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I had asked these two questions

  1. Roadmap for switching from a Developer to a Project Manager
  2. What can developer do when he bored of his job?

but both of them are closed for the same reason. So if I want to ask this kind of question again, where can I ask?

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    I'm sad to say that type of questions are not welcome here. I would really want that site owner change their mind about the direction that P.SE took; Quora is more suitable for them I guess. Some very high profiles are answering questions about programmers (and not programming as it is here), including Kent Beck.
    – user2567
    Aug 25, 2011 at 6:05
  • I'll need to read the questions again, but at first glance neither question seems to be uniquely about software development. I'll try to review them later and come back with an answer.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Aug 25, 2011 at 7:44
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    @Pierre - questions about programmers are welcome here. It's just that they have to be uniquely about programmers.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Aug 25, 2011 at 7:48
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    @ChrisF: they are, it's specified in the title.
    – user2567
    Aug 25, 2011 at 10:01
  • @Pierre - maybe I misunderstood your comment, but I took it to mean that you thought they weren't.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Aug 25, 2011 at 10:06
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    @ChrisF: no I think they are because it's not the same to move from developer to manager than accountant from manager or being bored as a accountant can be very different than being bored as a developer. That's why I personally think we shouldn't close those questions, but now my attitude is to stop complaining about the rules set and continue to participate respecting them.
    – user2567
    Aug 25, 2011 at 11:07
  • I feel that by looking at just the title of the first question, that it could become an on-topic question if the OP shows the asker's effort in directing the Q&A. What it is unique about programmers is that (1) programmers are very familiar with their own trade and have extensive working relationships with project managers, (2) programmers will know their skillset and also have a good understanding of the skillset that is required of project managers. I'm inclined to think that the first question was closed because the OP was too short and did not show enough effort for such a deep question.
    – rwong
    Aug 26, 2011 at 6:34

2 Answers 2

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It's important to realize that Programmers is not a general career advice site, and a question isn't automatically on-topic merely because a programmer asked it.

Stack Exchange works because each site caters to a specific group of experts: on Gaming.SE, it's gamers. On Server Fault, it's sysadmins. On Cooking.SE, it's cooks. The value in asking a question on that site is that you'll be getting the expertise of the target audience.

But this is not a one-way proposition, it's a social contract. The reason there are a set of experts there at all is because an SE site doesn't allow every question to be on-topic: the only questions that are on-topic are the ones that are actually benefited by getting answers from the expert audience, in fact the questions that could only be answered by the expert audience.

There are tons and tons and tons and tons of questions that a programmer might face in their career that happen in every other career too. They don't require a programmer to answer them, and programmers aren't in a special position to answer them better than anyone else.

In many cases, a programmer is in a worse position to answer them than the appropriate expert, and when you ask a question, the answers you receive aren't actually expert answers, they're just opinions or guesses. And that's when SE starts to lose its value: if any answer will do, regardless of whether the person answering is qualified to answer it, there are a host of other sites on the internet for that. I'd suggest Yahoo! Answers, but Quora will do too.

But if you're looking for expert answers from programmers, your question should have the proper scope:

If it can be applied to anyone, regardless of profession (what to do when you're bored), it's not on-topic here. If it's not about the business of being a programmer (how do I get into project management), it's not on-topic here.

Where would those questions be on-topic?

  • For the question about how to get into project management, you might want to check with our sister-site, Project Management.SE. However, being a general question, I wouldn't be surprised if it's already been asked and answered there.

  • For the question about what to do when you're bored: I'm not sure you're going to find anywhere on the Stack Exchange network, or any proposal for a SE site, where such a question would be welcome. There is no expert answer on what to do when you're bored: perhaps the only advice that's even useful is to find something to do that's interesting.

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  • +1 thanks for your perfect explanation
    – Amir Ismail
    Aug 28, 2011 at 10:35
  • What to do when bored sounds like something a psychologist would have expertise about and could answer? I think there's a cognitive sciences proposal somewhere.
    – AnnanFay
    Dec 20, 2011 at 22:59
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This is still Area 51, but it has general questions about the workplace, just what you wanted.

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