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> "It seems to basically be the hosting ground for answers to hard factual questions answered in most documentation/materials elsewhere" That's exactly what St

by yen223 14y ago

> "It seems to basically be the hosting ground for answers to hard factual questions answered in most documentation/materials elsewhere" That's exactly what StackOverflow is meant to be. I feel like I'm the only one who appreciates what StackOverflow is trying to achieve here - to be the place to document hard, solid facts - nothing more. If I wanted to read commentary and opinions on programming, there's always HN or Slashdot.

davorak 14y ago
It seems like this type of question should fall in to http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ domain as well or at least much more so the StackOverflow.
- prawks 14y ago
  My thoughts exactly. Is anyone aware of topics being moved from one stackexchange to another? This would be a fantastic feature, obviously.
  - lil_cain 14y ago
    There's a "vote to move" feature when you nominate a question for closing (or at least, there was when there was just StackOverflow and ServerFault)
SiVal 14y ago
Maybe you are the only one who appreciates it. I sure don't. I'll have a question, I'll google it, be excited to when Google finds that someone else has asked the exact same thing, and then disappointed to find that it was asked on StackOverflow, where the Red Guards will inevitably have discovered an interesting question and taken steps to make sure it isn't answered. Hint to SO mods: it's not the question that is "unhelpful", it's you. While Google manages to sort through the unbelievable chaos of the entire open Web to bring up the most relevant answer to any question on any topic in a fraction of a second using the latest 21st Century search algorithms, SO goes at it from the other direction, making sure so few questions are answered that what remains won't overwhelm its 1980s-era MS-DOS search technology. I appreciate Joel's letting us use his vintage '486 to gather the world's biggest collection of code snippets, but I'm hoping someone with less primitive technology will replace SO with a system focused more on providing answers than on preventing questions.
- yen223 14y ago
  I'm not sure what kind of questions you normally have, but I didn't really have much trouble getting answers from StackOverflow. It's no accident that when Google "sorts through the unbelievable chaos of the entire open Web to bring up the most relevant answer to any question on any topic in a fraction of a second using the latest 21st Century search algorithms", the first link is almost always StackOverflow ;) Also I think it's pretty impressive that Joel managed to make the website run smoothly on a vintage 486.
- anonymous 14y ago
  The chief problem is that once you have a question going and are getting answers, if it's deemed "not suited for SO", you're SOL. That question can't be moved to some "off-topic" forum, because there is no off-topic forum, because the entire platform is not a forum. I feel this situation can be resolved simply by making an unsuitedfor.stackexchange.com, declaring it not part of the official model (i.e. basically a gimped forum) and moving all non-factual questions there.
nitrogen 14y ago
I'd much rather those questions be documented in the documentation. I don't know how I'd have learned much of what I know now if StackOverflow had been the top 8 search results instead of various manpages and TLDP references that were deeply useful. It's also very annoying when the top Google result for a query is a StackOverflow thread that has been closed as a duplicate. They should put up a <link rel="canonical"> or something so Google doesn't lead people to the dirty, dirty duplicate. While the griping's good, let me throw a jab at discussion forums that lock old, unanswered threads. These old, unanswered threads are very frequently in the top 10 Google results for something I'm trying to learn. It's incredibly frustrating to read through a dozen "me too" posts to find that the last one says, "This thread has been closed. If you want to ask a question, start a new thread." AAAARRRGH! New rule: if you close an unanswered thread, delete it from Google. Better yet, understand the part your forum is playing in the information world and let someone who knows the answer to an ancient question post that answer.

by yen223 14y ago

davorak 14y ago

It seems like this type of question should fall in to http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ domain as well or at least much more so the StackOverflow.

prawks 14y ago
My thoughts exactly. Is anyone aware of topics being moved from one stackexchange to another? This would be a fantastic feature, obviously.
- lil_cain 14y ago
  There's a "vote to move" feature when you nominate a question for closing (or at least, there was when there was just StackOverflow and ServerFault)

SiVal 14y ago

Maybe you are the only one who appreciates it. I sure don't. I'll have a question, I'll google it, be excited to when Google finds that someone else has asked the exact same thing, and then disappointed to find that it was asked on StackOverflow, where the Red Guards will inevitably have discovered an interesting question and taken steps to make sure it isn't answered. Hint to SO mods: it's not the question that is "unhelpful", it's you. While Google manages to sort through the unbelievable chaos of the entire open Web to bring up the most relevant answer to any question on any topic in a fraction of a second using the latest 21st Century search algorithms, SO goes at it from the other direction, making sure so few questions are answered that what remains won't overwhelm its 1980s-era MS-DOS search technology. I appreciate Joel's letting us use his vintage '486 to gather the world's biggest collection of code snippets, but I'm hoping someone with less primitive technology will replace SO with a system focused more on providing answers than on preventing questions.

yen223 14y ago
I'm not sure what kind of questions you normally have, but I didn't really have much trouble getting answers from StackOverflow. It's no accident that when Google "sorts through the unbelievable chaos of the entire open Web to bring up the most relevant answer to any question on any topic in a fraction of a second using the latest 21st Century search algorithms", the first link is almost always StackOverflow ;) Also I think it's pretty impressive that Joel managed to make the website run smoothly on a vintage 486.
anonymous 14y ago
The chief problem is that once you have a question going and are getting answers, if it's deemed "not suited for SO", you're SOL. That question can't be moved to some "off-topic" forum, because there is no off-topic forum, because the entire platform is not a forum. I feel this situation can be resolved simply by making an unsuitedfor.stackexchange.com, declaring it not part of the official model (i.e. basically a gimped forum) and moving all non-factual questions there.

nitrogen 14y ago

I'd much rather those questions be documented in the documentation. I don't know how I'd have learned much of what I know now if StackOverflow had been the top 8 search results instead of various manpages and TLDP references that were deeply useful. It's also very annoying when the top Google result for a query is a StackOverflow thread that has been closed as a duplicate. They should put up a <link rel="canonical"> or something so Google doesn't lead people to the dirty, dirty duplicate. While the griping's good, let me throw a jab at discussion forums that lock old, unanswered threads. These old, unanswered threads are very frequently in the top 10 Google results for something I'm trying to learn. It's incredibly frustrating to read through a dozen "me too" posts to find that the last one says, "This thread has been closed. If you want to ask a question, start a new thread." AAAARRRGH! New rule: if you close an unanswered thread, delete it from Google. Better yet, understand the part your forum is playing in the information world and let someone who knows the answer to an ancient question post that answer.