historically on the item (OMG YES JQUERY!!!!!), not on the answer (You should use jQuery because a. b. c. d.), and that isn't how the rest of the site works. Besides in a Q&A network, a "list question" has "list answers" where every "answer" is a "list", rather than an item of that list. Even that doesn't really work because that's not historically the way the site is actually used. See also the following for the rationale: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/01/real-questions-have-answers/ http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/01/real-questions-have-an...

dbecker 14y ago

The problem is that the quality of participants/knowledge on the discussion sites simply isn't as good as SE. No knock on SE. Quite the opposite. But I frequently have questions that aren't SE style questions, and I wish I knew where to take them for such intelligent and informed responses.

kmontrose 14y ago
The theory (a very sound one, based on internal observation) is that the strict "answers, not discussion" format is what attracts and retains high quality participants. I really strongly believe that it's an either/or proposition, you either get discussion or you get quality answers to questions. Discussion "sucks the air out", so to speak. And since there are already so many places for discussion on the internet, it's better for us to focus on Q&A.