I was just reading  regarding the appropriate place to post questions about WAMP (XAMPP in my case, but the same question):    It seems to suggest the proper place to ask my XAMPP question would be Super User. Then I was curious if my question would get more exposure on Stack Overflow, so I looked up how many questions about XAMPP are on either site. There are 63,394 questions tagged 'XAMPP' on Stack Overflow, and only 1,357 questions on Super User. So there is apparently more activity for XAMPP questions on SO, so it would appear that the appropriate place to ask a XAMPP question is not where my question would get the most exposure.  As someone looking to find a solution to a problem as quickly as possible,  I would be inclined to ask the same question in both Stack Overflow, and Super User. That doesn't seem right to have to ask in both places.  LET ME BE ABSOLUTELY CLEAR THAT I AM NOT ADVOCATING FOR ANYONE TO POST A QUESTION IN TWO PLACES. I'm saying as a matter of (possibly) self preservation, in some cases — NOT necessarily my example — it might be or seem to be more likely to yield more results, and that INEVITABLY people will choose that option. And that I believe that is a fault in the system.  Is there any established way to handle this issue?  I looked at , but I think my question differs, in that I believe Stack Overflow would not be the appropriate place for my question, but I feel like I might put it there anyways, just to get a solution faster.  I'm no expert, but it seems to me like there should be a way to take any question, and be able to select and/or change which sites the question gets posted to. That way there would only need to be one question, and one place to edit or answer it.  I do not believe my question to be a duplicate of  as this issue was a bit of a side note, and the actual question was in the next paragraph. Also, the answer does not seem to address my specific question. So this paragraph:     So my second instinct would then to be to post it into the Stack   Overflow site on the basis that I have a significantly higher chance   of my question being seen and getting a good answer. Then I notice   that there is also a 'programmers' network, and I don't even begin to   know where that fits in. I, and I am assuming most people, will   probably just post on Stack Overflow to be safe.   ...is related to my question, but:     My question is, other than the short little description blurb of each   one, is there a clear cut set of guidelines which what each network is   intended for, what kinds of questions should go to each one, and is   anything being done to encourage people to post in these newer,   smaller (more specialized?) networks as opposed to just posting in big   daddy Stack Overflow?   ...is the specific question that the answer seems to address.
631
There seems to be more than a few computer science/programming Stack Exchange networks (is that the correct term?). Stack Overflow, being the first, has by far the most users, questions, and answers.  What is the reasoning for creating the others, and are there clear guidelines for which kinds of questions should be posted? I can see a large amount of potential overflow, many cases of people not getting a good answer to their question, because the person who has the answer isn't browsing that particular network at the moment.  I understand that they were probably created for organizational purposes, but wouldn't it almost make more sense to just have them as categories under Stack Overflow, keep them separated but still connected, instead of making people have to create multiple 'account's, one for each network?  I am sure there was a very good reason to break them up, but as someone that is new to SE, it can be somewhat intimidating to decide which one to post in to ensure you get a good answer. For example, if I am a computer science student, my first instinct might to be to post in the computer science network, until I see that it literally has 1% of the users as the Stack Overflow network, which still seems to be for programming/computer science related questions.  So my second instinct would then to be to post it into the Stack&nbsp;Overflow site on the basis that I have a significantly higher chance of my question being seen and getting a good answer. Then I notice that there is also a 'programmers' network, and I don't even begin to know where that fits in. I, and I am assuming most people, will probably just post on Stack&nbsp;Overflow to be safe.  My question is, other than the short little description blurb of each one, is there a clear cut set of guidelines which what each network is intended for, what kinds of questions should go to each one, and is anything being done to encourage people to post in these newer, smaller (more specialized?) networks as opposed to just posting in big daddy Stack Overflow?  Now again, this is for computer science/programming/"why isn't this code doing what I want?" related questions, I am not saying that if I had a question about Linux or WordPress or something I would have the same confusion.
83314
First, this is about beta sites that might not even exist later, but imagine they will for the sake of this question. Taking the latest 10 questions on , I see 3 questions related to Mac OS X:    From my point of view, all 3 could also fit on , the 1st one could also be on SO, the 2nd and 3rd could also be on SU. How we will deal with this type of situation? When should we close a question as &quot;Belongs on [...]&quot;? I already see identical questions asked on 2 or 3 different sites (by the same or different users). Is there anything planned to link these questions or something like that? I mean something else than the already existing &quot;Linked&quot; feature. Something to include answers from site X in site Y or something like this.
22897
I have a coding question with two compilable options. I want to ask which is better and why. Code review, programmers, stack exchange...im not really sure? Where is this question appropriate.   It may be an opinion based question and it may not. I don't really know until I know the answer. Like I said, both ways produce the same results, but I don't know which is the better practice.   What site does this belong on?
32538
I've been a Stack Exchange contributor for a couple of years now, currently most active on . One thing that keeps coming up is questions that would appeal to audiences on two different Stack Exchange sites but there are almost no features taking advantage of these questions. On travel.SE we have crossover questions most often with  and possibly next most often with  - but it can happen with almost any SE site. Today alone we had  with  and  had . I am absolutely sure that this must happen all the time between arbitrary pairs of Stack Exchange sites but the only feature that takes advantage of it is the possibility of migrating off-topic questions which leaves the original question acting as a redirect across the two sites. I think there is a missed opportunity to build the network between sites where users of one site don't realize they could make valuable contributions to a sister site they have had so far little to do with. At the very least there could be a way to &quot;advertise&quot; a question on a second site that could be interested in it. Probably by listing it in the sidebar where there are also links to meta questions, linked questions, related questions, new blog posts, and But there could also be some kind of features that make some sort of acceptable crossposting. There could be gamification/badges added around building cross-site questions or whatever else you can think up. I think this is a great way for people to spread their expertise from their main site onto other sites, to make the network stronger and more cohesive, to bring more attention to questions that would have a divided audience between two sites. I can think only of positives and no negatives. Does anyone else have some ideas to add or think this is a bad idea for any reason?  Example crossover questions: Here are some links to some crossover questions I've been finding in the Stack Exchange network here. (This was previously posted as an answer, but more people wanted it to be part of the question.)   ▶  :   ▶  :   ▶  :   ▶  :   ▶  :   ▶  :   ▶  :   ▶  :   ▶  :   ▶  :   ▶  :   ▶  :   ▶  :
117190
I was looking for a possible duplicated question about  in , then looked using the Big G! since the integrated search didn't give me any useful result (laugs) then I found the , but in Stackoverflow! Then, I proceed to flag as off-topic, but since "It's too old to migrate" I don't have the option to do so...  So, my question is, should I leave it like that? Or the question is better in UL (also on topic, just read the question)? Any guidance to this young pada-wan is greatly appreciated.
95045
On both Meta Stack Exchange and Super User, I noticed that there are two close reasons to choose between when a question isn't about the topic of the site (Stack Exchange on Meta and computers on Super User). There is a "blatantly off-topic" reason and a "not about X within the scope defined in the help center" reason. These are the two close reasons on Meta Stack Exchange for questions that aren't about Stack Exchange:     This question does not appear to be about the software that powers the Stack Exchange network, within the scope defined in the .        Blatantly off-topic (this question has nothing to do with the software that powers the Stack Exchange network)   And these are the close reasons on Super User for questions that aren't about computers:     This question is not about computer hardware or software, within the scope defined .        Blatantly off-topic (this question has nothing to do with computer software or computer hardware)   According to , the "blatantly off-topic" reason is replaced with an "other" reason when the user gets the privilege to vote to close. But since there is already another close reason for questions that have nothing to do with the site's topic, I'm not sure it's really necessary to add a "blatantly off-topic" reason. I would find it more logical to simply remove that reason for users who don't have the privilege to vote to close.  I just flagged a question on Meta Stack Exchange about hair dryers as off-topic, and I was confused that there were two almost identical close reasons that worked for that question (and for any other question that is not about Stack Exchange). On Stack Overflow, where there is no "not about programming within the scope defined in the help center" reason (the reason for that is explained ), "blatantly off-topic" is useful for &lt;3k users so that they can flag questions that are not about programming, but I don't see the use of it on sites like Meta Stack Exchange or Super User that already have a close reason for such questions.  I guess that on Super User, there is a small difference between the two close reasons, since programming questions would fit the first close reason but not necessarily the second one, but I still don't see the need to have two very similar close reasons. And on Meta Stack Exchange, there is almost no difference between the two reasons, either a question is not about Stack Exchange and is off-topic, or it is about Stack Exchange and is either on topic or fits in a different close reason (for example questions about a specific site).  My question is why have a "blatantly off-topic" close reason on sites which already have a "not about X within the scope defined in the help center" reason? Why not just remove the "blatantly off-topic" close reason on such sites for users who have less than 3k reputation? Wouldn't it be less confusing if there was only one close reason for questions that don't have anything to do with the site's topic?
99992
The stackoverflow.com guidelines request specific questions that programmers would ask, no vague questions that would elicit discussion or debate. But as an architect a lot of my questions are just that. In a lot of cases I'm looking for other professionals opinions on a topic. An example is a question I was planning on asking today: "What are considered the best architectures for high volume data capture?" I have a need to design a system to capture a lot of small data elements and wanted to hear other opinions of the best way to do that.    Is there a Stack Exchange site to discuss those kinds of questions?
82126
For quite some time, newer users seem to ask a lot of blatantly off-topic questions here on Meta. They are mostly programming questions that should have been closed asked on Stack Overflow, along with some other questions that would fit into Super User or Server Fault, as well as a few others that have totally nothing to do with the Stack Exchange network. I'm curious as this issue seems to be specific to Meta Stack Exchange (and MSO to some extent), and the frequency varies every day. What could be the cause?
44101
I'm wondering why there is so much work to close duplicate questions.  We can see that the Stackexchange concept allows users from all around the world to find answers very efficiently.  Wouldn't it be better to have the maximum number of answers even for the same question as each one is slightly different. The more there are answers the more a user can find his one.  Are we limited in disk space or something ?  Imagine a question badly asked one day then the same well asked later that is easier to find from google, which one is supposed to be closed as duplicate ?
64825
As you may know, the amount of questions here that actually belong on Stack Overflow is huge. If I'm allowed a guess, it probably happens a few times a day.  Why are people posting in the wrong place?  Now, what are the reasons for this? What do these users think? (Do you have a guess why this is?)     "Hey, Stack Overflow is cool, but there's a meta link, now that looks even more awesome, let's click it and ask there!"   What are &ndash; from your experience &ndash; the reasons for new users posting here?  And then there's this comment exchange that makes me wonder:      What could be done to prevent it?  Now, obviously those people have skipped a few reminders:   This one here:  That one:  And this one:    My question is: Is there anything that we can do to prevent people from asking in the wrong place? I know these people need a bit more than a gentle reminder and a passive note somewhere in a sidebar.  What about Jeff's question about a . Would it be an option to apply this algorithm to meta questions?  if (post contains code) and (user is new)   show alert ("Your question probably belongs on Stack Overflow,    our Q&amp;A for professional and enthusiast programmers")   What do you think?
23317
What's the right course of action for cross-site duplicates?  There are two flavors:   A question is posted which belongs on another site and ends up already having been asked there. I can't find an example right now, but it's bound to happen soon if it hasn't already. The same question is posted in two places at the same time. Take  for example, which is a duplicate of , posted within a half hour of each other by the same user.   Possible actions:   Move it to the proper site and close it once it gets there as a duplicate. Provide a way to close it right away as a cross-site duplicate, without moving it first. Flag it and let a moderator merge them. Close it as "no longer relevant" or something else.   Additionally, flavor 2 is a bit of a special case; perhaps the question really spans both sites in terms of content and intended audience. Should multiple-postings in this case be allowed? If so, should they somehow be linked to each other? If not, how do we avoid a migration war?
43605
Over the past couple of days there have been a few questions about overlapping proposals and questions that could belong on multiple sites:        What is the best practice before / after asking a question if you think your question might be better on another site?  or  If I think my question might belong on multiple sites as per the above posts?
29912
I don't know how many of you have experienced the  principle when posting questions on SO, but I know I have on a few occasions. And then I just discard my question. So here's the question:  Should we go ahead and post the question?  Of course if it's something stupid like forgetting a semicolon, etc., I would say no... but there are several occasions, like if a data structure doesn't make sense, that at least someone would eventually benefit from the question/answers.  And if you should ask the question, how would you recommend choosing an answer for it?
7503
I feel like there's a problem with Stack Overflow, as the number of people prowling it increases.  Each question's answers are sorted by descending score and then by descending time of posting. This means that if a person sits down and answers a question in a long, thorough way, going through every nook and cranny, once they post their answer, it will already be one of about seven different ones, some of which have already been upvoted. This wouldn't be a problem if those answers were as thorough as the one this guy's posting, but they usually aren't. Some of them are downright wrong, some aren't even answers to the question asked because their poster didn't bother to read the question all the way through.  This causes a problem I like to call Stack Overflow's Fastest Gun in the West Problem. I've come to a point where I'd rather just send a short, simple, correct explanation, than to go and do some proper research, write a whole blog post about it or even make sure the code I post even compiles, just so it will be noticed, as opposed to the incorrect ones.  I'm sure I'm not the only one doing this and that it despairs many people from even trying to answer questions.  I've long ago learned to try to always raise a problem with a solution in hand, rather than just say "This is a problem, handle it," so my question, after this long tirade, is:     How do you think this can be changed? What would you change in Stack Overflow to make this problem go away without hurting the site?   I promise to vote on answers I like, even if it takes you a long while to post them. :)
7138
With the advent of the WordPress Answers Stack Exchange site, there's undoubtedly going to be overlap.  But I just want to get some advice:  I'm a developer and I kinda hate WordPress, but have to use it occasionally. My WordPress questions are usually development ones (when I have them), and most often related to 'how WordPress handles things', which are pretty obvious in straight programming terms.  But with the WordPress layer of abstraction, they become problematic.  I find that most developers that have gone near WordPress are usually also PHP/JS/CSS/MYSQL guys who dabble with WordPress and, as a result, hangout more on SO. And theres a die hard bunch who are heavy into the WP.SE site, but generally the WP site is for people trying to muddle through the day to day operation of using WordPress and its many themes/plugin etc.    As a result, if I were to ask something pretty in-depth about writing / integrating new &amp; strange features or something, I'm talking to a much smaller group of devs than I would be on SO.  So, enough of the ramble, my question:  Should I be posting heavy development questions relating to WordPress on the WP.SE site or to SO? Can I post to both, or is cross posting frowned upon in these cases still?
1700
Possible Duplicate:          I've been  for maybe a year to get answers to questions I couldn't find on my own.  I always make an attempt first to find the answer on my own.  As of this posting, I've asked 14 questions.  I only once gave an answer, and it was to a non-technical question, and only because I was really bored and had too much coffee to drink.  I wasn't intending to answer any other questions in the future, because on on my best days I'm only a mediocre programmer, and there are some real geniuses here on StackOverflow who can answer other peoples' questions faster and more accurately than I can.  It actually is my nature.  I am an Aquarian.  We are asker-listeners.  Today I discovered Meta Stack Overflow and started browsing around.  I became familiar with the concept of the "Help Vampire".  I seem to qualify.  I continued reading more posts on the topic and got the distinct impression that people who only ask, and never answer, are less than welcome here, rather despised.  So, should I just go away?  Or should I start contributing answers just to have a answer-to-question ratio of 3-to-1 (I read somewhere that's the average) even though I am less than one eighth as knowledgeable as the 10K+ guys and gals?    Or should I continue as I have begun?  I mean, doesn't a 0-questions-asked user like Jon Skeet need a Blankman?  Yin and yang, you know?
14023
This question has been asked several times in similar (yet often slightly different) ways.  The general consensus seems to be that it's best to ask multiple questions individually in multiple Question posts so that each can be addressed separately. This is as it should be...in general (and in theory!). See related posts for some context and discussion:        In practice, however, it can be more useful to ask a few similar questions if they work together to express a single fundamental concern.   I propose that there are some situations when it is best to ask several questions together, rather than in multiple posts.  For example, sometimes the question-asker finds it difficult to ask something in one question and instead asks it in two or three similar questions to "beat around the bush". This often helps the poster express their fundamental concern more clearly or thoroughly and helps the community understand what the poster is thinking, and why.   Here are a few examples of multiple questions used effectively in a single post:        In these examples, answering one of the questions almost requires answering one of the accompanying questions as well. For this reason, it's better for all if the questioner and answerer each ask and answer these related questions together. Importantly, it also makes the question a much better resource for somebody who stumbles on that that question later, or has a similar question. As pointed out in , asking a cluster of questions can help distinguish one question from a near-duplicate and avoid an incorrect flagging as a duplicate.  In other cases (such as ), it's probably best to split the questions into multiple posts, but the end result can be a highly-useful repository of knowledge that is a "one-stop-shop".   I'm not satisfied with some SX users demanding separate posts for similar questions if the questions are essentially expressing the same concern. I'm also not satisfied with the prevalence of posts with multiple, disparate questions.   My question is this:    When is it okay to post multiple questions?  How can we distinguish between multiple questions that ought to be split vs. multiple questions that work together to express a single fundamental concern?  What guidelines or standards can we give and enforce for the community?    This is different than the related posts I've seen because I'm looking for guidelines. Whereas  was asking about how the user should frame his questions in the future, I'm asking what the SX guidelines should be.