10

It seems that almost every other question on Super User is about Windows 8, some of them quite crucial, like whether it has solitaire or not. So the question is: Should Windows have a dedicated site on Stack Exchange?

There is already apple.stackexchange.com, unix.stackexchange.com there is Ask Ubuntu, but nothing for Windows. There is a dedicated site for Windows Phone but for Windows in general or Windows 8 in particular there is nothing.

(I'm asking it here and not on Area 51 because most of the interested people seem to be present here and also because any questions about it on Area 51 are closed without discussion.)

4
  • 1
    This is a site, which includes Q&A from DOS to Windows 8. And it's better to find all questions and answers here, than in new site. All pros are here too, and they'd like to open 1 page instead of 2 for Win8.
    – Searush
    Oct 29, 2012 at 12:06
  • 3
    @SEARAS I actually agree with you but there is a separate site for Ubuntu, even though there already is a site for Linux, and then there's Super User which also has question about Linux, so any Ubuntu user already needs to have not 2 but 3 sites open - and that's if he's not a programmer, in which case he needs to open: Server Fault, Stack Overflow, Programmers, Code Review, Code Golf, Computer Science, Theoretical Computer Science, Computational Science, IT Security, Cryptography, Webmasters, Web Applications - those are all separate sites. I wish there was a one site to aggregate it all.
    – rsp
    Oct 29, 2012 at 12:20
  • 1
    superuser's name comes from the linux/unix term for the system operator. That alone should make windows deserve a separate site.
    – Wyatt Ward
    Aug 2, 2014 at 3:40
  • 1
    I really don't like splitting communities like this. There is Android and Raspberry Pi moved from stackoverflow and now it's harder to find help, because not all java programmers are on Android community, and many linux experts are not using Raspberry Pi community. These communities become crowds of noobs learning Pi and Android with not many experts.
    – Kamil
    Oct 1, 2014 at 22:08

8 Answers 8

18

Version-specific sites are a bad idea because the software will be deprecated eventually, so the community would die. Assuming you didn't mean a version-specific site...

One reason there is no Windows site is because if all the Windows questions and answers left, this site would lose much of its audience.

https://superuser.com/tags shows that Windows is the top 2 tags.

Windows (or version) tagged questions make up around 32% of questions on the site.

2
  • 1
    According to the statistics that you quote it would leave about 70% questions which is actually much more than I thought. I just wonder why there is so strong opposition to a Windows specific site even though there are sites dedicated to Mac, to Unix and Linux, even one dedicated to Ubuntu. For programmers there are Stack Overflow, Programmers, Code Review, Code Golf, Computer Science, Theoretical Computer Science, Computational Science, Server Fault, IT Security, Cryptography, Webmasters, Web Applications... Why Windows that is so popular shouldn't have one? I got voted down for even asking!
    – rsp
    Oct 29, 2012 at 17:02
  • To calculate this (approximately), I just added the numbers of questions for windows tags in the first page (assuming questions don't get tagged by more than 1, but also assuming no other significant windows tags after the first page)
    – ronalchn
    Oct 29, 2012 at 23:34
9

I suspect a good chunk of the Windows 8 questions, good or bad is cause of the launch of windows 8 and the windows 8 challenge.

We've got a load of newer users, some of whom are apparently learning about the community culture of the site, and what sort of questions are and arn't welcome here.

Things should get back to normal soon. Meanwhile feel free to flag, downvote or vote to close whatever questions don't seem up to scratch. Also feel free to ask and answer questions to do with, well, anything else in the meanwhile.

enter image description here

5

Windows 8 is new and, naturally, there are quite a few problems with and questions about it.

But that will only last a few weeks or months! We didn't have a dedicated Windows 7 SE site, and we don't need one for Windows 8.

2

The main reason it seems like every other question is about Windows 8 is because of the newly announced Windows 8 Challenge - win8challenge.com. You see there that in order to win prizes, you have to ask questions about windows 8. Prizes range from a T Shirt to a Microsoft Surface, so I'm personally not surprised at the number of participants. The contest ends on November 9th, so I would expect the myriad number of questions about Windows 8 to end right about then, too.

2

The only issue on the table is whether there is a Windows community out there that is somehow not being well-served by the Super User site. That's the only reasonable case for creating a new community; not because some other group got their own site.

Most of the questions on any site are going to be about the newest stuff, because that's what people are talking about, and that's where most of the problems reside. That doesn't make the site less useful or less accepting of legacy questions.

Or does it? I haven't seen it but that is, in part, what Area 51 and these meta discussions are here to decide.

2

As other posters have noted, creating a separate site for Windows questions would draw away many users from SU. For those who have experience in Windows and other non-Windows platforms, this would require two user accounts on two sites with two reputation pools to fill in order to demonstrate their reliability and knowledge to the community.

Having a single site for "user level" questions, regardless of platform, better represents the fact that many who participate on SU are skilled across platforms and should be listened to based on the sum of their skill (as represented by their reputation) rather than their abilities in only a single operating system.

1

I know this questions is very old, but as it was recently bumped from an edit, I thought I should just tell you (in case you don't know), there is a Microsoft Area51 proposal over here.

If you think there should be one, go and follow it!

6
  • The fate of that site isn't good, a year and it still needs 27, questions and most of the questions are a year old
    – Ramhound
    Oct 2, 2014 at 1:53
  • @Ramhound Yeah, I know, that's kind of a reason I was mentioning it here... more people will know about it :) Oct 2, 2014 at 6:16
  • It looks like the proposal has been closed now for lack of activity.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Oct 4, 2014 at 10:34
  • @Mokubai Oh... didn't know that. It did have a dark future.... Oct 4, 2014 at 10:35
  • It only happened yesterday, after your post here. Part of me would like to see the site work, but I'm not a fan of the community fragmentation that happens due to having so many niche sites...
    – Mokubai Mod
    Oct 4, 2014 at 10:42
  • @Mokubai I hope I wasn't the person who brought attention to Jon to close it! I did like the idea of the site, just like AskDifferent, but obviously, other people didn't! Oct 4, 2014 at 10:44
-1

A lot of the debugging concepts connected to seemingly Windows connected questions can be applied to anywhere else. The value of an Apple site is it encompasses more than just Mac OS X. So perhaps there should be a Microsoft site on Stack Exchange? I vote no.

I don’t deal with many Windows machine in my real world life, but have happened to help a lot of users here because a lot of their seemingly “Windows” questions are really tech specific: Networking, hardware, debugging, etc… The problem is the reality distortion field of Windows makes you feel ALL problems stem from the Windows OS… Which is partially true… A lot of it stems from the obscurification the Windows interface provides between what the system does & what the control panels claim they do.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .