4 ms·

This is very much a side comment, but I've noticed that there are a lot of these kinds of questions on StackExchange, but it seems like a lot of them are closed

This is very much a side comment, but I've noticed that there are a lot of these kinds of questions on StackExchange, but it seems like a lot of them are closed (this one was closed within an hour of it being opened) because they don't fit within the goals of StackExchange. My question is: is there somewhere else where these kinds of questions (not totally on topic but still relevant to what programmers do) can be asked? I'd love to see more of them!

thoughtpalette 14y ago
http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ "This is a collaboratively edited question and answer site for professional programmers interested in conceptual questions about software development."
- smackfu 14y ago
  You would think, but the same question was closed there as Not Constructive: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/188455/why-do-programming-languages-especially-c-use-curly-braces-and-not-square-ones http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/188455/why-do... Very common on StackExcahnge. A bunch of high rep users swoop in and close questions that don't meet this weeks version of the rules that were decided in the Meta site that only the high rep users read. It reminds me a lot of Wikipedia.
  - Turing_Machine 14y ago
    It reminds me a lot of any human organization that develops a "manager" class. There are a lot of people whose goals in life have more to do with controlling what other people do and making sure that the rules are followed, rather than contributing actual work. You can see the process on a small scale with homeowner's associations. (I put "manager" in quotes because there are good managers out there. Oddly, they're often the ones who are willing to break the rules when they don't make sense).
sharkweek 14y ago
I really like the /r/learnprogramming subreddit -- You can ask anything relevant to programming and you'll get earnest answers with minimal trolling (the mods do a great job there).
insteadof 14y ago
You'll have to create an audience draw for it as well. Say, promise them the site won't be overrun by endless discussions about which Aeron chair is the best to sit on a treadmill. Then when you have the audience who were drawn in by the high signal focus on a topic of expertise, sucker punch them by closing down all such questions and cite some lame excuse of following the charter of purity. In the name of site quality they'll say.
eli_gottlieb 14y ago
Yes, there is a place. Usenet is a popular forum for holy wars about the lexical syntax of various programming languages.

thoughtpalette 14y ago

http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ "This is a collaboratively edited question and answer site for professional programmers interested in conceptual questions about software development."

smackfu 14y ago
You would think, but the same question was closed there as Not Constructive: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/188455/why-do-programming-languages-especially-c-use-curly-braces-and-not-square-ones http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/188455/why-do... Very common on StackExcahnge. A bunch of high rep users swoop in and close questions that don't meet this weeks version of the rules that were decided in the Meta site that only the high rep users read. It reminds me a lot of Wikipedia.
- Turing_Machine 14y ago
  It reminds me a lot of any human organization that develops a "manager" class. There are a lot of people whose goals in life have more to do with controlling what other people do and making sure that the rules are followed, rather than contributing actual work. You can see the process on a small scale with homeowner's associations. (I put "manager" in quotes because there are good managers out there. Oddly, they're often the ones who are willing to break the rules when they don't make sense).

sharkweek 14y ago

I really like the /r/learnprogramming subreddit -- You can ask anything relevant to programming and you'll get earnest answers with minimal trolling (the mods do a great job there).

insteadof 14y ago

You'll have to create an audience draw for it as well. Say, promise them the site won't be overrun by endless discussions about which Aeron chair is the best to sit on a treadmill. Then when you have the audience who were drawn in by the high signal focus on a topic of expertise, sucker punch them by closing down all such questions and cite some lame excuse of following the charter of purity. In the name of site quality they'll say.

eli_gottlieb 14y ago

Yes, there is a place. Usenet is a popular forum for holy wars about the lexical syntax of various programming languages.