Area 51 » Technology

218

followers

Announcements

I think this proposal is way too broad – juanformoso May 27 '10 at 14:04

I don't see a problem in the broadness of a site if your entry point is Google. You can see how most questions on SO are on C#, but that doesn't mean Haskell questions aren't answered. Broadness becomes a problem when less popular questions either don't get answered or if the questions start trailing too much in off-topic directions. I don't see this occuring on the current Triology, so I don't expect this to happen here if there's a strong community that focuses on what is important. – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 14:25

If there was a way to submit new site proposals, I'd submit "Google Apps" and "Facebook" and 90% of the questions in this site would then be off topic. – Michael Pryor May 27 '10 at 17:45

show 14 more announcements

157 Example Questions (11 closed)

active newest votes

up vote 31 down vote

added by Nifle May 28 '10 at 1:00

If it said Facebook we would overtake SO's traffic in days – Ivo Flipse May 28 '10 at 6:09

up vote 29 down vote

added by Good Person May 27 '10 at 22:22

	Provided [something] is specific, yes. If it is general (e.g. "word processing") then no. – Richard Jun 5 '10 at 8:17
	I have the feeling that the majority of questions on the site are going to be this. – cstack Jun 5 '10 at 15:12
	@Richard: If made CW, I don't see why [something] couldn't be general. – fretje Jun 6 '10 at 15:15

up vote 24 down vote

added by Gnoupi, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 31 '10 at 23:36

This is a perfect example question for this site. How to do a specific, yet obscure task in a specific website. – cstack May 27 '10 at 20:05

up vote 22 down vote

added by ChrisF May 31 '10 at 23:07

This is a good question because it is asking how to do something specific in a specific web app. – cstack Jun 5 '10 at 15:10

up vote 20 down vote

added by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 27 '10 at 14:26

I had never thought of this, but it is actually a really good question. – cstack Jun 5 '10 at 15:11

up vote 10 down vote

added by marcnicol May 27 '10 at 16:08

I would change the wording to: How do I sync Google Apps Calendar with my Outlook calendar? – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 21:50

up vote 9 down vote

added by Gelatin, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Jun 2 '10 at 23:39

Why is this off topic? – cstack Jun 6 '10 at 21:29

Because they don't know that the website supports HTML 5 video through the interface, and it is very easily done with Firefox 3.5+ – Evan Carroll Jun 7 '10 at 15:09

up vote 8 down vote

added by 3rdparty Jun 5 '10 at 23:39

This I would actually like to know. I don't think it's possible, though. – Margaret Jun 6 '10 at 2:00

It is possible, you have to use Yahoo Pipes as an intermediary: labnol.org/internet/… – 3rdparty Jun 9 '10 at 16:37

up vote 5 down vote

added by Isaac Waller May 31 '10 at 22:30

	Code in general like Notepad++? Then I say yes – Ivo Flipse Jun 1 '10 at 6:56
	Repeat. We already have "Is there a web app that does [something]?" – cstack Jun 13 '10 at 14:41

up vote 4 down vote

added by cstack May 27 '10 at 19:22

up vote 4 down vote

added by Ivo Flipse Jun 1 '10 at 12:16

Note this is for the web-version – Ivo Flipse Jun 1 '10 at 12:16

Very specific. It's the kind of question people would want to come to this site to find an answer to. – cstack Jun 5 '10 at 15:14

up vote 3 down vote

added by Ivo Flipse May 25 '10 at 7:11

up vote 3 down vote

added by Ivo Flipse May 26 '10 at 8:31

	its its its... why can't I edit here? ;-) – fretje May 27 '10 at 11:42
	@fretje - you need 1000 rep - area51.stackexchange.com/faq – ChrisF May 27 '10 at 12:02
	Or you have to be the one doing the proposion, on a side note it's copy-pasted from SU – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 14:33
	@Ivo - I assumed that @fretje was referring to the ability to edit someone else's post. – ChrisF May 27 '10 at 14:40
	Actually @ChrisF, I even had some trouble editing my own questions. If only we had a meta.area51.stackexchange.com... – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 16:06

show 1 more improvement suggestion

up vote 3 down vote

added by Good Person May 30 '10 at 6:55

up vote 3 down vote

added by Good Person May 30 '10 at 13:05

up vote 2 down vote

added by Ivo Flipse May 25 '10 at 7:38

up vote 2 down vote

added by Ivo Flipse May 26 '10 at 8:20

This is a tricky one, is the site about big public web apps (a la facebook, google maps, twitter etc), or all the little ones that are just different forms of server software. It's a fine line. – Rog May 27 '10 at 6:39

@photographr.ino: This depends on whether this requires (primarily) modding WP (StackOverflow), modding apache (ServerFault), or changing a setting (here). – Good Person May 30 '10 at 6:59

Anyone else willing to take a stance? – Ivo Flipse Jun 1 '10 at 12:15

Super user doesn't seem to be willing to take Wordpress questions, so they need a home here – Casebash Jun 2 '10 at 3:08

The admin of WordPress is not a web app, blogging with WP is a web app. – John Biddle Jun 11 '10 at 21:15

up vote 2 down vote

added by raven May 27 '10 at 18:13

	This is perhaps a borderline case, just as the silver lining between SU and SF sometimes. When does this get 'professional' webmaster stuff and when is it still a (super) user? – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 21:57
	I asked this on SU and got the answer I needed. I thought I'd suggest it here because it does concern a web app, although the solution does involve coming in through the back door. – raven May 28 '10 at 1:25

up vote 2 down vote

added by Good Person May 27 '10 at 22:28

why is this off topic? How can I control who friends me on facebook.....? – Good Person May 28 '10 at 6:22

up vote 2 down vote

added by Stefan Lasiewski Jun 4 '10 at 23:53

up vote 2 down vote

added by cstack Jun 6 '10 at 21:32

up vote 1 down vote

added by Ivo Flipse, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 31 '10 at 23:40

@Jin - please do not post answers in comments, moreover this site is only to give example of questions, not to actually get an answer :-] – Gnoupi May 27 '10 at 5:22

too much crossover with webmaster/seo site – Jeff Atwood May 27 '10 at 5:48

@Jeff - which site do you think this kind of question should be on? – Good Person May 27 '10 at 6:38

This question it too broad. If it focused on a specific content management system (e.g., "How do I filter comment spam in Wordpress?") it would be appropriate. – raven May 27 '10 at 14:24

Adam - I'd say using. But this question wouldn't get answered on SO as it's not programming (just add a plugin) nor on SU as it's about a web app. – ChrisF May 27 '10 at 15:59

show 4 more improvement suggestions

up vote 1 down vote

added by Ivo Flipse May 25 '10 at 7:10

Please, oh Please, answer this one. – Lance Roberts May 27 '10 at 16:04

@Lance - hover over the update in your news feed, click the "Hide" button to the right & then click "Hide <application_name>". – Alconja Jun 2 '10 at 4:01

@Alconja, thanks. – Lance Roberts Jun 3 '10 at 16:30

up vote 1 down vote

added by Ivo Flipse May 25 '10 at 7:56

	This would be pretty useful. – cstack May 27 '10 at 19:39
	Depending on scale, could it be more appropriate on Server Fault? – Roger Pate Jun 2 '10 at 12:35

up vote 1 down vote

added by Joel Spolsky May 25 '10 at 14:49

just wondering if this is about ALL web applications or just the famous ones. – Joel Spolsky May 25 '10 at 14:49

It should be about ALL web applications, FogBugz is just a niche of all the apps availavle ;-) – Ivo Flipse May 25 '10 at 16:05

@joel the theory is that "less popular" apps won't get responded to or asked about as much and effectively drowned out by the "winners" – Jeff Atwood May 27 '10 at 4:10

Gotta vote no on this one. It's rather broad and subjective. Is there a best way to use projects, areas, and milestones in FogBugz? I doubt it. I think the SE engine should reject any question that has the word "best" in the title. – raven May 27 '10 at 14:38

does ruby get drowned out on stackoverflow.com? – Joel Spolsky May 27 '10 at 14:38

up vote 1 down vote

added by Ciaran De Buitlear1, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 31 '10 at 23:37

to the person who voted off-topic - why? – Good Person May 27 '10 at 6:37

Probably because it's SEO related, though I can imagine someone who uses Google Analytics on his Wordpress page would also like this, without being a SEO-expert – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 13:26

SEO would be a niceeee website! – George May 28 '10 at 4:45

George, why dont you vote for the SEO proposal? – SuperG May 28 '10 at 9:10

up vote 1 down vote

added by jjnguy May 27 '10 at 3:08

Too subjective, don't you think? – Isaac Waller May 27 '10 at 3:27

Agreed – Tyler Carter May 27 '10 at 3:31

The second part is subjective - I wonder about the first part - if it should be allowed. – Good Person May 27 '10 at 12:21

An open id is a way to log into a lot of web apps, so if you can't ask where to get one on the web app site, where can you ask it? – cstack May 27 '10 at 19:59

It would be better to ask what you should consider when choosing a provider – Casebash Jun 2 '10 at 2:59

show 1 more improvement suggestion

up vote 1 down vote

added by Isaac Waller May 27 '10 at 3:29

I, personally, think this should be allowed - it's not illegal, because there are many legit uses for BitTorrent, and BitTorrent itself is not illegal. Before this site is created, I think there needs to be a decision on whether or not "usually used for illegal means, but is not illegal itself" questions are allowed. – Isaac Waller May 27 '10 at 3:31

@Issac Waller: Putting that type of question on the site gives people like us the chance to explain the ethics of such technologies to people just searching on Google. If I'm searching for a bittorrent client on Google and end up at this question, you have the opportunity to clear up for me what is illegal and what isn't. – cstack May 27 '10 at 19:55

You shouldn't banish a technology because it is often used for bad. – Good Person May 30 '10 at 18:54

up vote 1 down vote

added by Isaac Waller May 27 '10 at 3:35

Isn't that called a blog? It's an honest question; I've never used Twitter myself. – Pops May 29 '10 at 21:27

There's "longerTweet" or something, which posts the first 100 chars, then a link to the "longer tweet". Sort of how Facebook posts things to Twitter, with the link to the original facebook post. – glasnt Jun 3 '10 at 1:52

@Lord Torgamus: Twitter a cheap copy of finger. – hakre Jun 4 '10 at 18:13

up vote 1 down vote

added by Rog May 27 '10 at 4:59

up vote 1 down vote

added by Gnoupi, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 31 '10 at 23:35

This I'm not sure. It should match, in general, but this is potentially related to details we can't be sure of. The main "grey area" on this site will be the limit between what we can actually answer, and what is known only by web app providers. – Gnoupi May 27 '10 at 5:30

Maybe someone out there knows the answer. – Rog May 27 '10 at 6:37

@Gnopi - no one knows what can be answered unless they ask it ;) – Good Person May 30 '10 at 6:53

up vote 1 down vote

added by Juan A. Navarro May 27 '10 at 6:53

What's a world-editable page? Would this perhaps be relevant to people looking for a host for their blog? – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 9:28

I'm thinking about an individual document/page which any (registered?) user can collaborate and edit. – Juan A. Navarro May 27 '10 at 10:46

You mean publicly editable... – fretje May 27 '10 at 16:36

up vote 1 down vote

added by Diago May 27 '10 at 7:43

It's kinda on-topic, but extremely difficult to maintain... – fretje May 27 '10 at 8:00

I'm ambivalent about "where can I find a site for ___" questions. They can get really spammy or subjective. – Good Person May 27 '10 at 10:41

Better as a community question. – bentsai May 27 '10 at 13:11

Have you actually tried Google for this? You are lucky if you find a decent list on page 3. – Diago May 28 '10 at 19:49

@raven: "This question is so easily answered by Google." is not, ipso facto, a reason to can a question. Part of the goal here is to become the top Google result... at least, if the new SE sites are anything like SO. – Pops May 28 '10 at 21:31

show 7 more improvement suggestions

up vote 1 down vote

added by Good Person May 27 '10 at 10:44

up vote 1 down vote

added by ChrisF May 27 '10 at 11:51

up vote 1 down vote

added by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 27 '10 at 14:16

up vote 1 down vote

added by marcnicol May 27 '10 at 16:07

dupe of area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/57/… – Jeff Atwood Jun 4 '10 at 22:47

up vote 1 down vote

added by ChrisF May 27 '10 at 16:53

I'm torn over these two. The one about stopping perhaps could be answered with a simple plugin, whereas this one might be a lot more 'webmastery' – Ivo Flipse May 27 '10 at 21:47

@Ivo - I'm not sure either. Again I'm just trying to help define the boundaries. – ChrisF May 28 '10 at 11:02