
Help Arduino Stack Exchange reach beta by committing to it - Manishearth
http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/49538/arduino?referrer=JmJjh3oKMlnTwCU-axkKUA2
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mercuryrising
I hope Stack Exchange doesn't rule with an iron fist about on topic questions.

If I ask how to determine the resistor for an LED, I have a feeling they will
close it as "Not specific to Arduino, go to the general Electrical Engineering
exchange".

One of the hardest parts of learning something new is just trying to get
bearings on the type of questions to ask, and getting extremely specific with
question categorization does nothing but hurt those trying to learn.

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afandian
I think that whilst there are relevant SEs, the question will be moved the
appropriate one if the people are as helpful as stackoverflow (all I have
experience of). Which is fine, because it's in the right subject and gets the
best possible answer without duplication.

The trouble comes with knowing where to ask. Lucky stackexchange has a
searchbox that covers all sites.

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carbocation
Good idea. So far it looks weirdly unfriendly, though:

> Example Question: _How do I decide whether to use Arduino or Rasperry Pi for
> my project?_

> Top-voted Example Answer: _These two devices are so different that it's hard
> to answer that question. One is a credit card sized Linux computer, the
> other is an entry level firmware / electronics kit._

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Manishearth
The site hasn't launched yet. Those are example questions to clarify the scope
of the site. And yes, that question is a bit broad, can't do much about that.
Broad questions on the actual site will probably be closed. Not sure about
this one.

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reeses
I suspect that particular question would become a community wiki instead.
Otherwise, they'll have to swat that question down 10x/day.

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Manishearth
Nah, community wiki is no longer used for questions except in special cases.

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pow-tac
In my opinion the official arduino lacks of good features. It's 2000 style
kind of forum. Find details here:
[http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,158796.msg1189123.ht...](http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,158796.msg1189123.html#msg1189123)
Whereas SO with editing wiki features and a clean tagging mechanism leads to a
very clean Q&A knowledge base. Which implicit builds a good API documentation.

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reeses
arduino.cc is about as polished at the standard IDE. :-)

I agree that a StackExchange site for Arduino, or even "hobby embedded
electronics," which could cover the BASIC Stamp and other devices, would be a
much better aggregation of expertise and information.

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revelation
Not sure what to think about an Arduino SE. I think that needlessly narrows
the scope. It's like a Windows Server SE when the original intent was to do a
server administration SE.

Here the intent was probably around microcontrollers and embedded development.

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DuiNoob
I'm thinking it might more likely be a nice "question doesn't fit perfectly on
other sites" Stack Overflow type site: For those people the Arduino official
charter talks about, people who don't want to get pushed into being
electronics experts nor software programmers, just want to make magic with the
Arduino as a user - intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone
interested in creating interactive objects or environments, as Arduino.cc
says. I think it's needed, I hope it happens.

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Manishearth
Thanks everyone for the support. The site has reached its goal and will
probably go into private beta in <a week. :)

