
Freely available programming books - ralphchurch
http://stackoverflow.com/a/392926/127880
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eduardordm
"This question exists because it has historical significance, but it is not
considered a good, on-topic question for this site"

This is sad.

We need to set stack exchange free. The community failed in creating a free
and open environment for asking and answering questions: A place where
information may be categorized but never restricted even if it's bad. To be
bad it must exist first, if you restrict the existence of crap, it won't be
crap anymore, because it won't exist.

Stack exchange is a walled garden run by members blindly following a doctrine
put in place to increase revenue in the first place.

~~~
robomartin
I agree with many of your points. Some of the StackExchange sites have
degenerated into being virtually unusable unless you align yourself with the
small group of people who viciously down-vote and close otherwise useful and
relevant questions. The idea is/was great, but in some corners it seems to be
starting to derail.

~~~
dinkumthinkum
Yes, you have to agree with the groupthink or you are basically an outcast.
That said, I think it is still very useful.

I mean on some level I think it's sort of stupid. The original idea always
centered around SO being a blog for programmers that don't really blog; at
least that was what was constantly talked about. However, any question or
answer that contains any semblance of personality is struck down or edited to
an extreme. It's really anal retention run amok. But it's still useful. :)

~~~
finnw
> _The original idea always centered around SO being a blog for programmers
> that don't really blog; at least that was what was constantly talked about._

I used to listen to the early podcasts and I never got this impression. As far
as I can tell SO has always been run much the same way - aimed at getting the
top google hit for direct questions like "how do I make my button
transparent." For the most part they are succeeding. Questions like "list of
freely available programming books" have always been outliers.

Now that they are not allowed at all, maybe the old ones should be hidden
instead of being shown as "locked."

StackExchange is an SEO company, not your blog hosting company. Just because
you find a topic interesting does not mean it is their job to host your
discussion/poll/list-of-lists etc. for it.

~~~
dinkumthinkum
No, go back and listen. The blog thing was always there. It was a part of
Atwoods general opinion that people are better off if they are totally in the
public.

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tspike
Many of the best questions on Stack Overflow end up "closed as not
constructive." I get that it keeps the site on-topic, but it's a shame when a
really productive and amazing discussion gets shut down arbitrarily.

~~~
HoLyVieR
The problem is that the Q&A format is a very bad to ask for list of things. A
"wiki" would be a much better format to have list of things that everyone can
contribute to. Q&A is also a very bad format for discussion. Traditional
forum, Reddit or Quora are much better choice for discussion. It's a simple
mater of using the best tools for the best job.

~~~
derefr
It occurs to me--I don't think there's any real "social site" focused on
making lists. The closest things we have are social bookmarking tools--but
those have a ranking algorithm that highly weights _novelty_ , causing the
front page to resemble a stream of ephemeral content mixed with periodic
reposts of evergreen content.

\---

How could we improve on this?

[Anyone who wants to do the following is welcome to; I've too many startups on
the go already.]

Imagine something like Reddit--with each list being a "subreddit"--but:

A. there's no time-weighting in the front-page algorithm (though there is a
"new" page); and

B. there are robust mechanisms in place for preventing duplicate entries from
being created, and merging duplicates (along with their votes and comments)
into the canonical versions.

Additionally, since the lists created will be far more static, you might want
to give people greater influence over the ranking system--using
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_voting_systems>, for example.

~~~
lists
Letter grades from A - F would be a good idea. Their meaning and use has been
ingrained since childhood.

~~~
honzzz
> Letter grades from A - F would be a good idea. Their meaning and use has
> been ingrained since childhood.

In many countries A - F grading system is not commonly used. For example in
the country where I was born they use 1 - 5 grading system and A - F means
nothing. I think rating with stars is much more widespread and would be wiser
choice for any project with global ambitions.

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George_ns
Nice work ralph

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xijuan
Nice! Thanks for sharing!

