Re: rdf.stackexchange.com -- Identity problems numbers 3 and 5 - was Re: Toward easier RDF: a proposal

> On 12. Dec 2018, at 01:12, Antoine Zimmermann <antoine.zimmermann@emse.fr> wrote:
> 
> On 11/12/2018 22:50, thomas lörtsch wrote:
>>> On 11. Dec 2018, at 22:04, Antoine Zimmermann <antoine.zimmermann@emse.fr> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On 11/12/2018 15:04, thomas lörtsch wrote:
>>>>> On 10. Dec 2018, at 16:30, Antoine Zimmermann <antoine.zimmermann@emse.fr> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> But you cannot use Stack Overflow for all legitimate semantic web questions. You cannot use Open Data SE for all semantic web questions.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Consider for example the question "What are the success stories of the Semantic Web/Linked Data?" asked on 22nd August 2010 on Semantic Overflow. I'd say it is a legitimate semantic web question, but according to Stack Overflow's policy, it would probably get closed there. And it does not relate to open data, so it should be closed too on Open Data SE.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> I extracted a few questions from the late answers.semanticweb.com, that most likely would not last on SO if they were asked there:
>>>>> 
>>>>> https://www.emse.fr/~zimmermann/QA/q.html
>>>>> https://www.emse.fr/~zimmermann/QA/q2.html
>>>>> https://www.emse.fr/~zimmermann/QA/q3.html
>>>>> 
>>>>> I would like to see a place where those questions can be asked and answered and stay.
>>>> Definitely very useful questions and answers. I wonder why you are so convinced that they won’t last on stachexchange.
>>> 
>>> Not Stack Exchange, where there is no global rules, but Stack Overflow. What is allowed to be asked on Stack Exchange depends on the specific site. Rules on Stack Overflow are quite different from the rules on the Philosophy Stack Exchange site, for instance.
>>>> Clearly the semantics are an integral part of the Semantic Web and naturally there arise questions. For comparison I queried stackoverflow for "observer design pattern" and got about 500 results. I think this is a comparable kind of question.
>>> 
>>> Maybe you're right about these specific questions, but I can point to several questions on Stack Overflow that were asked when answers.semanticweb.com was active, and when users commented that the question is not very relevant/appropriate to SO, while recommending the OP to post on "answers" instead.
>>> Examples of types of questions that would be deleted on SO: "what ontology(ies) should I use to describe <X>?" or "what tool for doing <Y> on RDF data?".
>> I’m a little confused now: aren’t we talking about {semanticweb|webdata|rdf}.stackexchange.com here?
> 
> Ok. I explain. First, Henry opened a new Stack Exchange instance on Area 51. Then, observing how things happen there, he thought maybe we could use an existing SE instance, like Open Data, to gather questions related to RDF and related topics. Stack Overflow is another option, using specific tags.
> 
> What I say is that there is no *single currently existing SE forum* that can gather all the Semweb related questions. But getting the critical mass to open a new one is difficult and possibly not yet possible (hopefully my point can be proved wrong).

Thanks, now I get it. Yes, the hurdles to open a new SE seem quite high. OTOH we have yearly conferences with hundreds of participants and 20 years of history. It really should be possible to get this going and I think it could be tremendously helpful. We can launch a few more calls to action as soon as the general questions that we are discussing right now - which scope, which forum, under which name etc - are sorted out.

BTW it took me some determination yesterday to pass the initial phase: I had expected my SO credit points to be accepted by area51 but no - I had to register anew, follow the _tiny_ link to confirm my email address and keep up with caching issues on the SE end of things until I finally was able to ask questions, comment etc. However, and that wasn’t easy to see at first, signing up and confirming ones email address is indeed all it takes to participate. 

>> However as I understood some remarks there it would still seem to be unappropriate to ask question like the one below on success stories as each sub site is _not_ totally free to define what’s appropriate. A certain rene writes there: "Just FYI: the example question "What are the success stories of the Semantic Web/Linked Data?" would be considered opinion based, if not too broad and if Q/A communities govern their content correctly that question would be closed on any SE site. The three linked questions seem reasonable btw. So those might fly on web-data.se, if it goes to beta." [0]
> 
> Of course, Stack Exchange has general policy related to the kind of questions that are appropriate on any of its instances.  However, the general guidelines are loose enough to allow much more than what is appropriate for Stack Overflow (or Open Data; or whatever).

That sounds good! I think it’s definitely worth a try.

Thomas

> —AZ

Received on Wednesday, 12 December 2018 12:09:32 UTC