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Computer Science Stack Exchange site is now up in public beta

83 points by yichi 15y ago

zengr 15y ago
How is it different from http://cstheory.stackexchange.com http://cstheory.stackexchange.com ? Update: And I answered my own question: http://meta.cs.stackexchange.com/questions/78/how-to-make-our-cs-community-very-different-from-the-cstheory http://meta.cs.stackexchange.com/questions/78/how-to-make-ou...
kandalf 15y ago
For anyone who is confused about the purpose of this site (in contrast to cstheory, for example), the distinction is that this is for non-research level computer science questions, whereas cstheory tends to frown on such questions.
switz 15y ago
I feel there is almost an oversaturation of stackexchanges now. I often have questions that could fit into a ton of different sub-exchanges, yet when I post it on one I am usually ridiculed into posting it onto another. SO is one of my favorite sites on the internet, but it needs to be clearer as to what sites should be used for what.
- frou_dh 15y ago
  I've checked out of keeping track of StackExchange. I'm sure for those that can be bothered keeping track of evolving mechanics, meta-ness, and the Area 51 business, it's rewarding. Me, I only recognise the existence of StackOverflow. Great site.
- j_col 15y ago
  I agree, I think they have spread themselves too thin.
- ashconnor 15y ago
  I partially agree. Some stackexchanges I feel are overkill. Bitcoin doesn't need it's own site and some sites should be merged (Web Applications and Web masters). However I agree that there should be a CompSci stackexchange for those questions that don't fit in SO or Mathematics.
htf 15y ago
Wouldn't it be simpler for Stack Exchange to have a single website for all subjects and just use tags for classification?
- Smudge 15y ago
  There are already tags. My thought is that they seem to be trying to solve the same kind of noise issues that Reddit's subreddits solve, except Reddit does a much better job. Having to open up a separate account on each site (linked by one big virtual account) is really messy, in my opinion.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- bitsoda 15y ago
  I'd like to see this as well. They could implement a tiered tag system with classification tags and content tags. There are few things as off putting as a smarmy, self-important moderator power tripping by telling me my question belongs elsewhere.
Smudge 15y ago
Going to rephrase a different comment I made earlier: All of these stack exchanges seem to be trying to solve the same kinds of noise issues that Reddit's subreddits solve, except Reddit does a much better job. No question in my mind. Thoughts: - Having to open a new account on each site (linked to one big virtual account) is messy. I get why they may not want reputation/badges to carry-over from site to site. Personally I believe doing so causes even more fragmentation and makes the barrier to entry too painful if you have to repeat it across several sites (I'd prefer to see a better mix of carrying over some stuff while starting over with others), but the fragmentation of the login/account itself is what really bothers me. - On Reddit, anyone can open a subreddit about anything. On Stack Exchange, new sites have to be proposed on Area51 before they are beta tested and released. All of this effort so... what? They don't have sites that nobody visits? Would anybody notice sites that nobody visits? On Reddit, popular subreddits emerge organically. Unknown subreddits are basically invisible. It all just works. Stack Exchange should be more of a metareddit (.com). Stack Exchange even has a great page for featuring their sites by size and category: http://stackexchange.com/sites http://stackexchange.com/sites - On Stack Exchange, if I regularly frequent multiple sites, I need to visit them separately. This results in several tabs that I flip between when I'm in the mood for answering questions. On Reddit, all of my subreddits just feed through my front page, or I can input a custom URL which lets me view only a subset of my subreddits. I would love to do this with Stack Exchange.
- icebraining 15y ago
  What do you consider painful about the account creation process? For me, I just log-in to a new site (using OpenID) and it automatically detects the other accounts and asks me if I want to combine them. Or are you talking about not having karma from the start?
  - Smudge 15y ago
    I guess the opening of accounts itself isn't that painful. The auto-login notification + refresh when I've logged into one site and switch to another is annoying, but also not that painful. All of this is just unnecessary, in my mind. It's these little things that get in the way of simply joining and participating across multiple sites on a regular basis.
JohnQPasserby 15y ago
Does anyone else find that SO is great cor answering beginner level questions, but completely inaccurate beyond that?
minikomi 15y ago
Interesting to see the first question tagged by the author with the qualifying line (This is not homework.)... Does that really matter on this particular stack exchange? I realize the disparity in the goal and action of someone on stackoverflow asking for an implementation of an entire homework question rather than a specific question on a single part they're having difficulty with, but in this case I would think on this particular exchange, "homeworky" questions would have to be tollerable..
rnadna 15y ago
Science is normally taken to be the study of nature. By that definition, "Computing Science" is a misnomer. Sure, it's a misnomer with a long history, but isn't the point of all the hand-wringing (beta status, area 51, ...) to try to get things right?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- wladimir 15y ago
  IMO computing science is the right name. It is the science of computation. Computation happens in nature as well as in computers. If it didn't happen in nature, we could not build a computer physically. However, computer science would be wrong name as a computer is a human artifact and studying that is engineering not science.

83 points by yichi 15y ago

zengr 15y ago

How is it different from http://cstheory.stackexchange.com http://cstheory.stackexchange.com ? Update: And I answered my own question: http://meta.cs.stackexchange.com/questions/78/how-to-make-our-cs-community-very-different-from-the-cstheory http://meta.cs.stackexchange.com/questions/78/how-to-make-ou...

kandalf 15y ago

For anyone who is confused about the purpose of this site (in contrast to cstheory, for example), the distinction is that this is for non-research level computer science questions, whereas cstheory tends to frown on such questions.

switz 15y ago

I feel there is almost an oversaturation of stackexchanges now. I often have questions that could fit into a ton of different sub-exchanges, yet when I post it on one I am usually ridiculed into posting it onto another. SO is one of my favorite sites on the internet, but it needs to be clearer as to what sites should be used for what.

frou_dh 15y ago
I've checked out of keeping track of StackExchange. I'm sure for those that can be bothered keeping track of evolving mechanics, meta-ness, and the Area 51 business, it's rewarding. Me, I only recognise the existence of StackOverflow. Great site.
j_col 15y ago
I agree, I think they have spread themselves too thin.
ashconnor 15y ago
I partially agree. Some stackexchanges I feel are overkill. Bitcoin doesn't need it's own site and some sites should be merged (Web Applications and Web masters). However I agree that there should be a CompSci stackexchange for those questions that don't fit in SO or Mathematics.

htf 15y ago

Wouldn't it be simpler for Stack Exchange to have a single website for all subjects and just use tags for classification?

Smudge 15y ago
There are already tags. My thought is that they seem to be trying to solve the same kind of noise issues that Reddit's subreddits solve, except Reddit does a much better job. Having to open up a separate account on each site (linked by one big virtual account) is really messy, in my opinion.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
bitsoda 15y ago
I'd like to see this as well. They could implement a tiered tag system with classification tags and content tags. There are few things as off putting as a smarmy, self-important moderator power tripping by telling me my question belongs elsewhere.

Smudge 15y ago

Going to rephrase a different comment I made earlier: All of these stack exchanges seem to be trying to solve the same kinds of noise issues that Reddit's subreddits solve, except Reddit does a much better job. No question in my mind. Thoughts: - Having to open a new account on each site (linked to one big virtual account) is messy. I get why they may not want reputation/badges to carry-over from site to site. Personally I believe doing so causes even more fragmentation and makes the barrier to entry too painful if you have to repeat it across several sites (I'd prefer to see a better mix of carrying over some stuff while starting over with others), but the fragmentation of the login/account itself is what really bothers me. - On Reddit, anyone can open a subreddit about anything. On Stack Exchange, new sites have to be proposed on Area51 before they are beta tested and released. All of this effort so... what? They don't have sites that nobody visits? Would anybody notice sites that nobody visits? On Reddit, popular subreddits emerge organically. Unknown subreddits are basically invisible. It all just works. Stack Exchange should be more of a metareddit (.com). Stack Exchange even has a great page for featuring their sites by size and category: http://stackexchange.com/sites http://stackexchange.com/sites - On Stack Exchange, if I regularly frequent multiple sites, I need to visit them separately. This results in several tabs that I flip between when I'm in the mood for answering questions. On Reddit, all of my subreddits just feed through my front page, or I can input a custom URL which lets me view only a subset of my subreddits. I would love to do this with Stack Exchange.

icebraining 15y ago
What do you consider painful about the account creation process? For me, I just log-in to a new site (using OpenID) and it automatically detects the other accounts and asks me if I want to combine them. Or are you talking about not having karma from the start?
- Smudge 15y ago
  I guess the opening of accounts itself isn't that painful. The auto-login notification + refresh when I've logged into one site and switch to another is annoying, but also not that painful. All of this is just unnecessary, in my mind. It's these little things that get in the way of simply joining and participating across multiple sites on a regular basis.

JohnQPasserby 15y ago

Does anyone else find that SO is great cor answering beginner level questions, but completely inaccurate beyond that?

minikomi 15y ago

Interesting to see the first question tagged by the author with the qualifying line (This is not homework.)... Does that really matter on this particular stack exchange? I realize the disparity in the goal and action of someone on stackoverflow asking for an implementation of an entire homework question rather than a specific question on a single part they're having difficulty with, but in this case I would think on this particular exchange, "homeworky" questions would have to be tollerable..

rnadna 15y ago

Science is normally taken to be the study of nature. By that definition, "Computing Science" is a misnomer. Sure, it's a misnomer with a long history, but isn't the point of all the hand-wringing (beta status, area 51, ...) to try to get things right?

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
wladimir 15y ago
IMO computing science is the right name. It is the science of computation. Computation happens in nature as well as in computers. If it didn't happen in nature, we could not build a computer physically. However, computer science would be wrong name as a computer is a human artifact and studying that is engineering not science.