A Q&A Site for the FRC!!?!

[The Doctor]

Hi all,

Has anyone ever been looking for an answer on this forum, yet failed to find it? I have a solution for you. What if we had a Q&A site for the FRC and other related competitions? StackExchange provides a helpful question and answer system, which could easily be used for finding the right info fast.

Commit if you like here:

http://area51.stackexchange.com/prop...9yO_QrtZIjryw2

[Ether]

Originally Posted by The Doctor

Has anyone ever been looking for an answer on this forum, yet failed to find it?

Very rarely, if ever.

[Hallry]

Why wouldn't you just use the official FRC Q&A?

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Hallry

Why wouldn't you just use the official FRC Q&A?

He didn't stipulate they were rules questions. He could have meant tech questions instead, or as well.

[The Doctor]

Originally Posted by Hallry

Why wouldn't you just use the official FRC Q&A?

I think the StackExchange system has a better interface and bigger community that that site

[Ether]

Originally Posted by The Doctor

I think the StackExchange system has a better interface and bigger community that that site

...but answers to rules questions at StackExchange lack authority. That was his point.

[The Doctor]

Originally Posted by Ether

...but answers to rules questions at StackExchange lack authority. That was his point.

Stack Overflow is for programming questions. The broader Stack Exchange community is for anything else.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by The Doctor

The broader Stack Exchange community is for anything else.

Answers to FRC rules questions at Stack Exchange community lack authority. That was his point.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by The Doctor

Stack Overflow is for programming questions. The broader Stack Exchange community is for anything else.

The point is, that anything besides the official FRC Q&A system has absolutely zero official value for rules questions--which means that even if you do use Stack Exchange for that, you still won't get an official answer. If that isn't clear, then it needs to be, so I'll say it as many times as I have to.

That said: There are already 3 (some would say 4) sites that would cover this sort of thing. CD is one of them (and, as noted, it's pretty rare to not be able to find the answers here). There are the official FIRST Forums, though I haven't seen those in action myself. There's a new forum, YopYip I think it's called. And occasionally I'll see a FRC technical question on LinkedIn.

For your consideration: https://xkcd.com/927/
There's a lot of truth behind that.

[The Doctor]

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/server_attention_span.png

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by The Doctor

I think the StackExchange system has a better interface and bigger community that that site

Given the choice between the most popular message board dedicated to FRC visited by hundreds of students and mentors daily, the official rules questions website, and a large community of people that isn't at all tailored to or specific for FRC... I'm going to pick the first two.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by The Doctor

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/server_attention_span.png

I'll see you and raise you one CD website programming team.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/21778

[NickTosta]

Here's the problem - StackExchange is great for Q&A but poor for discussions. So, even if we were to entirely switch to StackExchange for technical questions (rules questions stay on the official FRC Q&A), we would still need ChiefDelphi for actual discussions (strategy, competitions, etc.)

So, best-case scenario, you've created another website that people have to check instead of just going to CD for everything. There's no point.