
Ask HN: Alternative to Stack Overflow? - MarkMc
Stackoverflow.com say that &quot;Questions asking us to recommend or find a tool, library or favorite off-site resource are off-topic for Stack Overflow as they tend to attract opinionated answers and spam.&quot;<p>So what is the best site can I use to ask for a recommended library or tool?
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iKlsR
> So what is the best site can I use to ask for a recommended library or tool?

There is a stackexchange site for this,
[http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/](http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/)

~~~
MarkMc
My impression is that Software Recommendations is mostly for end-users for
stand-alone software (eg. "Password Safe app for Mac and iOS").

But what I'm really looking for is recommendations by programmers for
libraries and tools to suit a particular programming task. For example, here
[1] is the question that was disallowed on Stack Overflow and prompted me to
look for alternative question-and-answer sites. It seems that such a question
isn't really a good fit for [2]

[1] [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23853475/is-there-a-
stand...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23853475/is-there-a-standard-
java-webapp-for-managing-user-accounts/23853522?noredirect=1#23853522)

[2]
[http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/](http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/)

~~~
iKlsR
Actually it is to an extent, if you browse around you will see many questions
asking about c++ library for this and that etc. Give it a try.

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ufmace
You know, I can't think of a really good site for this, which means that maybe
it's a good startup idea. Index by language and environment and category, and
allow users to submit descriptions of the trade-offs between specific versions
of different solutions for the same thing. Maybe vote on them or make it a
universally-editable wiki or something.

Basically, a site where I could look up, say, C# ORMs or Ruby on Rails
authorization gems and see detailed descriptions of what's available and what
the major tradeoffs and differences are between them from people who have
actually used them would be freakin' awesome.

~~~
ngoel36
[http://www.slant.co](http://www.slant.co)

~~~
ufmace
Just checked that out from the other comment, actually. Not bad for the simple
stuff, but it looks like it sticks to one-sentence pros and cons for each
solution.

Like for example, one of the top questions there right now is for what is the
best blogging platform. The answers are stuff like WordPress - Widely Used and
Ghost - Markdown support. I'd like to see something more like a detailed
description of the pros and cons of hosting a Wordpress blog vs a Ghost blog
by somebody who has actually done both.

~~~
logn
Slant.co is still the appropriate place for that. A lot of the answers are
minimal on detail but only because whoever created the answers wrote it that
way. Some of their comparisons get a lot more in depth. They have a meta
discussion site if you want to know more.

~~~
collyw
It doesn't really encourage discussion though. I prefer Quora for the
discussion, but it lacks in other areas.

~~~
StuieK
Are you referring to the comment threads on the answers?

------
KajMagnus
I was thinking about starting a site dedicated to the questions/topics that
don't suite StackOverflow. The site could have one sub domain for each
StackExchange site, e.g. `coders.open-questions.org` for StackOverflow, and
`writers.open-questions.org` for `writers.stackexchange.com`.

Is anyone interested in this? I've built a discussion system that I'm hoping
would be useful. It's a bit like a hybrid Questions/Answer system + threaded
comments. Here's an example discussion:
[http://www.debiki.com/forum/-61859/forum-software-for-the-
fu...](http://www.debiki.com/forum/-61859/forum-software-for-the-future)
(please note that the 2d layout is optional).

The forum topic list page
([http://www.debiki.com/forum/](http://www.debiki.com/forum/)) is inspired by
Discourse ([http://www.discourse.org/](http://www.discourse.org/)).

------
devnonymous
StackOverflow's reason does make sense. I've found it best to ask on a related
mailing list. By related, I mean, if looking for a tool, ask the associated OS
users language mailing list. If looking for a library, ask on the associated
programming language mailing lists.

Mailing lists tend to be better than sites for this sort of thing because
people who reply there are possibly putting in more thought into their replies
and secondly, replies _might_ lead to a discussion that'll make evident the
tradeoffs you'll make going with one choice over the other (and there will
_always_ be tradeoffs). The thing that mailing lists lack when compared to
StackOverflow is the rating mechanism and the ability to easily search/find
answers to commonly asked questions.

Edit: Saw iKlsR's answer after I typed this out. I'd assume the stackxchange
site he suggested would work better (assuming it has a large enough active
audience).

~~~
cheald
IRC channels for domain-related groups are also an excellent resource for this
kind of discovery.

~~~
devnonymous
The problem with IRC channels is, conversations there then to be time-
sensitive. So except for the most popular channels with plenty of people
active all the time, someone (in South-east Asia, for instance) will not get
the benefit of good answers from a number of people.

------
fit2rule
Communities like Stackoverflow come and go. We have a very refined tool in SO,
but the strength is always in the community.

You can find very strong developers, still, idling in IRC. I've had many a
great question/answer session with the very inventors of some languages I'm
interested in, just because they're on IRC.

Get to know the mailing-lists for the languages/programming subjects you're
interested in. Stackoverflow is a website; the Internet is composed of much
more than web sites. If you have a connection and organizing system that can
handle e-mail, beyond gmail and so, you can even build yourself a veritable
_Treasure_ -trove of details about current/modern technologies .. by lurking
on the -lists. Get your own offline archives for the tech-/topic you're
interested in, and you can then probably go and cabin-in-the-woods/off-grid
program your next major release ..

Also, do not discount the value of an evening spent exploring your local
USENET access. Seriously. USENET still lives. Your ISP may not know that,
though ..

------
ninthfrank07
[http://www.slant.co](http://www.slant.co)

------
joeblau
I don't have any good suggestion, but I feel like stack overflow is ripe for
disruption. Most people only end up at the service because it's the incumbent,
but the site has done a very poor job of transitioning from a place where you
ask questions to a place where they need to curate results.

------
ollysb
I've been over at emberjs' discourse site[1] a lot recently and I've been
really impressed. They still encourage people to use stackoverflow for problem
solving particular problems but for discussion it's a perfect complement.

[1] [http://discuss.emberjs.com/](http://discuss.emberjs.com/)

------
kull
Recently I had this idea with few friends:
[http://codepundit.com](http://codepundit.com) , we even started working on
that. On top of some sign ups we got some constructive criticism on HN and
tweeter and the work slowed down since then. What do you think ? Is it worth
finishing the project ?

------
sergiotapia
I've had a lot of fun on Quora for these types of questions.

[https://www.quora.com/What-free-hosted-continuous-
integratio...](https://www.quora.com/What-free-hosted-continuous-integration-
service-is-the-best-for-Ruby-on-Rails-4)

------
weitingliu
Try Codementor [https://www.codementor.io](https://www.codementor.io) \- I'm
the founder.

You'd get more personalized help and suggestions based on your specific
situation.

------
spb
Reddit can be useful - check out
[http://reddit.com/r/findareddit](http://reddit.com/r/findareddit) for
specific topics.

------
rat87
You can try to submit it on Stack Overflow and hope the deletionist don't
notice it.

You can look through past Stack Overflow answers when moderation was better.

