Proposed new site for Q&A

[Wizcat]

http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/66497/pinball

It's a Stack Exchange site, so I'm hoping that any software developers will already be familiar with the format?

For everyone else, these type of sites are a good choice when you want to question experts in a particular field. It makes searching for questions that have already been answered easy, and allows feedback (upvotes) on the quality of answers that do appear.

To get the site started we need people to register their interest, post some example questions, and upvote questions that they think are relevant to the site

Post here if you're not sure what it's all about and I'll try to explain with more beterrer words

 

[Paul]

Eh???? Personally i always use the "search" facility here, since there could be 1001 questions relating to 1001 machines....

why re-invent the wheel??

I'm all for using new formats to get a message across, however register for another site and then include content again that we already have?? Seems pointless to me..

 

[Wizcat]

I'm hoping it doesn't conflict with this site really. I love this site and the community here, but Stack Exchange sites are specifically geared towards q&a, where as traditional forms are more discussion based.

So for example, as you start typing a question on that site it will pop up with similar questions that have already been answered. And you can tag your questions to specific areas of expertise, such as 'system 6' so that you can more easily find answers, or help out if you're an expert in that field

Fact is, there are dozens of discussion forums around pinball, but no q&a sites.

So if I have a question, where do I best ask it? Here? pinside? yahoo group? rec.games.pinball? Aussie Arcade?.. etc etc. All of these are discussion forums, so not well suited for q&a

Stack Exchange has a proven track record of building great q&a sites, so much so that just about every q&a site you see now is a clone of the original stackoverflow.com. A new q&a site, dedicated to pinball, would be a huge asset to the community. And this isn't my site, or their site. It's very much a community based site which is why it absolutely depends on your support to kickstart it.

 

[Nedreud]

Being a software engineer I use the original http://stackoverflow.com/ (Stack Overflow is a question and answer site for professional and enthusiast programmers. It's 100% free, no registration required) on a daily basis. It is an indispensable resource for software developers who need solutions to common but often very specific problems.

But the value in Stack Overflow however is the almost over-zealous peer-review editorial. That is, admins keep a lid on what gets asked and ensure replies stay on-topic, flag duplicates, etc., as well as all the general up/down voting by users on the quality of the answers.

Pinball being a bit more of a "social" pastime might not attract the same level of err... how shall I put it? ... retentive devotion to exactness Basically there are millions of developers who spend all day on the internet trying to out-do each other on Stack Overflow in a relentless game of nerdiness.

@Wizcat - I upvote your suggestion! I like the sample questions. I would have looked at the answers to the one about the Bally -35 MPU a year ago if it had been available! I've followed (and shared) and will think up some sample questions.

 

[Wizcat]

Thanks @Nedreud for signing up. No-one else? Didn't think this would be a hard sell really. There are no q&a sites for pinball on the internet, just a scattershot of discussion forums.

Signing up is one click if you already have a Google or Facebook account, then another click to follow the proposal.

I guess until you've used a Q&A site such as Stackoverflow it may be hard to see the value. Is that the issue here? Happy to hear feedback.