

Meta: Stack Overflow on HN and /r/programming - doomrobo

Is it just me or are most SO submissions here closed or locked for one reason or another? Could this mean that there is a niche that SO is being used to fill even though the mods are specifically against it? Or are users just idiots who post to the wrong place?
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yen223
That's because SO optimizes for 'informative', while HN and /r/programming
optimizes for 'interesting'. The intersection between the two is not very big.

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zellio
While I am not a mod on SO I have been on the site for a while and have been
answering for most of that time. As such I do have edit rights on questions
general and have the ability to recommend posts for deletion.

Generally speaking mods close questions for quality reasons or because they
don't fit the format of the site. The F.A.Q. is fairly explicit about what SO
is for and while I can only speak for my self, I do my best to adhere to those
rules when closing questions.

As for locking questions, that is a bit more subjective but in most cases they
are locked because they are well known and they have been solved. Being that
there is no need for additional answers they are closed such that you don't
have the spam issue of "Thanks" posts.

I doubt that there is a systemic pattern of censorship and rather what you see
is the normal operations of a very large and famous Q.A. site with a very
specific purpose.

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doomrobo
The most common reason for closure I see is "not constructive." And yet the
links of these "not constructive" post have great answers that are then linked
to in sites like these. SO's rules are very clear and I understand their
reasoning for closing things, mostly because _It's a Q &A site_. End of story.
So could it be that the users are purposely being ignorant of the rules with
the knowledge that if it's a good, albeit potentially not constructive,
question that it will be answered? Maybe another site more suited to these
questions would be more appropriate. Just thinking out loud.

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readme
Not constructive is often the reason given when a question is subjective. SO
is not meant for subjective questions. It's specifically for problems
encountered while trying to accomplish some goal.

I've been on SO for a while and have a good amount of karma there. I think
another site couldn't replace SO for these closed questions, (there's quora,
already, anyway). There is some culture around this: you can post a
subjective, or even funny question, and get away with it for a bit, depending
on your reputation on the site/who you are etc. The community produces these
questions and answers, so merely using a different website purposed for this
case wouldn't work, since it would require the SO community to generate the
content, and you wouldn't have that.

