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Is this a practical, answerable question based on an actual problem that you face? Are you deciding whether or not to do something based on answers to this ques

Is this a practical, answerable question based on an actual problem that you face? Are you deciding whether or not to do something based on answers to this question? It's an interesting question, but I don't see how it's in-scope for this stack exchange. Tangent: Oh, good god. I guess I should be heartened that it's not just programmers who think this way. What a useless sentiment this is. Stackexchange is like a super smart scientist uncle who has this one weird blind spot for homeopathy or something. It's so frustrating to see this sort of comment over and over.

gtaylor 13y ago
I wholeheartedly agree. I've seen some really good questions buried/closed prematurely because of this overzealous policing. I'm not really sure what the other options are, though. Quora? Other web communities that are specific to whatever topic you have questions about? It's a shame, because I otherwise really like Stack Exchange's layout and mechanics as a whole (as someone mostly Googling around for existing questions/answers).
- pavel_lishin 13y ago
  > I'm not really sure what the other options are, though. Quora? There are various AskReddit clones, and various subreddits dedicated to culling the "best of". However, this is pretty hit or miss, and just searching for content is pretty hard.
  - Houshalter 13y ago
    Askreddit has become pretty much /r/tellMeStories. /r/explainlikeimfive has, unfortunately, become what you are looking for.
- dionidium 13y ago
  Right. Stackoverflow is still the best option for dozens of reasons. I love it. But the deletionism is stupid. More than that: it's stupid religion. The people who think it is necessary never provide any evidence for its effectiveness. They claim it influences future questions. Again, I have never seen a single piece of evidence that this is true. It just feels true to them, so it's true. QED.
- babuskov 13y ago
  FWIW, I got fed up with this, and I spent last month building a completely open platform for programmers to come and chat about anything. It will still have a topic+answers format, but everything is allowed - let the community vote stuff up and down. It has reputation points, but no "achievements" yet. I'm not sure those are needed. The site design is clean and simple, no clutter. It is built with Bootstrap 3, so it looks ok on mobile. Stuff like image and video uploading works as well, with integrated video player (using ffmpeg for conversion). It has a social-network aspect: you can connect with other members or have private conversation. I soon plan to launch the website and I'll post the complete source code (sans passwords) on GitHub under GPL license. If you're interested to know when it launches, please e-mail me (it's in my profile):
sergiotapia 13y ago
"Closed as not a constructive question." 32,000 views and 293 upvotes I see it time and time again in SE sites.
- dionidium 13y ago
  The close reasons are often funny. How many times have you seen a perfectly understandable question closed as "unclear what you're asking?" It's going to be like that until they introduce a, "I don't like this question so I'm taking my ball and going home" close reason, which more closely resembles what's actually happening.
userbinator 13y ago
Is this a practical, answerable question based on an actual problem that you face? Well, in this case it seems the actual problem... is your face.
kintamanimatt 13y ago
This is why I all but stopped using this site to ask questions. I love the questions that SE loves to hate because they're the ones that are most informative and teach me the most. I can't ask open-ended questions about why something is the way it is, or why something works the way it does unless I know there's a concrete answer. Even then it's a battle to not have the question closed (or get it reopened!), or to explain why answers to questions x, y, and z do not sufficiently my question. I'm still grateful to them for ridding the web of Expert Sex Change though.

gtaylor 13y ago

I wholeheartedly agree. I've seen some really good questions buried/closed prematurely because of this overzealous policing. I'm not really sure what the other options are, though. Quora? Other web communities that are specific to whatever topic you have questions about? It's a shame, because I otherwise really like Stack Exchange's layout and mechanics as a whole (as someone mostly Googling around for existing questions/answers).

pavel_lishin 13y ago
> I'm not really sure what the other options are, though. Quora? There are various AskReddit clones, and various subreddits dedicated to culling the "best of". However, this is pretty hit or miss, and just searching for content is pretty hard.
- Houshalter 13y ago
  Askreddit has become pretty much /r/tellMeStories. /r/explainlikeimfive has, unfortunately, become what you are looking for.
dionidium 13y ago
Right. Stackoverflow is still the best option for dozens of reasons. I love it. But the deletionism is stupid. More than that: it's stupid religion. The people who think it is necessary never provide any evidence for its effectiveness. They claim it influences future questions. Again, I have never seen a single piece of evidence that this is true. It just feels true to them, so it's true. QED.
babuskov 13y ago
FWIW, I got fed up with this, and I spent last month building a completely open platform for programmers to come and chat about anything. It will still have a topic+answers format, but everything is allowed - let the community vote stuff up and down. It has reputation points, but no "achievements" yet. I'm not sure those are needed. The site design is clean and simple, no clutter. It is built with Bootstrap 3, so it looks ok on mobile. Stuff like image and video uploading works as well, with integrated video player (using ffmpeg for conversion). It has a social-network aspect: you can connect with other members or have private conversation. I soon plan to launch the website and I'll post the complete source code (sans passwords) on GitHub under GPL license. If you're interested to know when it launches, please e-mail me (it's in my profile):

sergiotapia 13y ago

"Closed as not a constructive question." 32,000 views and 293 upvotes I see it time and time again in SE sites.

dionidium 13y ago
The close reasons are often funny. How many times have you seen a perfectly understandable question closed as "unclear what you're asking?" It's going to be like that until they introduce a, "I don't like this question so I'm taking my ball and going home" close reason, which more closely resembles what's actually happening.

userbinator 13y ago

Is this a practical, answerable question based on an actual problem that you face? Well, in this case it seems the actual problem... is your face.

kintamanimatt 13y ago

This is why I all but stopped using this site to ask questions. I love the questions that SE loves to hate because they're the ones that are most informative and teach me the most. I can't ask open-ended questions about why something is the way it is, or why something works the way it does unless I know there's a concrete answer. Even then it's a battle to not have the question closed (or get it reopened!), or to explain why answers to questions x, y, and z do not sufficiently my question. I'm still grateful to them for ridding the web of Expert Sex Change though.