13

I frequent many of the SE sites, but sometimes I have a question on a topic that doesn't fit into any of the sites I've already used. I find it difficult to find the right site (if one exists at all) for my new question.

For example, I have a question about ipod functionality. I'm not sure where to post it, so I looked at all the sites on the bottom, but didn't see anything. I was on fitness.stackexchange.com at the time, and all of the links for different sites are blue, and they are in no order (or at least no order that I can tell) so it's very hard to parse. I was looking for something like "apple" or "iOS" but didn't see it.

Then I went to the main "directory" (or what I think of as the main directory) - https://stackexchange.com/sites# - again, this is very difficult to parse. "Bubbles" are different sizes, and again in no specific order. The only thing I could think to do was to actually do a text search on the web page for "apple", and it wasn't there so I gave up and came here to ask.

The worst part is that once I came here (meta), I glanced at the bottom of the page and immediate saw "apple"! This link wasn't on the main directory, and wasn't in the collection of links on the other SE site (fitness). So it was completely luck that I came to meta to ask this question, and the apple site happened to be in the links at the bottom of this page.

Am I missing something? Is there an easier way to find the list of SE sites? And in general if I have a question, what's the best way to figure out what site to post it in?

2
  • 3
    One data point: beta sites list beta sites at the bottom, full (non-beta) se sites only list other full se sites at the bottom. Jul 9, 2012 at 14:13
  • Thanks, I had no idea about that. Looks like a couple non-beta sites are listed as well (the Fitness footer has api/apps, for example).
    – Jer
    Jul 9, 2012 at 16:55

2 Answers 2

16

In the All Sites page, there's an icon you can click to change the bubble grid view into a list view, which should make it much easier to find an appropriate site:

Whichever you choose will persist between browser sessions, probably as part of local storage.

If you still aren't sure, you can always ask here. We have a tag that's specifically catered to where-do-I-ask-this questions, called , which you can use if you need help finding a site to ask a specific question.

The confusion with which sites are listed in a site's footer is entirely understandable, but what I've seen is this: Fitness is currently in beta; beta Q&A sites will only list other active beta Q&A sites in the site footer.

beta site footer

Sites that you see in Meta Stack Overflow's footer — and any other graduated site's footer — will only list graduated sites (complete with custom themes).

non-beta site footer

If we had every site listed on every other site's footer, the list of links would grow extremely large and very unwieldy. Of course, that leads right to my single gripe with the footer: is it good to have that list of links there given how quickly the network is growing? Perhaps that'll be ripe for a separate meta post...

2
  • Thanks. Very helpful - I totally missed the bubble/list option. Selecting list and sorting by name makes things easier. I wish the row height was a lot smaller (in list view) so I could see more at once but not a big deal at all.
    – Jer
    Jul 9, 2012 at 16:57
  • Totally agree with your last comment. The footer doesn't seem very scalable, and it totally trips up new (and I suspect even not-so-new) users that there are actually two different footers...
    – Benjol
    Jul 10, 2012 at 5:40
0

Another method:

Google your question and look at which SE sites pop up in the search results.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .