[wp-hackers] Wordpress StackExchange is ready.

[Mike Schinkel]

On Jun 2, 2010, at 12:38 PM, Jane Wells wrote:
> On 6/1/10 4:48 PM, Arlen Beiler wrote:
>> In case you don't make the connection., this is the StackOverflow idea,
>> which we discussed a little while ago. Now we can work on starting the site.
>>   
> I'm concerned that this will splinter the development community, with official discussion happening via wordpress.org channels, and non-official discussions on StackOverflow. People already complain about there being information in too many places and it being hard to know which information is official.

I don't think people looking for answers care so much it if is official as they care about finding a useful answer. 

Looking at the results of the archetypical questions proposed for on and off topic on the proposal site in just the past 24 hours, I think you should become less concerned about splintering and more concerned that many of the official WordPress support channels will become irrelevant. At this point there appear to be many people, with myself explicitly included, who find that the official discussion channels offered by wordpress.org failing to meet their needs. For example, my question regarding register_post_status() earlier today.  It's much like any open source project, if the project significantly fails to meet the needs of users someone will fork it. Just look at Mambo. The WordPress software itself is brilliant but the provided support channels are lacking.

So with a very promising alternative in StackExchange on the horizon those who need better support channels are seeking an alternate custodian to offer them Q&A support. Think of WordPress Answers as a "fork," albeit hopefully a very friendly and positive one for the community as a whole. :)

-Mike
P.S. *Assuming* WordPress Answers really takes off (as it appears it might), probably the best thing Automattic could do would be to embrace it fully and configure it to be served from http://answers.wordpress.org. JMTCW.