[wp-hackers] Wordpress StackExchange is ready.

[Mike Schinkel]

 On Jun 2, 2010, at 1:44 PM, Jane Wells wrote:
> On 6/2/10 10:10 AM, Mike Schinkel wrote:
>> 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. :)
> The lack of satisfying support would ideally spur the people pushing for stack to instead step up and help improve the .org support forums, which clearly need it. When your house needs a few repairs, you don't just abandon it and move to a new neighborhood.

In a perfect world, I might agree.  But you are asking that we prioritize a project of at least 2 greater magnitudes of effort and at least 3 greater magnitudes of time over one that in 24+ hours has generated a really awesome set of sample questions and reached it's goal of 60+ followers as defined by StackExchange to move to the next level.  

Clearly there is interest and demand in the StackExchange method that requires a lot less effort and results in much more instant gratification.

On Jun 2, 2010, at 2:27 PM, eric at eamann.com wrote:
> What I'm trying to say, though, is that there's a need for both.  

+1

On Jun 2, 2010, at 2:41 PM, Michael E. Hancock wrote:
> If nothing else, it can be another outlet for those who feel disenfranchised, disgruntled, and neglected.

+1

On Jun 2, 2010, at 2:41 PM, Otto wrote:
> I will certainly not be participating on StackExchange, mainly because
> I still can't actually figure out how the stupid site actually works.
> It seems to reward ignorance as best I can tell, because I'm seeing
> tons of blatantly incorrect answers being very highly rated (I think
> that's what the numbers mean, anyway.. it's so difficult to tell).

Are you referring to StackExchange or the new WordPress Answers exchange?  If the latter then it's not about answers yet, it's about what are appropriate questions and giving bad questions are an important of the StackExchange process.  If the former, well I seem to remember you often have a unique view of what is correct or incorrect on certain points (just sayin...)  

If WordPress Answers does take off (as it seems it will) maybe it could have better answers if you did contribute.

> There's tons of spam, and frankly I find the whole thing confusing and
> more than a little annoying. How does anybody get anything done there?

If you can figure out WP core as well as you have for I feel confident you'll make it over the learning curve of StackExchange. :)

>> What I'm trying to say, though, is that there's a need for both.  We need a
>> question/answer site and we need a community forum.  Trying to fill both needs
>> with one solution is a flawed strategy from the get-go, and you'll always end up
>> with people in both camps claiming the others' efforts are misguided.
> 
> I disagree with that completely. You can do both in one place. There's
> no reason that the forums can't accomplish the goal. The fact that
> they don't currently accomplish that goal proves nothing more than
> they need to change.

No matter your opinion, it's academic at this point.  It has inertia and we'll see if it works or if it doesn't.

On Jun 2, 2010, at 1:44 PM, Jane Wells wrote:
> 
> If you really consider it a fork of .org support, then discussion of it should really not be on the .org list, but start its own infrastructure, no?

This is probably the most obvious place to discuss it, at least initially. This is where some of the people who care the most about WordPress are.

On Jun 2, 2010, at 7:19 PM, Eric Mann wrote:
> As an open-source project, it's the community that defines what "official"
> represents.  We're in a situation where a large portion of users (not
> necessarily a majority) feel current "official" channels are not serving
> their intended purposes.  
>  ...
> But my biggest issue lies in the knee-jerk dismissal of this idea as a
> "fork" that doesn't have a place among "official support channels."  We are
> a community working on a common project ... we define what is official and
> we define the direction of the software and it's support systems.  
> ....
>  But don't suggest that we're doing so because it's an "unofficial"
> project that's competing with other so-called "official support channels."
> All that does is insult the "unofficial" developers.

Well said.

On Jun 2, 2010, at 2:52 PM, Jane Wells wrote:
> On 6/2/10 11:41 AM, Michael E. Hancock wrote:
>> Many people have yelled for years that the wp-hackers list is too noisy.
> It is. It's supposed to be focused on code: core, plugins, themes, etc. Let's get it back to that. Discuss trac tickets, brainstorm better plugins, whatever. For people who want to help us improve the wordpress.org forums, please leave your suggestions and ideas on this thread: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/405965. One suggestion might be to have a developer-specific forum for technical questions. For people pursuing the stack overflow 'fork' idea rather than contributing to the efforts to improve official support channels, please take the discussion off-list to reduce noise on this list. Thanks.

The irony is that a WordPress exchange would relieve the pressure off of wp-hackers for answers and allow it to get back to what the core people want it to be.  Funny that nobody has mentioned that yet.

> 

Anyway, given that you, Otto and a few others here on the list are disinterested in the exchange I see no reason (at least for me) to continue discussing it here.  It does not seem like it needs any more advocacy at this point. 

So nothing more from me on the issue of WordPress Answers exchange on the wp-hackers list.  

-Mike