stackoverflow.com question: why does LQ exist?
 

http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questi...ething-from-it

I read that post and felt compelled to register there and drop an answer with my view on exactly that: "why does LQ still exist?" (hey don't laugh about the question, though I know it's funny :p).

I know this site from long years, but just recently have started to be more active. I really like here and, well, I know a good take on such a dumb post would've been dismissing it. But it striked me as showing a great contrast between the two sites. What do you think?

LQ has a better sense of community: especially so within the distro specific sub-forums where regulars hang out and everyone tends to know each other. SO is a very different sort of site, it has a cold and clinical feel and really doesn't appeal to me.

But, yes, it's a very silly question - I don't think I would have gone to the effort of registering just to respond to that. ;)

It seems like an altogether waste of time even to "discuss" it. :hattip: Variety is the spice of life.

Whether you are talking about web-sites or underpants, "one size" does not "fit all." Every site that devotes itself to the noble purpose of "helping people who have questions to find answers to those questions without wasting their time" ... and both sites unquestionably fit that description ... has a common purpose. Each site is going to pursue that common goal in some different way, and each is going to accumulate its own audience, "fans," and critics. The beauty of it is, the various endeavors are not mutually-exclusive; they're not even competing. People show up with questions ... wherever they decide to show up with their questions ... and whoever hangs-out there tries to help them. Period. Over time, each site becomes a valuable web resource full of answers.

Multiple sites. Common purpose. Questions answered. Life is good.

First of all thanks for replying: it's always good to voice your opinion. Second thanks for bringing the question to our attention. While LQ has been here for quite a long time it is important for us to be constantly reminded of our place in the Linux ecology, of the things we do well and more importantly of the ways in which we can improve. (Personally the first thing I noticed, having moderated some fora before I got here, is the friendly, cooperative atmosphere. I'm happy to say that I can still feel that "vibe" that made me decide to stay a decade ago.)

* BTW I've requested this thread to be moved to LQSF as I think this is an important issue to us all.

Heh.

My response would be a simple, "Who is stack overflow?" Never heard of them before, never seen them pop up in a web search, never seen anyone link to them.

LQ has been a resource for me since I started with Linux.

I too treasure LQ's welcoming atmosphere and gentle handling of persons new to Linux, as well as its sense of community.

Great answer, juako. I just upvoted it.

Everyone else: go upvote Juako's answer.

SO is basically a great resource for certain highly technical programming questions. I've found quite a few excellent answers there. And answers are easier to read because of the format of the site.

LQ.org is a community forum site. Yes, you can get excellent answers here too, but because of the nature of forum threads, sometimes a great answer is buried deep in a thread (page 22 or 23) and you cannot easily find it if there is a long discussing preceding it. On SO, the best answer gets voted up and naturally it's easier to find. It's not always perfect, but they work differently.

It's comparing apples to oranges as somebody else previously mentioned.

Because some people need it.

Stackexchange has strictly Q/A format, which is great when you know what exactly you're looking for, but not so great when you don't know what you need. Its aim is fast response to the question, there's no "personal" communication, plus reputation system rewards wrong people. I saw at least one stackoverflow user that was, let's say, an idiot, but had 30k reputation (that's moderator privilegies) because he had a lot of free time and was bombarding many questions with replies. The site rewards providing many trivial questions/answers, which is not good in the long run. I would prefer a system that rewards knowledge.

LQ has bunch of people that can talk to each other. It means you'll get slower reply but will learn more in the process. Communication is more personal, and as a side effect it sometimes may get more heated. Also, on LQ reputation system doesn't get abused as much as on stackexchange, so you're more likely to get useful reply instead of fast reply. As far as I know, it is one of the best places if you're starting to use linux. Slackware forums were particularly good, though I hadn't used them for quite some time.

Also, stackexchange is hit or miss. SO has more of powerful programmers than LQ, but it doesn't work well for other sites. Certain stackexchange forum for language (human language) was particularly horrible.

This. Really, my intent was to highlight the mindset behind that question, and offer a view on basically it being moot. Noy honoring a siteA vs siteB type flamewar. The two sites are truly different.. they're both tech oriented, and they both devote to answer questions, after that they're really apples and oranges, hence my answer was mainly a list of differences I recognize. Of course, I had to mention the different "feeling" of each site, that is easily recognizable as some have mentioned here, and the factors that make for that perceived atmoshpere (biosphere? forumoshpere?) are easily tractable too, IMO.

Oh, I took that for granted, Juako. :hattip: There is no "flame war" here, and no need for one. I think that several very-valid points have been brought out in this thread about how the two sites take different approaches to the same objective, and also how each approach benefits from its respective differences, one with the other. This isn't a Harry Potter situation in which "neither can live while the other survives." I've obtained "good answers, fast" from both sources. I participate (thousands of posts) in only one of the two. But, don't read into that.

The problem is that I don't have enough reputation to upvote anything there:(

You know I've never heard of StackExchange. From just a simple scan of the site, it looks more complicated. I guess I'm just used to the standard forum interface.

You didn't know about Jeremy's StackExchange site?

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ge-org-801793/

EDIT:

I just contributed an answer to the SO thread:

http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questi.../112249#112249

If that's not funny, I don't know what is ;)

Oh, so linuxexchange is part of stackexchange. Ok, then I did know.