147 votes

New Site Name and Scope Proposals

Software Engineering. I think it's as good a site title as you're going to get. Here's why: It's not "Programmers," which smacks of people who write teh codez. Electrical Engineering's name change (...
Robert Harvey's user avatar
97 votes
Accepted

New Site Name and Scope Proposals

This answer is to summarize the requests for Stack Exchange in a single post. It is a community wiki, so if something else seems to be a consensus in this thread, feel free to add or edit it. Name ...
41 votes

New Site Name and Scope Proposals

How happy I am that this day has finally come! These are my suggestions, some similarities to Snowman's answer with certain omissions and value-adds. Site Name I favor the new site name, Software ...
maple_shaft's user avatar
  • 26.4k
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 ...
21 votes

Should we continue to accept software licensing questions?

Yes We currently have lots of great Q&A's that specifically address licensing. Questions about software licences are well within the purview of the Software Development Life-Cycle. We should ...
16 votes

New Site Name and Scope Proposals

I like maple_shaft's answer, however wanted to write my own for reducing the on-topic page's wall-of-text since it's far too long for a comment on his answer. What topics can I ask about here? ...
Rachel's user avatar
  • 24k
16 votes

Should we continue to accept software licensing questions?

No The concept of licensing questions being on-topic has a long history. When the topicality of this site was first discussed, "software law" was originally on-topic. But this definition of legal ...
16 votes

We have a scope problem with Software Engineering's tagline

Well, I am with you here, Robert, but not just for the reason you gave. The whole description is too damn long it is not surprising people read only the first half of it and forget about the second ...
Doc Brown's user avatar
  • 201k
11 votes

New Site Name and Scope Proposals

Site Name I've started to come around to the name "Software Engineering". Although I still have some lingering objections regarding the overuse of the term "engineering" in software development, I ...
Thomas Owens's user avatar
  • 79.9k
10 votes

New Site Name and Scope Proposals

I am a software engineer. I use StackOverflow to solve my daily problems. I am surprised so many are in favor of renaming to Software Engineering, as I can only see it leading to confusion. I come ...
ricksmt's user avatar
  • 163
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 ...
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 ...
9 votes

How do I ask a "Best Practices" question?

Questions that merely ask "What is the best way to do something" are not answerable. Because there are always several ways to solve a problem in computing, there is no "best" way; there is only the ...
Robert Harvey's user avatar
8 votes

What kinds of questions should I avoid asking here?

Upon skimming your headers to see if they would apply to my questions, my first instinct was to think wait some of those are actually on-topic! until I read your detailed notes. Perhaps we could ...
Rachel's user avatar
  • 24k
8 votes
Accepted

Are Turing Machine diagrams on-topic?

We have explicit guidance for design review questions. However, if you're asking about Turing Machines in the theoretical computer science sense, you may want to ask on Computer Science (check out ...
Thomas Owens's user avatar
  • 79.9k
7 votes

Should we continue to accept software licensing questions?

I tend to agree, but I think my reasoning is more focused on pragmatism. In my eyes, this isn't so much about having a "clear and concise" scope (as you note in a comment). The motivation of an SE ...
jpmc26's user avatar
  • 5,389
6 votes
Accepted

Why's this question on-topic?

There is no rule that a question cannot be on topic in two places. That being said, the question you linked was not really asking for a review of existing code but rather a design decision about how ...
enderland's user avatar
  • 12.1k
6 votes

What topics are not "part of the SDLC" but are nevertheless still on topic?

Ethics Questions Ethics questions may be on-topic, given that direct relevance to one or more SDLC activities is provided and the question falls within the scope of this community as defined in the ...
Robert Harvey's user avatar
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 Owens's user avatar
  • 79.9k
6 votes

Popular, detailed, controversial answer on a legal topic deleted. Appropriate?

First of all, the question itself would be considered off topic under current rules. It is a detailed legal question about the AGPLv3 and not about really about software engineering. The question ...
amon's user avatar
  • 133k
6 votes

Popular, detailed, controversial answer on a legal topic deleted. Appropriate?

I think that amon's answer pretty much covers it, but as the moderator who deleted it, I wanted to walk through my process. The answer was brought to the attention of the mod team by flags. At least ...
Thomas Owens's user avatar
  • 79.9k
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

New Site Name and Scope Proposals

Site Name Software Development This site is not really about Software Engineering. Naming it so would only attract legions of buzzword-mouthing, non-programmers, wannabe-managers, and unexperienced-...
ZJR's user avatar
  • 6,311

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible