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A little background

Before I start, don't get me wrong - I understand (I think) the direction that the site is going in and why you are doing the Area 51 thing. However, in the back of my mind I have a couple of ideas that I would like to raise.

I found out about Stack Overflow about a year ago and tried to answer questions, but as an IT professional, I wasn't really answering that many. I then found out about Server Fault and liked it much more, but I am mainly Wintel (and a bit more), and found myself skipping about 80% of the questions as I am not a real in-depth *nix guy. Then, Super User launched and I haven't been happier in a long time!

Idea

Since I found Super User, I try to help as much as I can. But at the moment work is very busy and as much as I would like to look at all the trilogy sites, I just haven't got the time.

I have seen, that on Area 51, the Web Applications proposal has gone through. I am happy to help out where and when I can but at the same time, I am thinking to myself, do we really need a separate site?

Do not get me wrong, I want to see a Stack Exchange site for every topic, but I just can't imagine going to 5+ websites every day to answer questions.

My idea is, I want to help out people on Stack Overflow with general web/jQuery (amongst others), Server Fault on Windows Server and telephony type questions, Super User on most topics and this new web application site.

So, to sum up, what I suggest is to get one interface that just lists all questions from all sites on selected tags / topics that you select. Reputation in the bottom corner of the answer would be your Total reputation from all sites (like how Area 51 does it). Then people can click on your name to get a "tarted up" version of the accounts screen. It can list where your expertise is by how your reputation is made up.

I hope you get the basic idea and I haven't gone on too much. To sum up, I want to help out no matter what the site as long as the questions are in a field I can help with. My main reason for writing this is I think there are so many fields (Web Applications, Mobile (smart) Phones, PDAs, Devices) which 80+% of the members would like to see / try to answer but may be put off checking many different sites.

... I think it may be to much of a change at this point, but I really want to see feedback on this and whether I am the only person who feels like this - or is this something someone can create out of the API?

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    possible duplicate of Why do we need the trilogy instead of just one site?
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 12:49
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    See also meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6033/… meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5950/…
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 12:49
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    @Wil, consider changing your heading - you want a way to monitor tags and search questions across sites: StackExchangePowerSearch, if you will. The question as asked implies a big, ineffective Yahoo Answers-type thing, which will not likely draw folks in here (or anywhere people who like good answers go). I know that's not what you want, so a heading change may help.
    – Jaydles
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 14:29
  • @jaydles, +1; I've thought that twice today.
    – Pops
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 15:15
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    @Popular, it's funny - I twitched when I saw the heading, but I actually like the idea that @Wil's really going for. And the explanation point makes it even more untintentionally "Yahoo!-ey"
    – Jaydles
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 15:49
  • @jaydles - suggestions?
    – William Hilsum
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 17:18
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    @Wil, good question- It's always easier to criticize an approach than to provide a better one. But how about: "Should there be a "StackExchangePowerSearch" portal site to search and monitor tags/questions across all Trilogy / SE 2.0 sites?"
    – Jaydles
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 18:19

2 Answers 2

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This is, essentially, what the http://stackexchange.com home page is planned to be longer term -- a place to aggregate the best questions and answers across all sites in the network, and show metrics from all the sites.

Understand that this will take many months to fully realize, but that is the gist of it.

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  • Sounds cool. If you read it all, Sorry for it being so long!
    – William Hilsum
    Commented Jul 4, 2010 at 20:23
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What you are asking for is a custom aggregator to combine the content of multiple sites, filtered by tags of your choosing. Shall we say, a custom Stack Exchange application?

This sounds like the perfect job for Stack Apps.

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    At the moment it would be limited to read only mode though. You'd have to go through to the actual site to post questions or answers and vote.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 14:24
  • @Robert Cartaino - I have been wanting to get a project that would give me a kick start / force me to do more programming! I registered StackEverything.com and hope I can make a good Stack Apps site - If I can't or if anything official comes out of this idea, I will hand over the domain.... If no one else comes up with anything helpful/ideas, I will mark yours as an answer.
    – William Hilsum
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 17:32
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    @ChrisF: Why? You could have a site that simulated a front page of an SE site, only the questions were pulled from different sites. Then clicking on a question would take you to the site it was actually asked from. When you're asking a question, this site could give a dropdown of potential sites and then pull tags and similar questions from whichever is selected site. Doesn't sound that hard.
    – mmyers
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 17:33
  • @mmyers - no it's not hard, but how do you get back? Other than using the browser's back button?
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 17:35
  • @ChrisF That kind of situation sounds perfect for tabs and windows.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 17:41
  • @ChrisF: Frame it, maybe? Except of course all SE sites have framebuster code. I'm sure someone can think of something, though.
    – mmyers
    Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 17:44

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