Linked Questions

8 votes
2 answers
269 views

Reconciling "no legal advice" and "yes software licensing" [duplicate]

In this question, I had a disagreement with the original asker about whether a legal advice / software licensing question is on topic. I now think that I was wrong when I voted to close originally, ...
durron597's user avatar
  • 7,550
132 votes
10 answers
4k views

New Site Name and Scope Proposals

From Ana, a Stack Exchange Community Manager in the previous question about changing the site name: It took us a good while, but the Community Team has circled up and here's where we stand on your ...
Thomas Owens's user avatar
  • 79.3k
21 votes
29 answers
2k views

Structured Tag Cleanup Initiative Phase II

Back in 2012, we launched the Structured Tag Cleanup Initiative (STCI). It was very successful in identifying tags to create, merge, remove, and blacklist. However, it has been about 3 years since ...
46 votes
11 answers
22k views

Why was my question closed or down voted?

Help! My question was closed (or down voted). Why? And what can I do about it? Downvoted Duplicate Off topic What technology to take up next Recommend a software library, tool, book, research paper,...
124 votes
3 answers
11k views

What goes on Software Engineering (previously known as Programmers)? A guide for Stack Overflow

Moderator Note: Programmers changed its name recently to Software Engineering. This post has been updated to reflect the new scope, but it still refers to Programmers for historical reasons. Wherever ...
user avatar
22 votes
4 answers
654 views

Should we continue to accept software licensing questions?

Our current guidance regarding software licensing can be found here. The current guidance says that a general rule of thumb is that questions answerable by experts in software development are on-topic,...
Thomas Owens's user avatar
  • 79.3k
13 votes
3 answers
1k views

What types of legal questions are on-topic here?

I know legal issues are in the faq as on-topic but I could not find an existing discussion of it. Do legal questions such as the iPhone issue or non-paying customer question really have a place here? ...
16 votes
4 answers
316 views

Can the number of custom close reasons on Programmers be expanded?

Right now, we are limited to three custom "off-topic" close reasons. I wrote a fourth this morning to address a number of recent closures, but it's not possible to even turn it on without turning off ...
Thomas Owens's user avatar
  • 79.3k
12 votes
3 answers
554 views

I think it's time we just make all licensing questions off-topic

Why? Because all the remaining questions are either crap, or they get closed anyway. Crap questions Most recent questions it seems are either some sort of: Tell me how to follow this license ...
whatsisname's user avatar
  • 27.4k
15 votes
2 answers
388 views

Are software law questions off-topic here?

Most of the answers to legal questions here are prefixed with "I'm not a lawyer, but..." I'm beginning to think that including "software law" as on-topic is way too broad, and opens the door to ...
Thomas Owens's user avatar
  • 79.3k
11 votes
1 answer
215 views

Are software licensing questions on-topic for this site, or not? If not, can we make this more obvious?

The answers to this question suggests they are on topic, sometimes. However, the Help Center "on topic" page does not state this type of question is acceptable, and explicitly states that "legal ...
Ian Kemp's user avatar
  • 380
6 votes
1 answer
220 views

Why do we have a legal tag if legal questions are not welcome?

My question "Can we ship libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll with our installer?" was put on hold. The legal tag says: Questions about legal problems which may arise during software development or ...
Horst Walter's user avatar