5 ms·

Interesting read, and the whole thread was shut down by moderators... as usual!

jjoonathan 12y ago
The SE mods truly baffle me sometimes. Organic discussion following a tangent that many readers and contributors found interesting and valuable as evidenced by their posts and upvotes? KILL THAT FILTH BEFORE IT SPREADS! There's nothing so frustrating as getting an exact hit to your question only to find SE filled with "just google it" responses and "closed because duplicate" moderator actions, complete with a link to a vaguely similar post that usually differs in at least one subtle but critical or aggravatingly inconvenient way. Then you're left to hope that a generous contributor has managed to slip an answer in before the hammer fell, because despite the "assurances" from all the "google it" posters, the other google hits always seem to be composed primarily of completely irrelevant SE posts, out of date forum discussions from 2003, Expert Exchange paywalls, and answers.com galleryspam. At least with the spam sites I can recognize that they will be useless from the URL alone :/
- ryan-allen 12y ago
  I'm astonished at the number of top ranking SE questions I come across that are closed for irrelevance or some other questionable reason. If the answer has a lot of upvotes, how is it irrelevant in the greater scheme of things? If the answer has a high search ranking and you're using it to drive traffic to SE, and it's closed, is that even right? I think they should back their own horse and remove closed content from their Google search index. If anything this mod policy and closed tickets make it obvious there's a market need that's not being fulfilled.
- vertex-four 12y ago
  > Organic discussion following a tangent that many readers and contributors found interesting and valuable as evidenced by their posts and upvotes? KILL THAT FILTH BEFORE IT SPREADS! The issue is, the StackOverflow boards aren't discussion boards. It's a Q&A system. If your question doesn't have one (or a few) unambiguously correct answer(s), it's not a fit for the site.
  - CamperBob2 12y ago
    You know what? Maybe they should be discussion boards. If a large number of users seem to use your site's resources in a nonstandard way that a large number of other users find helpful, that might be a hint that you're not in the business you think you're in. In many areas of business, it also might be a hint that someone is about to disrupt you. If Stack Exchange is the Myspace of Q&A sites, who will be the Facebook?
    - rlpb 12y ago
      Discourse is supposed to solve this problem, and Jeff Atwood is involved in both.
      - jjoonathan 12y ago
        Does it solve the problem of spontaneous seeding & seamless organic discovery of these conversations?
    - PvsNP_ZA 12y ago
      Jeff Atwood hates "forum style" interfaces and discussions for Q&A sites. I've always disagreed with this. Forum style discussions not only solve problems, but also branch out into brilliant discussions. I myself have been part of a few math forums before.
    - vertex-four 12y ago
      It could also be showing that an additional product is required, rather than a replacement or dilution of the current one. The world doesn't require the destruction of one product to create another. Stack Exchange's creator is looking at how to improve forums with Discourse, so that might very well happen.
  - ryan-allen 12y ago
    You must be a SE mod or something!

The SE mods truly baffle me sometimes. Organic discussion following a tangent that many readers and contributors found interesting and valuable as evidenced by their posts and upvotes? KILL THAT FILTH BEFORE IT SPREADS! There's nothing so frustrating as getting an exact hit to your question only to find SE filled with "just google it" responses and "closed because duplicate" moderator actions, complete with a link to a vaguely similar post that usually differs in at least one subtle but critical or aggravatingly inconvenient way. Then you're left to hope that a generous contributor has managed to slip an answer in before the hammer fell, because despite the "assurances" from all the "google it" posters, the other google hits always seem to be composed primarily of completely irrelevant SE posts, out of date forum discussions from 2003, Expert Exchange paywalls, and answers.com galleryspam. At least with the spam sites I can recognize that they will be useless from the URL alone :/

ryan-allen 12y ago
I'm astonished at the number of top ranking SE questions I come across that are closed for irrelevance or some other questionable reason. If the answer has a lot of upvotes, how is it irrelevant in the greater scheme of things? If the answer has a high search ranking and you're using it to drive traffic to SE, and it's closed, is that even right? I think they should back their own horse and remove closed content from their Google search index. If anything this mod policy and closed tickets make it obvious there's a market need that's not being fulfilled.
vertex-four 12y ago
> Organic discussion following a tangent that many readers and contributors found interesting and valuable as evidenced by their posts and upvotes? KILL THAT FILTH BEFORE IT SPREADS! The issue is, the StackOverflow boards aren't discussion boards. It's a Q&A system. If your question doesn't have one (or a few) unambiguously correct answer(s), it's not a fit for the site.
- CamperBob2 12y ago
  You know what? Maybe they should be discussion boards. If a large number of users seem to use your site's resources in a nonstandard way that a large number of other users find helpful, that might be a hint that you're not in the business you think you're in. In many areas of business, it also might be a hint that someone is about to disrupt you. If Stack Exchange is the Myspace of Q&A sites, who will be the Facebook?
  - rlpb 12y ago
    Discourse is supposed to solve this problem, and Jeff Atwood is involved in both.
    - jjoonathan 12y ago
      Does it solve the problem of spontaneous seeding & seamless organic discovery of these conversations?
  - PvsNP_ZA 12y ago
    Jeff Atwood hates "forum style" interfaces and discussions for Q&A sites. I've always disagreed with this. Forum style discussions not only solve problems, but also branch out into brilliant discussions. I myself have been part of a few math forums before.
  - vertex-four 12y ago
    It could also be showing that an additional product is required, rather than a replacement or dilution of the current one. The world doesn't require the destruction of one product to create another. Stack Exchange's creator is looking at how to improve forums with Discourse, so that might very well happen.
- ryan-allen 12y ago
  You must be a SE mod or something!