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PPS. I have added a related question now - How to proceed when proposal for a new Stack Exchange is turned due to admin's ignorance of domain? which addresses the point raised here.

PS. The reason not to close can found at the end

Some years ago I proposed a new StackExchange for non-Ubuntu desktop environments because

  1. Ask Ubuntu did not like questions on Debian

  2. There are whole areas of Linux which are not Ubuntu specific

  3. Unix SE tends to be focused more on lower level, glue level aspects of Linux and the command line and it doesn't go into desktop issues as much.

    utilities

    bash 14758
grub 6639
swap 5937
init 5076
mysql 3618
init.d 2845
crontab 2626
systemd 2090
docker 1873
zsh 1460
system v 1451
python 1333
upstart 877
rc.d 922
puppet 502

    desktops

    debian 9389
arch 7574
ubuntu 7510
mint 6290
fedora 3009
gnome 1552
kde 986
kde4 322
kde5 186

You can see from the tags how much Unix/Linux is focused more on the underlying glue and utilities rather than issues relating to the desktop environment. Combining the two areas is like trying to serve Windows server administrators and Windows end users from the same forum. I don't think any SE developers and administrators would ever do that

In Linux server administrator issues are quite different from desktop user related issues, but as most Linux desktop users have to be their own administrators, there is an overlap but only the minimum desktop users need to do to fix the desktop issues and get back to work.

To be honest each of the Linux desktop derivatives need their own SE and admins can probably tag them and move them if they are miscategorized or are in the wrong forum.

I brought this up some years ago and it was shot down immediately on the grounds that Unix and Linux SE is a good substitute. You only have to look at r/unix and r/linux on reddit to see how conceptually differently they are viewed.

Whatever the case may or may not be for different Stack Exchanges for the desktop environments the desktop environments and the OS proper should have different exchanges. Linux itself is the operating system, the kernel more accurately and the derived OSs and desktop environments are quite different.

UPDATE For those who believe I should make a new proposal this is question explains the reason why. Is there any trace of my closed proposal?.

If there is a means of getting past a proposal which will allow other interested users to chime in before it is immediately turned down or there is some other faq, question or Q&A on how this point can be discussed I'd like to be directed to it

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  • I have done that before and it was dismissed immediately and that is why I am asking a new question. The adminstrator did not even give it a chance to be discussed. It even got deleted as can be seen from this related question. area51.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/28238/…. A person with an identical or similar proposal who comes later does not even have a record it coming up before. Unless this approach is changed, what would be the point of bringing it up again.
    – vfclists
    Commented Oct 14, 2018 at 18:02
  • I'm voting to reopen since the specific thing in this question isn't addressed in the duplicate target.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Oct 14, 2018 at 18:26
  • @RobertColumbia I already explained why that question is not appropriate with a link to another question explaining why.
    – vfclists
    Commented Oct 15, 2018 at 0:07

1 Answer 1

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These questions might be on-topic on Unix & Linux. SE won't create a site for questions that are already in scope on the network, so you need to try that first.

Yeah, it's not their most popular tag -- so what? If the question is still on-topic there, you're set. If it's not, it should produce a clear audit trail -- a close reason, a meta FAQ, or similar -- that demonstrates it's off-topic there too, at which point you can head over to Area 51 to explore a new site, armed with evidence that the questions you have in mind aren't welcome on the existing sites.

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3
  • Because a question is answered there doesn't mean that the forum is properly focused on it. Any Linux power user will understand that. Unix and Linux is no focused enough on desktop issues. Which is why I brought up the point that about Windows adminstrators and desktop users. It might be the same users but the needs are so different it makes no sense to put them together. This matter need to be addressed by SE administrators who are familiar with Linux desktops. Treating it as something to be dealt via procedures won't work here
    – vfclists
    Commented Oct 14, 2018 at 19:15
  • A lot of the issues I need to ask about usually have answers on Ask Ubuntu more than Unix and Linux, which means that if an Ubuntu users hadn't asked the question I wouldn't have an answer for it. If I went to ask there saying that I wasn't an Ubuntu user I would be asked to go away. If U & L attracted those kind of general questions the answers would be there rather than on Ask Ubuntu, which means U & L isn't attracting questions for desktop related issues.
    – vfclists
    Commented Oct 14, 2018 at 19:36
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    @vfclists: "Because a question is answered there doesn't mean that the forum is properly focused on it." That's not how Q&A works. We're not a forum. Stack Overflow has Swift, Haskel, PHP, C, and JavaScript programmers, and more, all working in the same site. There are plenty of experts in one domain who know nothing about others, yet they still coexist on the same site. If there is a problem with Linux desktop questions being answered on U&L, then that would be a problem. But so long as those questions are being answered, there's no problem.
    – Nicol Bolas
    Commented Oct 15, 2018 at 13:35

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