[wp-hackers] StackOverflow for WordPress

[Mike Schinkel]

On May 10, 2010, at 3:34 AM, Scot Hacker wrote:
>> Turns out they require a significant number of people to sign on for supporting a proposed topic in order for them to be willing to launch a site([3]: Find the heading "The New Stack Exchange Site Creation Process.") I'm hoping others here agree that Stack Overflow has been useful and would like to see one for WordPress too.
> 
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/wordpress
> 
> 1,853 questions. So maybe I'm not understanding your question correctly, but WP is already very well served on StackOverflow. What more do you want to see? Why would they approve a StackExchange site for WP when it's already well covered by SO? Isn't SE for NON-programming sites that aren't already covered on SO?
> 
> I think the idea of StackExchange is explicitly for non-programming topics, like photography, or advanced mathematics, or law...

So here's what Robert Cartaino from StackExchange replied to me in email, copied with permission:

> I read through your meta.SE proposal and it looks like you have a lot of support for your idea. Ideas presented in meta.SE aren't official site proposals (the topic proposal site should start going online in the next few weeks). They're more of a dry run to see if there is any interest in the subject... which it appears there is. 
> 
> I'm not sure I agree that WordPress issues are well covered in Super User. But that is just my personal opinion. Super User has a moratorium against web apps, so there's that restriction. Also, the trilogy is also considering another site (or two) to fill the hole left by the narrowing of Super User's focus. I don't know, yet, what that site will be.
> 
> I'm also not sure how SE 2.0 sites that propose a niche focus on topics that already have coverage on a broader site will be handled. People who propose, say, an SQL site, when there is Stack Overflow. Or, in your case, a Wordpress-specific site that may be, at least partially, covered by other sites. I'll have to get those questions answered before I can reach out to something like wp-hackers and offer specific direction or advice.


On May 10, 2010, at 6:38 PM, Mark E wrote:
> Hey guys, THIS list is for WP hackers - e.g. not for people who want to
> further fragment...

Yes, I agree fragmentation is a concern. I guess my bigger concern is that the current forums available, while fragmented, do a collectively poor job of surfacing answers to common questions without people having to constantly ask them again and finding the right people to answer them.  To me solving the latter would be worth more of the former.

> ...then reconsolidate the WP community to their own advantage.

Since StackExchange didn't approach WordPress but instead I proposed it I can't see that that criticism fairly applies to SE.  And I have no idea how it can benefit me any more than anyone else who needs good and quick answers to WP-related questions.  Are you seeing something nefarious I'm not?

> That said, WTH does StackExchchange have to do with hacking
> WP ?????????????  Nothing.

That's your opinion and you are entitled to it. My opinion is that the questions that get asked repeatedly on wp-hackers and on wordpress.org could be answered on a WordPress StackExchange and the good answers would bubble up to the top for easy google-picking so that people wouldn't have to bother people with repeated questions nor would they need to dig so hard for answers.  And the bonus is it could serve more than just hackers; it could help designers, hosters, and users too.

That said, if you can suggest of a more appropriate venue than this list to ask about interest in a WordPress StackExchange I'll gladly take the question elsewhere and apologize for listing it here.  

On May 10, 2010, at 7:37 PM, John O'Nolan wrote:
> Let the storm begin.

Nah. :-)

-Mike