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Which stack is the best fit for "childish", naive questions of general interest? Sorta of questions children like to ask. For example - "How does it comes that water in oceans is salt, and in rivers it isn't".

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    Nowhere. What you describe isn't what Stack Exchange is about.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Aug 18, 2011 at 17:26
  • sounds a bit pathetic, to be honest. There are quite a lot stacks already, not all of them about something professional. Naïve does not always means silly. There are lot of questions which actually can have unexpectedly interesting, scientific and complex answers.
    – shabunc
    Aug 18, 2011 at 17:30
  • Some of these types of question could go on one of the specific sites - say if we had a geography? site (for your example). But a whole site dedicated to this type of question on any topic would descend into Yahoo! Answers very quickly.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Aug 18, 2011 at 17:32
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    If you feel strongly that such a site should exist, shabunc, go propose it on Area51. I don't think it's likely to be accepted, but you can always try. By the way, "pathetic"? That's a really nonconstructive (and random) thing to say. Aug 18, 2011 at 17:33
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    sounds reasonable. so, your first answer should sound actually not like "nowhere", but "depends no the type of the question". And yes, Yahoo! Answers is a good example of what stack overflow better should not be.
    – shabunc
    Aug 18, 2011 at 17:34
  • @Michael, this is just the way I'm communicating. When something sounds pathetic to me, there's no big deal in saying it. Anyway, I'm quite often punished with downvoting - that's fair . When something sounds reasonable, well, it sound reasonable. Besides, look for tag applied - I'm not arguing such stack should be, actually.
    – shabunc
    Aug 18, 2011 at 17:37
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    I don't think that word means what you think it means. Aug 19, 2011 at 16:01

3 Answers 3

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Stack Exchange sites are organized around topics, not difficulty levels. In actuality, all of the sites make a serious effort to appeal to experts, so that there are people who can provide good answers to all the questions coming in. Without the experts, you'd end up with a bunch of ill-informed passers-by tossing out speculation. Of course, non-experts are welcome on Stack Exchange sites so long as they can compose coherent, on-topic questions.

Each site deals with a specific subject; there will never be one that says "come ask whatever pops into your head". This prevents (or reduces) questions getting buried under millions of other questions you don't care about. When the site has a specific focus, it's easier to build a community of experts around that subject. It's also because open-ended question sites have a history of doing poorly.

Your example question though might fit on the Popular Natural Science site if it were to launch.

For other questions, consider this excerpt from What kind of questions should I not ask here? which applies to pretty much all Stack Exchange sites:

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ______ to me”, then you are probably OK. (Discussions are of course welcome in our real time web chat.)

If your other questions meet those guidelines, you should be able to find or propose a Stack Exchange site where you can ask them.

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  • that is an answer. thank you very much!
    – shabunc
    Aug 18, 2011 at 17:41
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Try YahooAnswers.Stackexchange.com :) smiley added for humor impaired.

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  • sir, this question was about stack universe only and I'm not accepting "funny" answers. that's why I've downvoted.
    – shabunc
    Aug 18, 2011 at 18:16
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    @shabunc, welcome to Meta. Aug 18, 2011 at 18:26
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    abandon all the hope )
    – shabunc
    Aug 18, 2011 at 18:26
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    Sir, this answer is exactly what I came here to write myself. That's why I've upvoted. Aug 18, 2011 at 18:39
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I think this question is essentially the same as this: Could we create a place for the unwanted 'General Reference' questions from the Stack Exchange family?

To copy Dori's answer:

Questions and proposals like this come up regularly--enough so that Jeff recently wrote a blog post that's at least partly about this: Gorilla vs. Shark.

Stack Exchange sites work. This is because of the rules, not in spite of the rules. If there's sufficient evidence that getting rid of General Reference is a good idea, then SE will get rid of it globally, not just on one site. But so far, the results show that it works, and well.

Think about it this way: why would experts answer these questions, when they could be answering good questions on other SE sites?

This may also be relevant.

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  • Matthew, but wait, "Gorilla versus Shark"-type questions totally, radically differ from questions like "what makes poop brown and blood red". Last one actually has a scientifically based explanation. First one is, well, pointless.
    – shabunc
    Aug 18, 2011 at 17:40
  • @shabunc Agreed, but the blog post touches on related issues. Ignore that bit if you need to :)
    – user154510
    Aug 18, 2011 at 17:42
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    ok, I see, general reference questions are too dangerous and "spammy", so better even not to try to distinct bad ones from rare good ones. Agreed.
    – shabunc
    Aug 18, 2011 at 17:47

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