On Nov 4, 2014, at 9:12 AM, Schulkins, Joe wrote:
> Presumably I'm not alone in this, but I find Stack Overflow a valuable
> resource for various bits of web development and I was wondering whether
> anyone has given any thought about proposing a Library Technology site to
> Stack Exchange's Area 51 (http://area51.stackexchange.com/)? Doing a search
> of the proposals shows there was one for 'Libraries and Information Science'
> but this closed 2 years ago as it didn't reach the required levels during the
> beta phase.
Some history on the Stack Exchange site:
1. Before 'Stack Exchange 2.0', they used to let other sites pay them to host
Q&A sites. There had been a library-focused site on Unshelved:
http://www.unshelved.com/2010-7-15
2. We got *hundreds* of people from Unshelved Answers to sign up on Area 51 ...
but they wouldn't start up the site unless enough people with high enough
reputation on existing 'Stack Exchange 2.0' sites expressed interest, claiming
that they needed sufficient people with knowledge of the system. I tried
lobbying for them to count people w/ experience from Unshelved Answers, but
they wouldn't do it.
3. It took over a year for the 'Libraries' proposal to get enough support to be
accepted; by then, I assume most library folks had moved on.
4. They then named the site 'Library and Information Science', not 'Libraries'.
http://discuss.area51.stackexchange.com/q/3846/5710
After my complaining, they changed it to 'Libraries and Information
Science', but there was still a major problem:
5. As if all of the rest wasn't bad enough, we then had a bunch of non-library
people closing answers because there wasn't a single definite answer, which was
a large number of the questions on Unshelved Answers ... and most of the
'example' questions were in that category as well:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120325030045/http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/12432/libraries-information-science
> The reason I think this might be useful is that instead of individual places
> to go for help or raise questions (i.e. various mailing lists) there could be
> a 'one-stop' shop approach from which we could get help with LMSs, discovery
> layers, repository software etc. I appreciate though that certain vendors
> aren't particularly open (yes, Innovative I'm looking at you here) and might
> not like these things being discussed on an open forum.
>
> Does anybody else think this might be useful? Would such a forum be shot down
> by all the vendors legalese wrapped up in their Terms and Conditions? Or are
> you happy with the way you go about getting help?
I think that the Stack Exchange culture & policies make it a bad fit for our
community. I think that yes, there is a need for such a site, but that the
issues with immediately closing questions without a clear answer are a *huge*
problem. If questions were easily answered, we'd have done the research and
answered it outselves (most of us have LIS degrees and know how to research
things!).
You might also be able to get support from Unshelved again, and if we the
community can put together a site, have them brand it as 'Unshelved Answers'
again.
-Joe
ps. I'm currently the moderator of OpenData.StackExchange.com; I was
previously the moderator of Seasoned Advice (aka. cooking.stackexchange.com)
pps. I also objected when they changed the name of the 'databases' proposal to
'database administrators', which many of us felt narrowed the scope
dramatically ( http://meta.dba.stackexchange.com/q/1/51 ;
http://meta.dba.stackexchange.com/q/11/51 ). I don't even bother with the site
these days.
