22
votes
Revisiting what is on topic, with respect to new sites: Open Source, Law, and Software Recommendations
I think we should not change the scope at all.
There is no reason the sites (Law and Open Source) can't have overlapping scope with Progs. For example questions about algorithms are on topic both here ...
18
votes
Accepted
Where does my tool question go?
Question is About Finding a Development Tool For A Specific Purpose
Asking for software recommendations is on topic at Software Recommendations. However, if you decide to post the question on that ...
Community wiki
10
votes
Where can I have subjective discussions about programming?
When every answer to a question is potentially equally correct - and there could conceivably be quite a few answers, there's a pretty good chance that you've started a discussion instead of asking a ...
9
votes
Revisiting what is on topic, with respect to new sites: Open Source, Law, and Software Recommendations
No, Programmers should not make questions about open source licensing off-topic. There is a subset (that we must define in a clear way) of questions that are on-topic on both Programmers and Open ...
Community wiki
9
votes
Revisiting what is on topic, with respect to new sites: Open Source, Law, and Software Recommendations
Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Zizouz212, and I'm a moderator over at Open Source.
I might as well recap what we cover as site scope:
Anything libre/open-source/creative-commons licensing
...
8
votes
I think it's time we just make all licensing questions off-topic
First and foremost, I think the arguments presented in this former answer to a question asked by Thomas Owens from last year are still valid. So I don't think we should make all licensing questions ...
8
votes
I think it's time we just make all licensing questions off-topic
I would be very much in favour of completely dropping licensing from our scope.
While legal aspects certainly are a part of software engineering, we could only answer the most simple questions here. ...
6
votes
'Problem' and 'help' titles in off-topic questions of new users coming from Stack Overflow
Assuming that this doesn't happen frequent enough to warrant changes to the system, one approach that comes to mind is to flag these cases for moderator attention.
Flag message explaining the issue ...
6
votes
Accepted
Are questions regarding to Software performance testing off-topic?
The topic of software performance testing is on-topic - it's part of "quality assurance and testing". However, please consult our guidance on questions about where to start to avoid your question ...

Thomas OwensMod
- 76.3k
6
votes
Is it on-topic to ask for an objective list of something?
No. A list is a list and the same rules apply. We don't do lists here and we also don't do basic research that can be solved by simply reading a document page. We solve problems.

Thomas OwensMod
- 76.3k
5
votes
Revisiting what is on topic, with respect to new sites: Open Source, Law, and Software Recommendations
I'm jimsug, a mod from Law. You may remember me from the comment on the question above :)
Personally, I'm fine with migrations from Programmers, and happy to work with you to give questions that ...
5
votes
Where to ask questions about how to write a job application?
This site is intended for questions that fit within the field of software engineering, in particular software engineering concepts and design-level questions.
This site is not intended for questions ...
5
votes
Where can I see what kind of questions are or are not relevant on /programmers?
The Help Center has all the information that you need. Specifically, check out these pages:
What topics can I ask about here?
What types of questions should I avoid asking?
How do I ask a good ...

Thomas OwensMod
- 76.3k
5
votes
Accepted
Where did the "What's off-topic" list go?
The list of topics for each site should be on /help/on-topic.
Questions asking which site to ask on are on-topic for the Meta sites. If you think your question might be on-topic for XX.SE, you should ...
5
votes
Cutting down on off topic posts
FAQs and such rarely if ever work. People just don't read them.
So making the FAQ clearer isn't going to do much if anything.
What does help is ensuring that previous questions closed as off-topic ...
5
votes
Accepted
Is discussion of models for hiring, promoting, and reviewing developers on-topic discussion?
This site is about software engineering the topic, not programmers the persons.
A small subset of your questions may be on topic here, in particular regarding development processes and tooling. ...
4
votes
Cutting down on off topic posts
Per my observations, a lot of such posts come here because of misleading comments at Stack Overflow.
For an example, here are just few recent cases at SO that directly led to users posting very low ...
4
votes
Where can I have subjective discussions about programming?
The new product that the creators of Stackoverflow and the StackExchange network is Discourse. This new discourse platform might be useful for such discussions.
4
votes
Accepted
Are readability/coding conventions questions on topic?
We do have tags that cover the topics you're asking about: code-formatting code-quality coding-style, and I'd consider them to be in-scope of the site. But I'd generally have the same concern as the ...

Thomas OwensMod
- 76.3k
3
votes
Accepted
New Site Name and Scope: how to handle blatant debugging questions?
This was discussed quite thoroughly in the comments. For readers not inclined to dive into details below are key takeaways:
Currently there seem to be no need to do anything because it is expected ...
3
votes
Accepted
Is this a place to ask blockchain questions?
Questions about blockchain technology are not likely to be on topic. As an analogy, blockchains are as on topic as SQL databases.
The point is, this site is about software engineering. That means: ...
3
votes
Accepted
Is this question appropriate here?
This would not be appropriate on Programmers. Our Help Center states that questions asking for recommendations on software tools is off topic.
https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/help/on-...
maple_shaftMod
- 26.3k
3
votes
Accepted
Are Questions Asking for Help Using a Tool Off-Topic?
If a question is otherwise a good question, tool questions are likely to belong on Stack Overflow, and that site is a migration target. Potentially, Super User, Unix and Linux, Ubuntu, Mathematica, ...

Thomas OwensMod
- 76.3k
3
votes
Accepted
How is this question off-topic?
Based on the most recent guidance for "name that thing" questions, I'm going to reopen your question.
Note that the blogs are only suggestions. The per-site policies are best found on each site's ...

Thomas OwensMod
- 76.3k
3
votes
Is a question about definitions in an IEEE standard for software lifecycle processes on-topic?
It's definitely on-topic here, as long as you quote relevant sections and are clear about what's confusing to you.

Thomas OwensMod
- 76.3k
3
votes
Add a new close reason for implementation and troubleshooting questions
At first glance, this actually does not appear to be a problem (keep reading!!); I used this SEDE query to see what custom close reasons we are using for this; only 24 of these 171 questions have a ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
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on-topic-definition × 17
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close-reasons × 7
scope × 5
specific-question × 3
tags × 3
questions × 3
moderation × 3
flagging × 3
stackoverflow × 3
site-rec × 3
faq × 3
status-completed × 2
migration × 2
asking-questions × 2
licensing × 2
career × 2
feature-request × 1
bug × 1
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