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This video (“Uncovering Stack Overflow's TOXICITY” which is about SE being toxic to newbies) got me thinking.

I agree that the FAQ is too long and hard to find on most Stack Exchange sites, and it would help to put a quick Sprint-goal-like summary next to the title of, say, Super User, to indicate that Smart TV software questions are off-topic instead of blank space and random blog headlines like "The Overflow Blog After the buzz fades: What our data tells us about emerging technology sentiment".

In short, a quick "Personal computer questions only!" would help avoid off-topic questions.

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  • 2
    What's the video say? It might help to have a quick summary of what's relevant...
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Mar 12 at 10:25
  • 1
    The FAQ is hardly too long when you consider that the only page you really need to care about to ask a question is the on topic page which is at the same sub-page on every site and is at most 60 seconds of skimming to see if your question fits the categories.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Mar 12 at 10:34
  • 2
    Plus this is likely a question for meta.stackexchange.com. Unless you think that Super User is the only site with this problem.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Mar 12 at 11:43
  • @Mokubai I've considered that but didn't spot any misleading names in the list. Also ironic how y'all won't spend a few seconds on a link yourself instead of downvoting a simple request.
    – Cees Timmerman
    Mar 12 at 22:19
  • Copied to SE Meta. meta.stackexchange.com/questions/387485/…
    – Cees Timmerman
    Mar 12 at 22:28
  • Questions should be self contained. Please bear in mind that downvotes in feature-requests means disagreement. Ref. superuser.com/help/whats-meta. Anyway, we well never know why people downvoted if they didn't leave a comment.
    – Rubén - People First
    Mar 13 at 1:36
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    Videos like that are clickbait. Even if there’s an ounce of validity to them they basically just exist to be polarizing to drive views and comments to push interaction numbers. I mean “Uncovering Stack Overflow's TOXICITY.” What is being uncovered? Everyone knows some people find SE sites to be hard to deal with but would anyone post a video that says, “Explaining Stack Overflow's ABILITY TO CURATE QUALITY CONTENT?” Nope. Drama (exaggerated, fake or real) boosts YouTube traffic. The premise of this question is like, “Some random person said I am ugly; what plastic surgery should I get?”
    – Giacomo1968
    Mar 14 at 13:59
  • This feature request which is related to but offers a different solution than the linked question is about avoiding the ounce of validity that annoys so many as to generate dozens of downvotes and uncountable reputation damage.
    – Cees Timmerman
    Mar 14 at 15:11
  • @CeesTimmerman “…avoiding the ounce of validity that annoys so many as to generate dozens of downvotes and uncountable reputation damage.” Most people who post bad questions won’t simply read a slogan and go “Ah…” You overestimate why off-topic questions happen. As for “reputation damage” give me a break: If someone posts an off topic question and it gets downvoted, guess what? They can delete it and the “downvotes” magically disappear. And if they don’t? Then the question will be closed by moderation and the same plays out. Your assumption that a “slogan” can solve this is laughable at best.
    – Giacomo1968
    Mar 14 at 16:19
  • @CeesTimmerman If you have a geniune interest in helping to build a community sense and make this community better please consider to spend more time preparing your feature-requests. In the more than 8 years that I have being frequently looking around SE sites, I haven't seen any post that just drop a link to a video and few lines of text that was well received.
    – Rubén - People First
    Mar 14 at 16:22
  • Apparently the video was a bad choice and use it as the opening statement a worst choice. Have you reviewed previous features request here that were well received? How many of them start with a link to a video? Anyway, despite the video and the writing style I can't tell if the core of the request might be well received with the rationale provided.
    – Rubén - People First
    Mar 14 at 16:37
  • Actually I doubt that the request will attract agreement votes as Super User is not limited to PCs (in the broad sense).
    – Rubén - People First
    Mar 14 at 16:44
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    @CeesTimmerman I honestly can barely understand anything you are writing. When you said this, “…avoiding the ounce of validity that annoys so many as to generate dozens of downvotes and uncountable reputation damage.” I barely understand how any of those words add up to anything. The core problem with your “feature request” here is instead of plainly stating, “Would adding short/quick slogan next to each SE site logo solve end-user confusion?” You are so overexploiting things with an asinine click-bait video that I can’t even care about the premise here. You make your point clear and simple.
    – Giacomo1968
    Mar 14 at 16:49
  • @Giacomo1968 With the requested and expanded summary, the simple background link gained more prominence. Shall I use a spoiler tag to hide it?
    – Cees Timmerman
    Mar 14 at 17:04
  • “With the requested and expanded summary, the simple background link gained more prominence. Shall I use a spoiler tag to hide it?” Forgive me if you are a non-native English speaker, but honestly, none of the words you are posting make any basic and rational sense to anyone who knows English. All of your words and explanations make no sense and the video link makes no sense. Sorry but this feature request and your inarticulate way of making it is really baffling and deserves the downvotes.
    – Giacomo1968
    Mar 14 at 17:09

1 Answer 1

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TL;DR: I'm sorry but what you are proposing doesn't look to be helpful to solve / reduce the "problem" depicted in the video / about the FAQ being too long, etc. Actually, the concept is already applied in multiple places around the site.

I took the screenshot that you posted in Meta SE and added a red hand drawn circle

Super User homepage manually modified with red hand drawn circle and arrow

Besides the issues already mentioned in the comments, it looks that you missed that already there is a banner that is shown to anonymous users:

Welcome banner for anonymous users with red hand drawn circle and arrow

This banner has the text

Super User is a question and answer site for computer enthusiasts and power users.

The above text is also in the site Tour, the article in /help/on-topic among other places.

Many of the questions that are not a good fit for this site come from users that do just pay enough attention to post what they whant to post, they don't care about the site culture and workings at the time that they posted the question.

Some never come back, some never understand, some realize that Super User is not what they thought a others some way fix the question.

Anyway, this proposal at certain level is good enough to be discussed here, but so the current revision doesn't look to have the merits to get support from the community. You might want learn more about the culture and workings of this community.

Related

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  • Nice banner, but i was already logged in, and smart TVs went from on- to offtopic.
    – Cees Timmerman
    Mar 15 at 8:20
  • Smart TVs are not personal computers ...
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Mar 15 at 8:55
  • @CeesTimmerman Now you know that it exists and why you didn't see it. Good for you. The thing about smart TV's is irrelevant, you might create a new post about that. P.S. It looks that you need to spend more time learning how the platform that powers SU works as well about the workings of SU.
    – Rubén - People First
    Mar 15 at 13:38
  • @CeesTimmerman How did you make this estimation? Do you have experience handling changes like this for sites like Super User? How many you have done and well did they go?
    – Rubén - People First
    Mar 15 at 14:41
  • @Rubén I've altered the site's HTML for this screenshot, and before in this userstyle. Super easy.
    – Cees Timmerman
    Mar 31 at 15:03
  • @CeesTimmerman Thanks. That make it very clear your understanding of the implications of your request.
    – Rubén - People First
    Mar 31 at 15:18

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