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I don't exactly understand the topic here,

  • computer software

Is a bit vague. The "Help Center" goes on to say

  • programming and software development

is off topic. Let's say though there was an operating system that was made to educate users on software development, that required basic knowledge of C. Would questions be on topic here if C was often how you went about accomplishing those tasks? What about if the tasks require no knowledge of programming concepts?

Take for instance these questions,

From paid employee, Robert Cartaino

End use of an operating is what Super User was created for. We don't wish to split off a subject covered by another site based on how "non-mainstream" someone might feel it is. - Robert Cartaino

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  • 2
    Pending a full answer - Its worth considering, very hard if some of these questions would come under other close reasons, and that the value of these questions may be to others. Amusingly I don't think the lack of research downvote may be applicable considering templeos's interesting history. Its applicability to broader audiences is a little suspect.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    May 16, 2018 at 22:21

2 Answers 2

5

More or less. We don't want people dumping their pure programming questions on SU. This happens a lot, especially with people question banned on SO.

As far as the spirit of the rules go on Superuser - we try to help folk with the process of using their personal computers on a daily basis, as opposed to writing software for them or running systems in a professional level.

The frustrating thing about throwing a big list of questions at us, with only a small part of the help quoted is - we miss a lot of chances for context.

Its worth taking a look at a few hard and soft rules - is this a practical question? Is it a product or learning material recommendation?

Something like this or this for example may be closed as a product recommendation. This one feels really broad .

Some folks may also question how useful Templeos questions are to the broader public. Amusingly this question might be useful to non templeos users for example.

My advice would be to take this in mind, scope around the site a bit, and work out what you think would work for us with these examples in mind and try reasking.

I'd also close by saying many of these questions could be answered in the documentation on any well developed, planned OS (and they may not be here), but considering templeos's unique history, and interest in it as a historical curiosity, I personally would take these questions based on how they are written, and remember that this is literally one guy's project, with unusual inspirations.

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  • I have 85 questions and 58 answers on the site: think I've scoped around for a bit -- like over 8 years. =) I think they're all on topic on StackOverflow -- been there longer. The moderators disagree, and the employees of StackExchange have said that they should all be migrated here: End use of an operating is what Super User was created for. We don't wish to split off a subject covered by another site based on how "non-mainstream" someone might feel it is. while I don't agree, I do also believe mainstream-ness shouldn't factor in here. I'm seriously interested in the technology. May 17, 2018 at 2:13
  • Which is fine. Thing is not all these work for us and it's better you ask the questions that do with the view of them being su questions than so questions
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    May 17, 2018 at 3:22
  • So what do I do with questions that I already asked that are "su questions"? Such as those 10. Reask them here? Can we agree to migrate them and see how they're received? May 17, 2018 at 3:29
  • Well. Here's the thing. SOME of those questions are essentially "where do I find the thing". Those are going to get closed and are not worth the effort. Reask the rest here and see how they're received.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    May 17, 2018 at 3:32
  • If I reask, we lose the answers that's why StackOverflow is looking for permission to migrate them -- preserving the content. May 17, 2018 at 16:41
  • or just edit it without the links, Maybe in the morning.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Jun 7, 2018 at 15:33
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Questions involving programming can be on topic

Let's say though there was an operating system that was made to educate users on software development, that required basic knowledge of C. Would questions be on topic here if C was often how you went about accomplishing those tasks? What about if the tasks require no knowledge of programming concepts?

In general, questions about an operating systems can be on topic, as long as they stay within the rest of the guidance (ie no software/hardware requests, no "code writing service" requests etc). This holds true even if there is programming involved.

See for example this answer in relation to batch programming:

There will always be overlap in what a scope allows. Personally, I use Stack Overflow just for questions that are purely programming based, that will be compiled into a program. Batch files are just lines of commands, freely editable, and user accessible. You do not need to be a professional programmer to do batch programming.

The overlap between SO and SU is well-established, and there are few questions that could be validly asked on either site- if they are good.

or in other topic areas:

Consider your audience

Your unstated second question -- whether those particular questions would be a good fit for Super User -- as to how the community would respond to the questions themselves is a bit trickier to answer.

Questions with a narrow focus are not as well-received as questions with broad applicability*. The unstated assumption there is that questions with a narrow focus are less valuable to the community than those with a broad focus.

Additionally, certain operating systems attract poor questions because -- if you'll forgive the generalisation -- people don't invest sufficient time to understand them to ask a good question in the first place. A good question is generally well-researched, shows what has been attempted and is answerable.

In short: Being on topic alone does not a Good Question™ make.

* there is no close reason for being too narrow (as opposed to too broad), but niche questions tend to attract less views, votes and answers

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  • My big contention here is that some of this just feels to me like an argument from popularity. My questions won't be useful to 99.99% of your users -- at least. But the users it is useful too, it'll be tremendously useful to. I don't need upvotes (and I got thick skin, downvotes won't bother me much either) but I'd like them to not get closed. May 17, 2018 at 0:43

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