Update old returning users with changes to Stack Overflow/Super User/Stack Exchange intended usage

Question

So I stopped using Stack Overflow, Super User, and Stack Exchange maybe a year after Stack Exchanges came into existence. I recently had a need to start reusing the sites again and asked this question on Super User. At the time that I stopped using the website, this was definitely the appropriate place to ask the question as there were no alternative places to ask. There weren't even that many promoted Exchanges yet and certainly none that were Windows Phone specific (I was fairly active on the early Area 51 website). So it came as a bit of a shock that I was immediately downvoted and told to post elsewhere.

This may seem like a niche use case, but shouldn't changes to the intended usage policy be told to the user in a banner of some sort? Especially when it comes to Super User since that was basically the de facto place to post most non-programming questions prior to Stack Exchange existing.

Answer 1

So, ignoring your specific example and focusing on:

shouldn't changes to the intended usage policy be told to the user in a banner of some sort?

No, I don't think so, for a number of reasons.

So, what your asking is technically difficult. Site topicality policies are not updated incrementally or discretely. There is nothing that anybody could run a diff on, changes aren't logged or summarized, and so there is no real way to know what the differences were between the last time you visited the site and now. That is, what do you display to a user who hasn't visited in 6 years vs. a user who hasn't visited in 3? What would you even display, period? And who maintains that banner text?

Also it may be difficult to adequately summarize community policy changes, even limited to topicality changes, in a banner. You'd essentially be attempting to distill many qualitative meta posts and social behavioral changes into a banner. It could potentially be difficult to do justice to any changes that may have occurred.

But, most importantly, regardless of the above points:

If you haven't been to a site in a while, consider yourself to effectively be a new user. You are expected to do what new users are expected to do:

• Check the help center before asking.
• Check the close reasons.
• Browse through other recent well-received questions.
• Look/ask on the site meta.
• Heck, take the tour again.

You are asking for a banner to notify you, but the real solution is for you to take it upon yourself to familiarize yourself with changes given that you know you haven't been around in a while, and that you understand that communities change over time. Being an old user and not visiting for a while is not an excuse for not understanding site rules any more than it is an excuse for new users, because that information is already available. Everything you seek is available. The help center, meta, etc. are as visible to old users as they are to new ones.

You may make mistakes. That's totally fine. And you may be used to old ways, that's totally understandable. So if you do make a mistake, handle it gracefully, take that as a signal that you ought to spend some time familiarizing yourself with site policies, and just look at it as a learning experience.

Answer 2

At the time that I stopped using the website, this was definitely the appropriate place to ask the question as there were no alternative places to ask

I'm a superuser moderator and I've been a fairly active user for 7 and a half years) - and windows phone has never been on topic for us. I've been a member since shortly after beta and this has never been the case.

There certainly have been some changes since you were last on.

We accept tablet questions (we didn't before!) due to windows RT (Which is dead), but phones have always been off topic.

I admit, many of the policies and their evolution's on meta. Stuff like our policy towards software recommendations and the workaround we prefer, or our policy towards hackintoshes are there. This though, is something that's fundamentally the same, and major changes in policy, and things in our help pages rarely change.

Its even explicitly in our "What types of questions should I avoid asking?"

electronic devices, media players, cell phones or smart phones, except insofar as they interface with your computer

This is also implicit in the original post that announced the site

At any rate, if you wanted a community where (almost) anything goes, you’re about to get exactly what you asked for in the form of superuser.com. If your question has to do with computers, it will be allowed there.

Its not really you. We've had that attitude a lot from SO in the past, and I admit, I have trouble keeping track of the new stack sites, despite actually having been using the site constantly for over a half decade. I do check the help pages before asking a question on a site new to me, or one I've not been on a while. I wouldn't blame rules changes here, but yeah, maybe a refresher would be nice for folks who have not been here a while.

And well, it comes down to people who use a community to handle cases like this. Downvotes are not the end of the world (and I suppose some may consider not checking what's on topic lack of research). Comments let you know precisely what's wrong. You were given alternatives (flagging for migration).

Feels like our "system" worked exactly as designed, with users helping (mostly) re-educate you, and things ending up where they need to be.

I'd add though, even to this day, I always take a quick look at what's on topic on any new site I post on.