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The blog at https://blog.stackoverflow.com is distinctly different from its cousins at http://blog.serverfault.com or http://blog.superuser.com.

In particular, it has little to do with programming. It really ought to be blog.stackexchange.com as it has naturally morphed into a blog about the larger network.

Could this be remedied? Could we have a SO blog about programming?

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    Here you go: codinghorror.com/blog
    – random
    Apr 18, 2011 at 21:03
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    OK, how about an active blog about programming? Apr 18, 2011 at 21:06
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    Why? What purpose would this solve that the thousands of programming blogs out there already don't serve? A big Stack Overflow banner?
    – random
    Apr 18, 2011 at 21:07
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    Good point. Maybe they should take down the SF and SU blogs. Apr 18, 2011 at 21:09
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    The SU blog is about its content and users. Same as the SO blog. That's not really different in scope or angle. Have you read either of the other two?
    – random
    Apr 18, 2011 at 21:16
  • @random I just looked at the SU blog. They do things like compare applications, identify top questions of the week, package managers, home routers and networking, and so on. The SO blog's most recent posts are about Stack Exchange, a podcast about Stack Exchange, new Stack Exchange employees, and Stack Exchange data dumps. If I asked a question about the content of the SU blog on SU, I would be on-topic. If I asked a question about something discussed in a recent SO blog post on SO, that question would get closed in a heartbeat. Jun 26, 2011 at 21:50
  • Probably because you asked something better for Programmers. But if you asked about overcoming one final error in a program you implemented based on something you heard on the podcast, it should be fine. @tho
    – random
    Jun 26, 2011 at 21:53
  • I just looked at the SF blog as well. Some of the posts are related to Stack Exchange, but they are also related to the core content of Server Fault (the post on 17 June shows this) or things that are of interest only to Server Fault users (the post on 25 May). Again, if I went to SF and asked a question relating to any of those posts, it would be on-topic. I think posts about the podcast subject matter, getting hired at Stack Exchange, or how to use the data dump would be closed pretty quickly on Stack Overflow. Jun 26, 2011 at 21:54
  • @random I didn't actually ask a question, but I feel that the topicality of the main site and topicality of the blog should be the same. Topicality of the blog should apply just as much as Stack Overflow as it does to every other site. Sure, the blog on SO started long before there was even a thought of a trilogy, much less the number of sites we have now. But that doesn't mean we can't retroactively clean things up. Jun 26, 2011 at 21:57
  • You as in the pronoun you and not the you you. Nor of the YOU you that you may see here. @tho
    – random
    Jun 26, 2011 at 21:59
  • @random That makes sense - yeah. But again, even most of the podcasts are about Stack Exchange and not so much designing or writing software, so anyone would be hard pressed to come up with a question about something from the podcast to ask on Stack Overflow (with a few exceptions). In fact, it's even called the "SE Podcast", not the "Stack Overflow Podcast". Jun 26, 2011 at 22:01

3 Answers 3

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In light of the BlogOverflow announcement, I'm going to have to say that I agree with this. If the SO community wants to open a blog like SuperUser, then that's already taken- but the SO blog isn't actually about StackOverflow, it's about the whole Stack Exchange network. A ready example is, well, the BlogOverflow post itself- that has nothing to do with programming, it's about the SE network. It's not like I object to having a Stack Exchange blog or anything like that, but the SO community should have equal opportunities here.

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    It would be great to see something like this. I certainly would be willing to contribute some articles. Jun 27, 2011 at 1:36
  • Be careful what you ask for hehe Jun 27, 2011 at 12:17
  • I was smack in the middle of asking a question here on Meta about having an actual programming blog. What's here honestly sucks, and should be something like blog.meta.stackoverflow.com Sep 10, 2013 at 2:38
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Good idea!

For two related, but orthogonal reasons:

  1. Stack Overflow needs to be able to have it's own community identity separate from Stack Exchange.

  2. Stack Exchange need to have an organ for communicating to the entire network that is not tied to Stack Overflow in particular.

Stack Overflow's identity

At this point, SO is like a good-sized city. A great city needs a great newspaper. The New York Times, Washington Post, and LA Times are great sources of news, but to really meet me where I live, I still read the Burbank Leader. Stack Overflow needs an outlet for local news: tags to visit, crime reports, editorials, feel-good stories, etc.

The community was formed out of two great blogs that focused on programmers. At this point, the founding blogs have returned to their original programming and the Stack Exchange blog mostly focuses on, well, Stack Exchange or Meta stuff. That's fine, but it leaves a hole in the SO community. MSO covers some of that need, but there should a place for SO's great programmers to wax poetic about programming without needing to conform to a strict Q&A format. Writing a blog might give contributors a sense of agency that writing a meta-post (a "most") can't.

Clear Stack Exchange communication

What's SO doing on Biblical Hermeneutics?

I like the new Community Bulletin, but it's easy to start ignoring it if there's too much irrelevant information. As I make my rounds on Stack Exchange sites that are not Stack Overflow, I keep running into notices of some sort of election. It's particularly distracting on Biblical Hermeneutics where I happen to have been appointed a moderator Pro Tempore. (Internal monologue: "Let's see what's up with BH. Moderator Election! I'm not ready! Oh. It's just SO. I guess I better ignore sidebar...") Something like 9 out of 10 SE blog posts are relevant to our sites, however, so it would be really helpful to continue having them posted.

But any item that's just about Stack Overflow will either be confusing or annoying to those who no longer frequent the site or have never heard of it. Stack Overflow is awesome, but its awesomeness doesn't need to spill over the rest of the network all the time.

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    FYI, we're probably going to start filtering bulletin board announcements by category at some point in the near future. As you say, there's a lot of stuff that's not relevant to all sites (promotional suggestions really don't do anything for SO, but may well be of interest to a lot of the smaller SE sites).
    – Shog9
    Jun 6, 2012 at 23:39
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I think this problem is potentially solved with the new Blog Overflow.

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