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Professional coding
Launched: Software Development
I realise that there is already a site which has a stunning amount of material, it would be difficult for anyone to seriously compete with that site. However I (and quite a few others) have decided we don't want to post or answer on that site for reasons I think everyone understands.
This has put me in a bit of a difficult position as I would like to contribute somewhere. Theres no serious competitor (imo) to the other site, and from a workflow perspective not being able to post anywhere at all isn't great for me (even if no one answers a question its still worth writing).
I would like to propose that we add a coding site and see what happens.
I don't think we would be canonical in the same way as the other site, but that doesn't mean there wouldn't be a community.
1 answer
(Moving this here from another proposal; I forgot about this one and it fits better here.)
Discussion here and elsewhere led me to ask How should we approach a programming site or sites?. It currently has 21 upvotes and several answers, which I'll take as interest.
There's a lot of discussion there of one site versus several. Here is what I wrote in a recent answer there (click through for the full answer):
Create a single Software Development site, planning from the start for spinoffs. Here's how I see that working:
First, I said "software development", not "programming", because we're not an SO clone and don't need to do exactly what they did (as pointed out here). I'm proposing a broad scope -- code questions, software design, architecture, process, tools, the works. In time that will get large and subcommunities with more-specific interests (like web development or C++ or machine learning) might feel lost in the larger community. That's an issue at SO, and "afterthought" specialized sites face challenges because their topics are also still on-topic on SO. We need a better strategy for subcommunities that want to get a place of their own. But it doesn't seem like there's a lot of interest in creating a bunch of small, specialized sites from the beginning and running the risk of falling below critical mass.
[... mechanics of how we could plan for spinoffs from the start ...]
This approach lets us start with one general site while supporting specialized communities as they emerge. I don't think any of us can accurately say what specialized programming communities will exist in a year, so let's focus on a framework that lets them develop naturally while also having a home for the many other questions that aren't specific to a tech stack or language.
1 comment
A single Software Development site is a great proposal that will allow to get past some annoying limitations of SO. One example I have stumbled quite a lot is having questions about software architecture decisions which often received the "primarily opinioned based" stigma. By allowing all "tightly-coupled" programming topics in a single site we get both a site with quite a few active members from the beginning and also not be unfriendly to important programming aspects such a architecture.
19 comments
Is there a reason, why you limit it to "professional"? Does that mean level of experience (as opposed to Beginners) or purpose (as opposed to Hobby Coding)? — luap42 😷 11 months ago
Also, what do you think about a having a technology-specific (for example Python-centric) coding site (or multiple later) as opposed to one big site for all techs? — luap42 😷 11 months ago
TopAnswers is doing some of this, but that doesn't mean we can't explore different approaches. How much of the content would be specific to particular languages versus general? That other site is humongous and I think that impedes forming a community there, so I wonder if several smaller sites would work better. On the other hand, if what you have in mind is more about software engineering than about specific code, those topics transcend language/library/stack and should be together. — Monica Cellio 11 months ago
Related: https://meta.codidact.com/questions/74893 — Monica Cellio 11 months ago
@lupa42 re professional vs hobby, no I don't think there needs to be a distinction, professional is just the problem I personally have. — staticvoid 11 months ago