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Comments on Community feedback: What type of questions can I ask here?
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Community feedback: What type of questions can I ask here?
There is a new page What type of questions can I ask here? (found under Help -> Guidance.) I'll quote it as whole below, for convenience.
Please give feedback on specific items in the list that you agree or don't agree with and post a proposed change, so that the community can vote agree/disagree with your answer. This includes change of wording etc. If something is missing that you feel should be added to either on-topic or off-topic, please propose that too.
In order to label something "community consensus", we should preferably have a strong majority for/against. (Voting on this particular question here is kind of meaningless, please vote on answers.)
One item at a time please! Don't hesitate to post several answers.
What type of questions can I ask here?
Software Development Codidact is for software developers, people who like writing code. We tend to consider that the best questions include some source code, but some without might also fit.
To better understand what is on-topic and what is offtopic, please read the following sections.
On-topic
- questions about software design, software architecture, or modeling
- questions related to software design/review - what item goes where when using a certain technology stack
- questions about the software development process and project cycles specific to software engineering (requirements, design, testing, etc)
- questions about best practices as long as enough detail is provided to answer using external references or expertise consensus
- questions related to software life cycle management, including build configurations, version control, release, and deployment.
- questions dealing with how to write software documentation
- questions about SQL programming
Off-topic
- questions asking for implementing a certain feature (or homework). You should include your (partially working) trials in the post asking to explain what a certain code does.
- questions about computers or software that are not connected to software development/engineering
- questions about the system, network, or server administration
- questions about embedded systems programming (microcontroller programming, hardware description languages, RTOS questions, PLC programming). Please use Electrical Codidact instead.
- questions about which tools, frameworks, or technologies to use, unless they are directly related to development (e.g. code, schema changes documentation tools)
- asking about project management of software projects
- asking about software licensing
- questions containing errors caused by typographical errors, as it is very unlikely to be useful in the future
- questions about database administration
It is important that your question contains enough information that another person can use to help you. After writing the post, please take a couple of moments to review it.
> questions about best practices as long as enough detail is provided to answer using external references or expertise c …
4y ago
> questions about software design, software architecture, or modeling > questions related to software design/review - w …
4y ago
I propose adding, at the top of the list: > On-topic > questions about writing software, where software is understo …
4y ago
> questions about the system, network, or server administration Which system? I think it is clearer without "the": …
4y ago
> Off-topic > questions about which tools, frameworks, or technologies to use, unless they are directly related to dev …
4y ago
I propose that the following is added: > On-topic > > - questions asking for code review that follow [the site poli …
4y ago
> On-topic > > - questions about SQL programming > > ... > > Off-topic > > - questions about database admini …
4y ago
I propose that we add the following: > Off-topic > - Questions about code golf, programming puzzles and challenges. …
3y ago
> questions asking for implementing a certain feature (or homework). You should include your (partially working) trials …
4y ago
> On-topic > > - questions dealing with how to write software documentation I propose that a note about tool use is …
4y ago
I propose that the following is added as off-topic: Off-topic - Questions with artificial requirements and no prac …
4y ago
Overall feedback: > To better understand what is on-topic and what is offtopic, please read the following sections. …
4y ago
>On-topic > > - questions about best practices as long as enough detail is provided to answer using external reference …
4y ago
> questions dealing with how to write software documentation This seems overly broad. I mean this would include Mark …
4y ago
> questions about which tools, frameworks, or technologies to use, unless they are directly related to development (e.g …
4y ago
Post
Overall feedback:
To better understand what is on-topic and what is offtopic, please read the following sections.
followed by a total of 16 bullet points ... folks, no first time visitor will carefully read through 16 bullet points to get a sense of whether they are allowed to ask their question.
I think we either need to prune these lists, or provide a summary here and move the detailed rules elsewhere.
Also, the rationale behind these rules is not currently explained. I think we should change that, because in my experience, people are more willing to follow rules whose purpose they understand than rules that seem arbitrary. Giving a rationale could also help clarify the intended meaning of a rule in case of ambiguity.
Might it be better to have a separate Meta post for every rule, and link to these canonical posts from the FAQ? Then people could look at the discussion that prompted the rule.
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