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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
    Commented Mar 12, 2023 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
    Commented Mar 12, 2023 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
    Commented Mar 12, 2023 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
    Commented Mar 12, 2023 at 22:19
  • Copied to SE Meta. meta.stackexchange.com/questions/387485/…
    – Cees Timmerman
    Commented Mar 12, 2023 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.
    – user152004
    Commented Mar 13, 2023 at 1:36
  • 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
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 15:11
  • @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.
    – user152004
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 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.
    – user152004
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 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).
    – user152004
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 16:44
  • @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
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 17:04
  • @CeesTimmerman It looks that you need to cool down. Comments are not intended for having extended discussions. Spend more time learning from previous posts. Start by scope and community-faq.
    – user152004
    Commented Mar 14, 2023 at 17:10
  • MSE says this feature request belongs here.
    – Cees Timmerman
    Commented Mar 31, 2023 at 15:07

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
    Commented Mar 15, 2023 at 8:20
  • Smart TVs are not personal computers ...
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Commented Mar 15, 2023 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.
    – user152004
    Commented Mar 15, 2023 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?
    – user152004
    Commented Mar 15, 2023 at 14:41
  • @Rubén I've altered the site's HTML for this screenshot, and before in this userstyle. Super easy.
    – Cees Timmerman
    Commented Mar 31, 2023 at 15:03
  • @CeesTimmerman Thanks. That make it very clear your understanding of the implications of your request.
    – user152004
    Commented Mar 31, 2023 at 15:18

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