285

Thank you for your confidence in our abilities! But have you looked at the Stack Overflow Help Center?

Even though we get a lot of IT/network/computer/technical questions here, Stack Overflow is meant to be first and foremost a programmer's resource.

Other avenues more focused to your topic can give you a much better answer than a munching bunch of programmers. It's also likely that your non-programming question may be downvoted, closed, and in some cases marked "offensive."

It's not that we hate you, it's just that we're programmers and we like to keep our corn pops separate from our cocoa puffs.

In that vein, where can you turn to? What forums can people go to to ask the questions that are off topic here?

Return to FAQ index

17

Visit our List of All Stack Exchange Sites. Here, you will find every site that exists on the Stack Exchange network along with a short description of each one and some stats.

Warning: While some of the site names may appear to be self-explanatory, you should always read the help center to find out what questions are considered on- and off-topic for that site. Never dive in and expect your question to be answered.

8

If you don't have the energy to go through the contents of every help centre on Stack Exchange sites to determine where to post your question, try Quora.

Pros:

  • No off-topic rules. Anything could be asked.
  • Good for opinion-based discussions and general suggestions.
  • Rarely are questions closed, unless they're blatant trolls.
  • Registration as well as real name is required to post both questions and answers. Considering the responsibility people generally associate with their real identity, this adds credibility to the answers.

Cons:

  • Pure technical questions might not get answered quickly
  • Lengthy registration process required prior to viewing content, nevermind asking or answering any questions
  • Difficult to tag your question in a way that it will be seen by those who can answer it
  • Primarily opinion and personal experience based, rather than objectively provable solutions
  • Due to registration requirements little of the content is searchable via popular search engines
  • Content is under a variety of licenses, and there's no easy way to point others to content without also forcing them through a registration process
  • 13
    Consider adding your first "pro" as a "con". – Cody Gray Aug 25 '14 at 7:47
  • 1
    I personally find that Quora sends quite a bit of spam, so I advise you add them to your spam blacklist.. – AStopher Aug 31 '14 at 10:11
  • @zyboxinternational you could control what mails they send you you know. – Lucia Sep 1 '14 at 9:43

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