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+1 for providing an example, but "Git vs. Mercurial" belongs on someone's blog, or on Wikipedia as a comparison matrix. Now if you have a specific question abo

+1 for providing an example, but "Git vs. Mercurial" belongs on someone's blog, or on Wikipedia as a comparison matrix. Now if you have a specific question about some aspect of Git compared to Mercurial, that can work on SE. But as a broad kitchen sink, catch-all, "compare these two giant things kthx", you'd end up with Gorilla vs. Shark. http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/08/gorilla-vs-shark/ http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/08/gorilla-vs-shark/

barking 14y ago
If a question gets oodles of upvotes and answers that seems like a vote by the community to keep it open.
- icebraining 14y ago
  Yet the same community elected the mods who decided to close it.
yew 14y ago
Eh. Wikipedia comparison matrices don't actually explain anything, and blog posts are only equally useful if they form part of a community-curated collection of similar posts (or are written by people with really high credibility). It is certainly possible to replace SO in this capacity, but it's far from trivial. Of course, whether or not SO should be focusing on foundational education is up to you & company.
SiVal 14y ago
Now if you have a specific question about some aspect of Git compared to Mercurial... So, when trying to get your bearings in a new area or get an idea of what the issues are, asking experienced developers what they think you should know is bad behavior that can't be allowed. The risk is just too high that between the useful answers there might be some that you couldn't use. Better to have no answers than to have that. StackOverflow should not be about using experienced people as advisors; it should be about using them as documentation.
- brazzy 14y ago
  Getting started in a new area is what tutorials are for, not a Q&A site. I generally don't like deletionism, but in this case I understand the decision.
  - nitrogen 14y ago
    This becomes a problem when Q&A sites outrank the tutorials and documentation, making it difficult to find them via search.
  - SiVal 14y ago
    Would that be the git tutorial or the mercurial tutorial that is a better source than experienced developers for advice on how the two end up differing in practice?
rwmj 14y ago
This reminds me of Wikipedia deletionism, as if either Wikipedia or Stack Overflow will run out of space and they'll have to move into a new building if they don't clear out these topics. Why not just keep them and keep getting the Google ranking and free advertising?
- Someone 14y ago
  I do not think that is a valid argument. If I gave you a house a hundred times the size of your current house, and then dumped the equivalent of ninety house contents of junk in it, would you be happy? (Almost) every bit of knowledge that is on StackOverflow can be found elsewhere on the net, too. People go there not because it has knowledge, but because of its density.
- dbecker 14y ago
  Joel recently tweeted something to the extent "You think you should have the right to ask anything. The fact that we don't allow that is why your happy when SO shows up in your google search."
billforsternz 14y ago
How about this as another example; http://stackoverflow.com/questions/247621/what-are-the-correct-version-numbers-for-c# http://stackoverflow.com/questions/247621/what-are-the-corre... Asked and answered by your number 1 user, John Skeet. Basically he had specific detailed information to share, and he did it by asking and answering his own question. Something encouraged by Joel on the old podcasts if I remember correctly. Hugely upvoted, so the community thought it was great, but one of your moderators closed it as "not constructive". This is endemic at Stackoverflow. As SiVal points out, the best material on the site is routinely shut down. How does this make any sense? I have 2k8 rep points and used to visit often, but I find the excessive moderation hugely off-putting and I now rarely visit.
- mooism2 14y ago
  Perhaps I'm missing something, but that question isn't closed.
pasbesoin 14y ago
You need to stop listening to yourself and start listening to your users.
lukeschlather 14y ago
Can you be better about deleting these things or at least getting them out of Google? If you're going to shut down conversation, it seems rude to keep your spot high in the rankings.
sp332 14y ago
Would it be a better fit for programmers.SE or not?
SjuulJanssen 14y ago
I disagree, as long as there is knowledge to be gained it's helpful to all of us. If a community loves the questions why delete them? I especially like reading this kind of posts because seeing lots of different opinions as to what is better in what situation can help me make the right choice. And it has some entertaining value much like the "new programmer jargon thread" or this one http://stackoverflow.com/questions/58640/great-programming-quotes http://stackoverflow.com/questions/58640/great-programming-q... which, of course, I can't see anymore. I myself like to read these quotes because they often contain simple and elegant truths. You make the following points for why they shouldn't appear on SO - Nobody needs to know the answer to this question. -> There will always be someone looking for the answer in question. Surely a lot of people would like to know it still. I googled "Git vs Mercurial" and it has 965.000 results. I suppose at least few people thought it was worth discussing. - It’s not nearly specific enough. -> A or B. Seems specific enough to me. And the difference in the opinions and experience of the those who answer will bring a depth and specificity that can not be found on Wikipedia or a blog post. If all the answers in life were as easy as A or B, life would be a lot easier. - It is difficult to learn from these questions. -> This is where I disagree the most with you. A person who hasn't used one of both will surely gain some insights why or why not to use A or B - It drives away experts. -> I only see it attracting people as there are lots of votes. Of course that doesn't disproof your claim. But perhaps you can show us the numbers? Do you see a disproportionate larger amount of votes from people with less points? What I think are good reasons are: - Perhaps you want the site to remain clean Q&A not Q&O(pinion) - You want to avoid opinion battles as they can get out of hand As for the opinion battles. I can understand. But I still value the opinions. And whether an opinion is constructive should be measured by it's upvotes. But the clean just Q&A. As I said earlier. There isn't always a clean cut answer to a question. Life would be a lot easier if it was. And to answer the Gorilla vs Shark question the answer is obvious. If you're on land the Gorilla will win. If you're in the water the Shark will win. And that's what you can learn from such a question. That's what someone is looking for if he's Googling for "Gorilla vs Shark"
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

barking 14y ago

If a question gets oodles of upvotes and answers that seems like a vote by the community to keep it open.

icebraining 14y ago
Yet the same community elected the mods who decided to close it.

yew 14y ago

Eh. Wikipedia comparison matrices don't actually explain anything, and blog posts are only equally useful if they form part of a community-curated collection of similar posts (or are written by people with really high credibility). It is certainly possible to replace SO in this capacity, but it's far from trivial. Of course, whether or not SO should be focusing on foundational education is up to you & company.

SiVal 14y ago

Now if you have a specific question about some aspect of Git compared to Mercurial... So, when trying to get your bearings in a new area or get an idea of what the issues are, asking experienced developers what they think you should know is bad behavior that can't be allowed. The risk is just too high that between the useful answers there might be some that you couldn't use. Better to have no answers than to have that. StackOverflow should not be about using experienced people as advisors; it should be about using them as documentation.

brazzy 14y ago
Getting started in a new area is what tutorials are for, not a Q&A site. I generally don't like deletionism, but in this case I understand the decision.
- nitrogen 14y ago
  This becomes a problem when Q&A sites outrank the tutorials and documentation, making it difficult to find them via search.
- SiVal 14y ago
  Would that be the git tutorial or the mercurial tutorial that is a better source than experienced developers for advice on how the two end up differing in practice?

rwmj 14y ago

This reminds me of Wikipedia deletionism, as if either Wikipedia or Stack Overflow will run out of space and they'll have to move into a new building if they don't clear out these topics. Why not just keep them and keep getting the Google ranking and free advertising?

Someone 14y ago
I do not think that is a valid argument. If I gave you a house a hundred times the size of your current house, and then dumped the equivalent of ninety house contents of junk in it, would you be happy? (Almost) every bit of knowledge that is on StackOverflow can be found elsewhere on the net, too. People go there not because it has knowledge, but because of its density.
dbecker 14y ago
Joel recently tweeted something to the extent "You think you should have the right to ask anything. The fact that we don't allow that is why your happy when SO shows up in your google search."

billforsternz 14y ago

How about this as another example; http://stackoverflow.com/questions/247621/what-are-the-correct-version-numbers-for-c# http://stackoverflow.com/questions/247621/what-are-the-corre... Asked and answered by your number 1 user, John Skeet. Basically he had specific detailed information to share, and he did it by asking and answering his own question. Something encouraged by Joel on the old podcasts if I remember correctly. Hugely upvoted, so the community thought it was great, but one of your moderators closed it as "not constructive". This is endemic at Stackoverflow. As SiVal points out, the best material on the site is routinely shut down. How does this make any sense? I have 2k8 rep points and used to visit often, but I find the excessive moderation hugely off-putting and I now rarely visit.

mooism2 14y ago
Perhaps I'm missing something, but that question isn't closed.

pasbesoin 14y ago

You need to stop listening to yourself and start listening to your users.

lukeschlather 14y ago

Can you be better about deleting these things or at least getting them out of Google? If you're going to shut down conversation, it seems rude to keep your spot high in the rankings.

sp332 14y ago

Would it be a better fit for programmers.SE or not?

SjuulJanssen 14y ago

I disagree, as long as there is knowledge to be gained it's helpful to all of us. If a community loves the questions why delete them? I especially like reading this kind of posts because seeing lots of different opinions as to what is better in what situation can help me make the right choice. And it has some entertaining value much like the "new programmer jargon thread" or this one http://stackoverflow.com/questions/58640/great-programming-quotes http://stackoverflow.com/questions/58640/great-programming-q... which, of course, I can't see anymore. I myself like to read these quotes because they often contain simple and elegant truths. You make the following points for why they shouldn't appear on SO - Nobody needs to know the answer to this question. -> There will always be someone looking for the answer in question. Surely a lot of people would like to know it still. I googled "Git vs Mercurial" and it has 965.000 results. I suppose at least few people thought it was worth discussing. - It’s not nearly specific enough. -> A or B. Seems specific enough to me. And the difference in the opinions and experience of the those who answer will bring a depth and specificity that can not be found on Wikipedia or a blog post. If all the answers in life were as easy as A or B, life would be a lot easier. - It is difficult to learn from these questions. -> This is where I disagree the most with you. A person who hasn't used one of both will surely gain some insights why or why not to use A or B - It drives away experts. -> I only see it attracting people as there are lots of votes. Of course that doesn't disproof your claim. But perhaps you can show us the numbers? Do you see a disproportionate larger amount of votes from people with less points? What I think are good reasons are: - Perhaps you want the site to remain clean Q&A not Q&O(pinion) - You want to avoid opinion battles as they can get out of hand As for the opinion battles. I can understand. But I still value the opinions. And whether an opinion is constructive should be measured by it's upvotes. But the clean just Q&A. As I said earlier. There isn't always a clean cut answer to a question. Life would be a lot easier if it was. And to answer the Gorilla vs Shark question the answer is obvious. If you're on land the Gorilla will win. If you're in the water the Shark will win. And that's what you can learn from such a question. That's what someone is looking for if he's Googling for "Gorilla vs Shark"

deleted 14y ago

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