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Now we have completed the trilogy. Stackoverflow, serverfault and superuser. But in some cases we might face with a problem of selecting the correct place. Specially there might be a question that can be considered as serverfault one as well as superuser one. But as the users we have a responsibility of putting the question at a right place. So are there any documented guidelines available for perform this "selection"?

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4 Answers 4

up vote 7 down vote accepted

A quick reference for where to post your question


STACKOVERFLOW Read the FAQ

  • programming
    • detailed and specific
    • of interest to at least one other programmer somewhere

SUPERUSER Read the FAQ

  • computer hardware
  • computer software
    • general computer software or hardware troubleshooting

Just for clarification, Super User is not about ....

* videogames or consoles
* websites or web services like Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress
* cellphones or mobile devices, except their computer interface 
* electronic devices or media players, except their computer interface 

SERVERFAULT Read the FAQ

  • servers
  • networks
    • questions that contain no source code

META Read the FAQ

  • A question about Stack Overflow
  • A question about Server Fault
  • A question about Super User
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@Noah: I suggest you edit to exclude web sites from SuperUser. –  John Saunders Feb 20 '10 at 3:30
    
@John, I'm willing to make the edits, but not quite sure what you mean. Websites in general, programming websites, what websites are good, etc... –  Noah Feb 20 '10 at 7:42
    

The guidelines are in the faq pages for each site. You'll find the explanation of what questions are encouraged and which ones discouraged there.

Admittedly it's not all in one place, but here are the links:

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Why is it not well DRYed and in one place? –  Pacerier Feb 27 at 16:30

But as the users we have a responsibility of putting the question at a right place.

Just make your best effort. I assume it can be moved by the Powers That Be if it's posted to the wrong forum.

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I would conclude that there is not a guideline to find the "correct site" for a question. There are guidelines on each site for questions for that site but inferring from those guidelines that a question clearly belongs in one or another site is still largely subjective. And being so, people will frequently get it wrong, both from the perspective of asking the question on the site mostly likely to yield a good answer and from the perspective of not asking the question on the site that is most likely to raise the ire of the QCP (Question Correctness Police).

I would suggest that "staff" start encouraging an algorithmic attempt to guide a questioner to the most effective choice of site much in the same way they are guided toward not asking a duplicate question. I have a hunch the process is similar. Similarly as the QCP weigh in I would ask them to qualify the reasons for their choices such than an algorithm can become even better at making suggestions automagically.

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