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Is it okay to use Stack Overflow as the support forum for a product or project?

I created a new project in Bitbucket but it doesn't support forum or mailing list capabilities. On the other hand my project has a lot to do with C++, Cmake, HPC, Matlab which are topics often QA-ed here. Additionally it will get much more activity and visibility in addition to the nice rules and features of StackOverflow.

My question is: can I host the project QA here? by adding a new tag with the name of my project "hpsfo"?

UPDATE: I would really like to add the new tag and put a nice Stackoverflow widget on my project web site.

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    Stack Overflow is a Q&A site not a forum. :)
    – Himanshu
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:16
  • Same to me, people ask questions and get answers :D
    – SkyWalker
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:17
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    Holy Cows No! A forum is made for discussions, we're here to answer questions. That's a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very big difference.
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:18
  • OK updated the question.
    – SkyWalker
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:20
  • @SulfurizedDemonbobby So, you're saying it's possible then? ;)
    – Bart
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:20
  • @Bart: *looks.around.confused* What did I say?
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:22
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    @SulfurizedDemonbobby I think you understated the difference. :)
    – user200500
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:23

1 Answer 1

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If your project has just started out, it is likely to have a very narrow user-base. Consider using the relevant existing tags (C++, Cmake, HPC, Matlab) for questions. When/if there are a significant number, the community can evaluate whether or not a new tag is necessary.

Generally, tag creation is only warranted for concepts in programming, programming languages and ubiquitous tools that are used by programmers.

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  • OK, but this is a subjective and soft criteria, given that my project builds on top of tags already covered here it would make sense to tag it as separate no?
    – SkyWalker
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:22
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    @GiovanniAzua No, no it wouldn't. "Just yesterday I made a game in JS where you click a button and it makes a farting noise. I want to use SO for product support purposes, so I'm going to make a ButtonFart TM tag on SO." <-- This reasoning is not valid. Instead, I should tell users that questions should have the existing JS tag and should mention the product name in the title/body of the question.
    – user200500
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:25
  • LOL good one. "When/if there are a significant number, the community can evaluate whether or not a new tag is necessary" can u then define "significant" here? 10, 100, 1000?
    – SkyWalker
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:27
  • @GiovanniAzua If you create a tag when there are 10 questions which explicitly deserve it (and the questions are okay), the tag is not very likely to be removed. At 1 or 2 there is not necessarily much of a case to be made for the tag. There are users who explicitly go in and clean those up.
    – Bart
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:29
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    And one other thing: Let the question grow organically. Don't go in and post your own made-up questions just to create a base presence. This can easily backfire. Just have real users ask real questions.
    – Bart
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:31
  • Alrighty then. I will wait for 10 relevant questions to show up and then add the tag or from the project website suggest people to use/add the tag.
    – SkyWalker
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:31
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    @GiovanniAzua The number of questions isn't the sole metric that will be used here. You can have a look at some burnination requests to see what factors people look at when deciding whether a tag should exist.
    – user200500
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:31
  • Do make sure though that question asked here have to be asked by "our" rules. Bad questions will be downvoted, closed or even deleted. It might not be all that bad an idea to set up your own support forum first where you can also catch the questions which are discussions, bug report, feature requests, etc. The rules here are strict and not all your users might like them or be able to follow them.
    – Bart
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:33
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    @GiovanniAzua I will wait for 10 relevant ... add the tag. If you feel a good case can be made for your tag, please bring it here first, so the community gets a say in the matter.
    – user200500
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:34
  • This sounds a bit like school kids to me ... "if we like you, then we let you play with us otherwise expect some tomatoes throwing going on"
    – SkyWalker
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:34
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    @GiovanniAzua Substitute "if we like you", by "if you post good content and follow our explicit rules", then yes. Quality control is what makes this site good. If that is problematic for you or your users, think twice about posting.
    – Bart
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:35
  • "bug report, feature requests" this is already covered using Atlassian JIRA. I only need a QA or forum.
    – SkyWalker
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:36
  • @GiovanniAzua If you want a forum, use a forum. I've heard GoDaddy has pretty cheap hosting.
    – user200500
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:38
  • But I am still intrigued as to how it works, suppose I get 10 valid questions without tag, at some point I try to put the tag for the 1rst question but exists only once because hasnt been added to the other questions yet ... sounds like "the chicken and the egg" issue to me.
    – SkyWalker
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:39
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    @GiovanniAzua Come to Meta if you like. List your 10 questions. State what tag you'd like to add that doesn't exist yet. If they are good questions it will most likely be painfully obvious that the tag is "missing" indeed. If you can't create it somebody else will. If it's a clear-cut case, there will be no problem.
    – Bart
    Dec 4, 2012 at 9:45

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