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Super User website applications policy
I suppose that's a loaded question. Earlier I asked a question on superuser.com about how to use the quick add text box in google calendar, and had it closed as "off topic". I do not understand why we're drawing a line between software applications we access through a web interface and apps we access through a fatter client interface. Seems arbitrary, and not the sort of distinction a user himself would make in the cloud age.
I think it made good sense for the stackoverflow crew to break the collective computing knowledge pool down into domains of developers, designers, admins, and users. But it seems to me the user site should be at least as inclusive to legitimate software usage as the original developer site is to anything remotely related to software development. After all, the #2 and #3 most highly voted questions on stackoverflow are about telling jokes...but that doesn't inhibit that site from being the best place on the web to get serious answers to anything a developer on any platform could want to know. To the contrary, surely that general spirit of inclusiveness has helped it become the nexus it is today. So why are we not aspiring to the same broad goals with the user site?
To extend the point: I could ask a question about writing a smartphone app on stackoverflow, but according to the superuser.com/faq, I can't ask about using a smartphone app on superuser. Androids are already running everything from an FTP server to a remote desktop client...do I have to hook up a bluetooth keyboard before I can call it a "computer"? :-P My point is that it's a murky distinction, and ultimately, I believe, a counter-productive one.
