To be honest I absolutely hate the whole reputation and badge system for 
exactly the reasons you outline, but I can't deny that I do find the family of 
Stack Exchange sites extremely useful and by comparison Listservs just seem 
very archaic to me as it's all too easy for a question (and/or its answer) to 
drop through the cracks of a popular discussion. Are Listservs really the best 
way to deal with help? I would even prefer a Drupal site...   


Joseph Schulkins| Systems Librarian| University of Liverpool Library| PO Box 
123 | Liverpool L69 3DA | joseph.schulk...@liverpool.ac.uk| T 0151 794 3844 

Follow us: @LivUniLibrary Like us: LivUniLibrary Visit us: 
http://www.liv.ac.uk/library 
Special Collections & Archives blog: http://manuscriptsandmore.liv.ac.uk




-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Joshua 
Welker
Sent: 04 November 2014 14:43
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Stack Overflow

The concept of a library technology Stack Exchange site as a google-able 
repository of information sounds great. However, I do have quite a few 
reservations.

1. Stack Exchange sites seem to naturally lead to gatekeeping, snobbishness, 
and other troll behaviors. The reputation system built into those sites really 
go to a lot of folks' heads. High-ranking users seem to take pleasure in 
shutting down questions as off-topic, redundant, etc.
Argument and one-upmanship are actively promoted--"The previous answer sucks. 
Here's my better answer! " This  tends to attract certain (often
male) personalities and to repel certain (often female) personalities.
This seems very contrary to the direction the Code4Lib community has tried to 
move in the last few years of being more inclusive and inviting to women 
instead of just promoting the stereotypical "IT guy" qualities that dominate 
most IT-related discussions on the Internet. More here:

http://www.banane.com/2012/06/20/there-are-no-women-on-stackoverflow-or-ar
e-there/
http://michael.richter.name/blogs/why-i-no-longer-contribute-to-stackoverf
low

2. Having a Stack Exchange site might fragment the already quite small and 
nascent library technology community. This might be an unfounded worry, but 
it's worth consideration. A lot of Q&A takes place on this listserv, and it 
would be awkward to try to have all this information in both places. That said, 
searching StackExchange is much easier than searching a listserv.

3. I echo your concerns about vendors. Libraries have a culture of protecting 
vendors from criticism. Sure, we do lots of criticism behind closed doors, but 
nowhere that leaves an online footprint. Often, our contracts include a clause 
that we have to keep certain kinds of information private. I don't think this 
is a very positive aspect of librarian culture, but it is there.

I think a year or two ago that there was a pretty long discussion on this 
listserv about creating a Stack Exchange site.

Josh Welker


-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of 
Schulkins, Joe
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2014 8:12 AM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Stack Overflow

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.

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?

Joe

Joseph Schulkins| Systems Librarian| University of Liverpool Library| PO Box 
123 | Liverpool L69 3DA | 
joseph.schulk...@liverpool.ac.uk|<mailto:joseph.schulk...@liverpool.ac.uk|
> T 0151 794 3844

Follow us: @LivUniLibrary<https://twitter.com/LivUniLibrary> Like us:
LivUniLibrary<https://www.facebook.com/livunilibrary> Visit us:
http://www.liv.ac.uk/library Special Collections & Archives blog:
http://manuscriptsandmore.liv.ac.uk<http://manuscriptsandmore.liv.ac.uk/>

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