Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit answers or opinions on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
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Open letter to students with homework problems
It is September once again (today is the 8755th day of September), and once again students are asking their homework problems on Stack Overflow and SoftwareEngineering.SE.
We start seeing questions ...
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I'm resigning as a moderator from all Stack Exchange sites
I'm resigning as a moderator from all Stack Exchange sites, effective today.
I didn't make this decision lightly, frivolously or suddenly. A persistent pattern of corporate missteps, and a ...
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What's the difference between Programmers and Stack Overflow? [duplicate]
What's the difference between Programmers and Stack Overflow?
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It's official! Programmers is now Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Awww yeah. WOoooooooOOOOoooOOOOOoooT! PARTY TIME. Check out that domain name and logo!
Thanks Stack Exchange :-)
If you see any problems anywhere, please leave an answer to this question so we can ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Are you still confused about what Programmers (now called Software Engineering) is for?
I'm going to try and keep this short, because a lot of it has already been discussed. If you are interested in the history, you can find it here on Programmers Meta, but here's a very brief recap:
...
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How do I explain ${something} to ${someone}?
One of the not infrequently asked questions that shows up on Software Engineering.SE is along the lines of:
I am trying to explain the differences between a NoSQL database and a relational database ...
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Site Design, round 2 [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
New Design Launched
First, I want to thank you for your valuable feedback for the first design concept. Programmers.SE is a site about people and conceptual design more than ...
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Follow-Up 2: New Site Name and Scope Proposals
After a discussion today (July 22nd) with Ana and Shog9, we've made some more progress toward a new site name and scope. You can check out the transcript for the full details, but we talked about the ...
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Where to start?
Often the question shows up of something along the lines of:
I'm trying to learn language XYZ. Where should I start?
or
I'm trying to do ${very large project}. Where should I start?
Why are ...
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Renaming the site to match its FAQ or changing the FAQ to match the site name?
This site is called programmers.stackexchange, while the FAQ states that this site is about "conceptual questions about software development".
Since a large number of people never read the FAQ, or ...
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What is this "Software Engineering" site you speak of, and what kinds of questions can I ask there?
Programmers has changed its name.
Why has this name change occurred?
Has anything else changed?
What kinds of questions will I be able to ask, now that the name has changed?
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Congratulations, Anna Lear!
Good news, everyone!
Everyone's favorite Programmers mod, Anna Lear, has joined the Stack Exchange Team as a Community Manager, where she'll be working her magic across the network.
Anna's been an ...
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Are you guys turning P.SE into a 404 black hole?
I have been hitting quite a few 404's on P.SE lately. I was wondering how great the idea of perma deleting questions that have been around a long time and indexed and linked to (not spam or such) ...
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Moderators: stop deleting benign comments!
OK, I'm going to escalate this to a formal complaint. The active deletion of comments that are not harmful to the site has to stop.
Under this answer, there was a brief but meaningful dialog in the ...
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On the troubles of naming and terminology
Difficulty with naming has a bit of a history with programming.
There are two hard problems in computer science: caching, naming, and off by one errors.
It has been repeatedly revisited on meta ...
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Why is "Is it possible to..." a poorly worded question?
A lot of questions try to cast a net into sea of possible designs with the wording "is it possible to...".
These questions often get closed for one reason or another. What steps should I take to try ...
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Do we have any responsibility to take any action if someone says they're thinking about suicide in their post?
There's a post that was closed as off-topic, which it is. It's a rant, one that definitely doesn't fit within the scope of our site.
The author of the post mentions he's contemplating suicide. Is ...
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What is the history behind the site scope change from NPR to "conceptual questions about software development"?
How did the topic of this site to change from "Not-Programming-Related" to "conceptual questions about software development"?
I've tried looking through meta questions to find where the change in ...
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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,...
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I'm not a software engineer, right?
So programmers.se is going to become software-engineering.se? This means I still can't ask the burning questions about proper potted plants for programmers....
AND THAT IS OK BY ME
But, I do have ...
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The Six Subjective Question Guidelines -- Enforcement Notice
Just a quick note here on meta to let everyone know we will be enforcing these six subjective question guidelines.
Great subjective questions...
inspire answers that explain “why” and “how”.
tend to ...
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New logo for Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Changing this site from the increasingly anachronistic "Programmers" to the more fitting "Software Engineering" has been... A long road. So far, we've discussed...
...the name ...
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Where can I have subjective discussions about programming?
I entered Softwareengineering Stack Exchange and unfortunately, it wasn't what I was looking for. I expected you would be able to talk about all kinds of programming, but the rules are much stricter ...
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On discussions and why they don't make good questions
I'll start off with the irony of this question being tagged with a discussion and point out that meta is different.
Why don't discussion questions work in Stack Exchange? What is it about the ...
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Where does my git question go?
You've got a question about git. Its not uncommon, lots of people have questions about git. But where should the question be asked?
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The number of votes required to close and reopen questions is temporarily reduced . . . for science!
This experiment is over. I will be adding an answer to show the results and suggest a plan for going forward.
For the next 30 days, closing a question will require just 3 votes. Also 3 votes will be ...
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Why are people still mass upvoting non-answers?
I'm sorry to flog a dead horse, but I'm honestly disgusted by the conduct in the Programming Tourism question.
I want to be clear about this. I would never do the kind of thing he's proposing. I'd ...
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Asking Better Questions
Jeff Atwood post new article about Asking Better Questions. Please read and help us enforce the quality of questions.
if you see a great, thoughtfully asked, well researched question, vote it up — ...
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So the site was renamed. Was it helpful?
The site was successfully renamed to SoftwareEngineering. Great. The primary goal of the name change was to make it clear what this site is about, and what is off-topic here.
I'm very positive about ...
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Can we improve our style of self-moderation for not-too-bad questions?
Over the last months and maybe years, I observed some tendency on this site of what I would call “hostile downvoting”. I see often questions which are not-too-badly written (sometimes even well-...
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Question of the Week
I think we should highlight a question each week that represents the best of what we would consider the gestalt of our site, Software Engineering. Questions that are well-written, interesting, ...
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Green fields, blue skies, and the white board - what is too broad?
I've been accused of having questions that are too blue sky-y or green fieldy and not white boardy enough.
What does this mean and why do those questions get closed?
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How can we avoid Programmers.SE from becoming the SE black sheep?
One of the topics that's come up several times on Meta.StackOverflow is the perception that Programmers.SE is a joke proposal, existing solely to help keep Stack Overflow free of all the "crappy" ...
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Programmers.SE and the Summer of Love
Programmers.SE, we need to talk.
We've had a rough couple of years, what with being originally a place to ask anything and everything and having to shape up. I get that it's annoying to still see off-...
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How do I tell my family they need to give me more free time to get hats?
As we all know, hats are a very important part of this site.
In fact, the only reason I tolerate other people on the internet is so that once a year I can spend some time earning these glorious ...
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Programmers Stack Exchange swag for top users
As a thank you for being awesome, if you are on page 1 or page 2 of …
https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/users?tab=reputation&filter=all
… we'll be sending you a little ...
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Are Career Advice questions useful to anyone except the poster? [duplicate]
https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/career-advice
https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/career-guidance
There seem to be a fair number of "should ...
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Follow-Up: New Site Name and Scope Proposals
I've been pondering these proposed changes to the site's name and scope for the past few weeks. This was, you'll recall, instigated by Ana's response to Rachel's proposal for a new name for this site.....
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answers
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Great question got deleted
The deletion mafia has struck again. We had this discussion before on Meta.SO.
Case in point: the question What do you say to people when they say that programming is not demanding? was deleted.
Can ...
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answers
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Where did Pierre 303 go? He was an all-star!
@Rachel just pointed it out this morning. Pierre 303's account is gone!
What happened to him? Was he at odds with the way Stack Exchange was being run?
He was an all-star! The departure of a user of ...
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answers
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Why would anyone accept an answer?
I'm looking at the questions proposed during the Area 51 process:
My supervisor thinks that all If statements should include else statements. Do you agree?
What are common mistakes in Software ...
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Programmers.SE Contest: The Complete Outline [closed]
Wait! Programmers.SE is having a contest!?
What have you been living under a rock?
Just kidding (maybe). Yes, Programmers is having a contest. And it's going to be awesome!
So how will this contest ...
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Why are there so many closed, on hold, and down voted questions here?
Compared to Stack Overflow, the number of questions which are down-voted, put on hold, or closed is astounding. I think it's a sign that the criteria (and possibly usefulness) of this site is poorly ...
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New SE Chat Bot feature for identifying when Programmers is mentioned on Stack Overflow
There are some very creative SE users and contributors to Code Review that have used the Stack API to build an open source SE Chat bot that is currently being used for many things.
https://github.com/...
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Are questions not directly related to programming (but might concern programmers) on-topic?
Questions like "Can you recommend some good pottery for programmers?" are an issue we need to figure out- to what extent are they allowed? I see a few variants on this:
Questions that are clearly ...
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Do we want hats? [closed]
In 2011, the Gaming Stack Exchange hosted an event called Hat Dash, where users earned "hats" for their gravatars by completing certain tasks (analogous to badges):
Certain actions would trigger the ...
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Favorite questions and answers of 2015
I think we spend a bit too much time talking about what's wrong with Programmers.SE, and who is or is not to blame for it. In particular, it's probably fair to say that some of the curmudgeons active ...
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Should we have a "not subjective enough" close reason? [closed]
To delininate what makes this site different from stackoverflow.com:
All questions here should be inherently subjective and unanswerable, and all the answers to said questions should be 100% based ...