Questions tagged [discussion]

Questions that may not necessarily have a clear-cut right or wrong answer and are often subjective. If your question isn't a bug report, feature request, or request for assistance, or question with a concrete answer, it's probably a discussion.

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53 votes
4 answers
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Imgur TOS change on May 15th 2023 could cause the loss of thousands of Stack Exchange images!

On May 15th 2023, Imgur will implement its new TOS, in which We will be focused on removing old, unused, and inactive content that is not tied to a user account. I, and presumably many other users, ...
qazwsx's user avatar
  • 647
87 votes
7 answers
2k views

Is SE [going to be] selling our content for AI model training? And what exactly does "reinvest back into our communities" mean?

Wired published an article titled Stack Overflow Will Charge AI Giants for Training Data. I read through it, and a few sections seemed noteworthy to me "Community platforms that fuel LLMs ...
cocomac's user avatar
  • 5,143
5 votes
2 answers
123 views

A comment is better than my answer - should I remove the answer?

I answered a question, and a user later added a correct comment that would actually make a better answer than mine. Should I remove my answer?
Greycon's user avatar
  • 211
84 votes
10 answers
5k views

An example of a generative AI tool: Suggesting better question titles

With all the conversation around generative AI and our early explorations into it, I thought it might be useful to post some screenshots that show examples of the type of early experiments that we’re ...
Philippe's user avatar
  • 15k
-386 votes
39 answers
48k views

New blog post from our CEO Prashanth: Community is the future of AI

For posts following this one, see: An example of a generative AI tool: Suggesting better question titles AI/ML Tool examples part 3 - Title-Drafting Assistant AI/ML Tool examples part 2 - ...
Philippe's user avatar
  • 15k
30 votes
1 answer
754 views

We’re moving Traducir to our internal infrastructure

It's been a long time since we started using Traducir on Stack Overflow en español in 2018. We originally built it as open source, which not only let us accept contributions from users, but more ...
g3rv4's user avatar
  • 1,207
1 vote
0 answers
117 views

Effectiveness of site name / descriptions of sites for "power users"

This is a follow-up of How can a community know who outsiders think a community is for?. While it could be argued that people posting "bad" don't read the directions of the Ask Question form ...
Rubén - People First's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
163 views

Leaving a Question Closed for a Non-Existent Reason

Things on the Stack Exchange network change over time, as they should. One relatively recent change was that made to the workflow in the "Reopen votes" review queue, when a reviewer chooses ...
Adrian Mole's user avatar
  • 3,435
5 votes
0 answers
76 views

Should election chatrooms have a different status when pruning/freezing rooms?

On smaller sites there isn't too much activity in chat - so it is not that surprising that if an election room was created, the "main" chatroom1 often gets frozen (since it was inactive for ...
Martin's user avatar
  • 14.6k
1 vote
0 answers
98 views

Is “needs details or clarity” connected to the help center article on questions that are automatically blocked for not meeting quality standards? [closed]

I have noticed that dozens of old questions have been recently unilaterally closed in Web Apps SE as “needs details or clarity”, or closed as duplicates of questions also closed as “needs details or ...
galacticninja's user avatar
-14 votes
2 answers
172 views

Why am I getting so many closed and deleted questions recently? [closed]

Am I really that bad in writing? Am I really getting worse and worse? I am a part of The Community (I am proud that I can write it in capitals; there is no sarcasm in here) for at least 10 years. I've ...
trejder's user avatar
  • 3,941
-11 votes
1 answer
253 views

Why does downvote sometimes seem to mean 'no'?

Many times on Meta, but not necessarily non-Meta sites, I see yes/no questions. And questions where the answer is no are very often downvoted. Why is that? Why does downvote mean 'no'? I thought ...
user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
190 views

Could we get statistics on where in the world Stack Exchange users come from in 2023?

While I realise it is an apples and oranges comparison—with folks having better privacy protections on their own systems and Google Analytics, and how SE uses it changing quite a bit in the 14 years ...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
  • 154k
-12 votes
4 answers
149 views

Is it allowed to start a bounty for your unanswered question using an alt account?

Let's say a user has 2 accounts. The main account has asked a question which is unanswered. Now, is it allowed for the user to start a bounty on that question using the 2nd account given the following ...
binga58's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
240 views

How should mods of per-site-meta with low / slow participation handle posts that if posted here will be negatively received?

TL;DR: I'm a moderator in Web Applications, and I was elected in 2020. When I have considered to take a tough decision, like suspend a user, I have discussed it privately. One of my major concerns is ...
Rubén - People First's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
95 views

If I vote to close a question, am I notified if the OP updates the question? [duplicate]

Suppose that I have the privilege to vote to close a question on some Stack Exchange site. Suppose further that I encounter a mediocrely-written question and vote to close it. If the OP updates the ...
Rodrigo de Azevedo's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
109 views

Links to old Google product forums are broken

TL;DR: 3,332 posts from multiple communities have links to productforums.google.com. Source. Apparently all these links are "broken" (they are redirected to the homepage of a community ...
Rubén - People First's user avatar
98 votes
22 answers
15k views

Improving the copy in the close modal and post notices – 2023 edition

Since we updated the close modal text and post notices a few years ago, I've known that there are concerns about whether they're sufficiently clear for users and whether they're giving the correct ...
Catija's user avatar
  • 100k
1 vote
1 answer
123 views

What should we do with the tag [experts]?

TL;DR: experts has 25 14 questions but hasn't tag wiki. The Frequent tab shows 9 4 questions. All the Top Askers have 1 question each. The Top Answerer is Robert Cartaino with 2 answers and a score of ...
Rubén - People First's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
71 views

Should we lower the flag count for spam/rude-abusive for brand new users and chat flags?

While we do love our new users - oftentimes spammers are 1 reputation users, simply cause they (clearly) don't get any votes. While I do realise there's potential for abuse - it feels like a lower ...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
  • 154k
3 votes
1 answer
72 views

Should a question be posted on the site with the most expertise or the most interest?

Should we give priority to interest or expertise when choosing where to post a question? A question may be of more interest to users on one Stack Exchange site, but the users on a different site may ...
David Bailey's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
153 views

How useful is it to say that I tried searching for an answer without saying what search queries I made, and what could be more useful than that?

Prior to asking my question, I tried exercising my basic research skills to see if my question had already been asked and answered before using my favourite search engine (Ex. Google search) and using ...
starball's user avatar
  • 10.7k
0 votes
1 answer
82 views

How to delete a post completely [duplicate]

Suppose, by mistake, I posted some confidential information in a post (both question and answer). How can I delete the post so even moderators and users with enough reputation cannot view the post? ...
Karthikeyan's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
153 views

How do I ask long clarifications on an answer?

Someone has left a thoughtful answer to my question. I have a bunch of clarifications, and for now I've left these as a set of long comments. Is this the appropriate way to do this, or should I have ...
eccentricOrange's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
70 views

Which site should I post on regarding advanced Gmail filtering? [duplicate]

I have an issue with one of my emails where it gets too many spam emails. The emails clearly have me BCC'd as the recipient email is always David{some string of characters}@aol.com and the CC email is ...
David G.'s user avatar
  • 207
0 votes
0 answers
140 views

Why does the Stack Overflow site keep logging me out? Only in Chrome

For the past few months, I've encountered this issue. As I do not bother until recently, I find it very annoying. I have not done any changes towards my account, nor Chrome settings. Here are some ...
Tommy Leong's user avatar
-27 votes
1 answer
195 views

Automatic deleting of highly inactive questions

This question is not a duplicate of Enable automatic deletion of old, unanswered, zero-score questions after a year? since it is only for questions with low score. This question asks for automatic ...
Jovan Radenkovic's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
41 views

Add a warning about the inaccessibility of spoilers to the editing help

As I pointed out in October 2017, Spoilers are inaccessible to keyboard-only users. That question has two answers suggesting more accessible alternatives, including one that relies on native HTML ...
Tsundoku's user avatar
  • 2,531
4 votes
2 answers
159 views

Duplication by an old post with obsolete tag

There's an old and currently obsolete tag mobile-web (if used for non-chat questions). It so happened that current site behavior (responsive design) works the same as for an old mobile site. Should we ...
αλεχολυτ's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
157 views

Maybe we need a 'generic' account for some staff activities

Every year, we end up needing to get community managers to get someone to change the selected answer for this post. If I understand correctly, this needs a bit of a special tool or developer time. We ...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
  • 154k
-6 votes
1 answer
91 views

Stack Exchange site to ask Google Help Communities questions [closed]

We read The Google Help Communities are a place for Google users to ask questions or provide feedback about Google products and services, discuss products and services with other Google users and ...
Dan Jacobson's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
84 views

Edit stuck in limbo - what do I do?

I edited my question (How do I resolve Wix form 'Couldn't submit due to temporary issue' error?) to reverse changes someone had made (and seemed unhelpful). The review of my edit has been ...
i_stack's user avatar
  • 31
-27 votes
3 answers
197 views

Integrate GPT-4 or future large language models or other AI? [duplicate]

At some point, large language models will generate answers that are better than human answers. There seems to be consensus that GPT-3 and ChatGPT (GPT-3.5) are not good enough for that But it will ...
Volker Siegel's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
112 views

Badge: socratic 103/100 [duplicate]

In an SE section, Physics, I did get a 103/100 in the Socratic badge and, yet, I did not get the badge. What is the reason of that?
riemannium's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
76 views

Where could I ask questions about the name and availability of a job in a given country?

I have a question regarding the availability and name of a specific job in a given country as I'm planning to move there in the future. While I do have a friend who lives there, they are unable to ...
Newbyte's user avatar
  • 205
-15 votes
2 answers
205 views

Is the Stack Exchange community going to fight against AI use with anti-cheating systems? [closed]

Some sites have started to tell moderators to ban users using AI to generate content and reputation. Will the community begin a machine-learning battle against the use of AI in Stack Exchange to help ...
user avatar
21 votes
0 answers
217 views

How exactly do people (accidentally) end up here on MSE?

On a daily basis, MSE gets a few (sometimes more than a few) off-topic questions that are posted here by accident. This is when a user intends to post the question on a specific site on the network ...
41686d6564 stands w. Palestine's user avatar
-23 votes
1 answer
475 views

Examples of ChatGPT being right and wrong on Stack Exchange?

Some sites have prohibited the use of ChatGPT on their site, with the rationale that it produces "mostly wrong answers". I've not seen examples myself of answers of ChatGPT being flat out ...
Braiam's user avatar
  • 15k
-15 votes
2 answers
206 views

Shouldn't the ChatGPT policy be more explicit about what is and is not allowed? [duplicate]

The announcement of ChatGPT's ban only talks about the potential incorrect answers the AI could add to the site if allowed. However, I can think of more uses for the AI than answers. You focused on ...
user avatar
-10 votes
1 answer
121 views

Should any flag on an eventually-deleted post be marked as helpful, even if it was declined by a moderator?

Should we have it be that if a post is deleted, any flag on that post is marked helpful, even if it was declined by a moderator? In other words, say I flag an answer, and the flag is declined by a ...
Starship - On Strike's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
172 views

Will original answers but translated by AI receive the same treatment as answers spontaneously generated by AI?

As announced on Stack Overflow Meta, the use of content generated by ChatGPT is temporarily banned. It was stated in Temporary policy: ChatGPT is banned Stack Overflow is a community built on trust. ...
Augusto Vasques's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
207 views

Opining a successful-edit-count-based two tier suggested edit system

This is a bit of a follow up to the 'answer' here. From the time editing was first introduced, it's a system that both has been refined, and occasionally has scaled poorly. In general, the mechanics ...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
  • 154k
155 votes
71 answers
17k views

The Stack Exchange reputation system: What's working? What's not?

Update Thank you everyone for the feedback you have provided. At this time, we will work through the feedback we have received to help us determine where to take our research on reputation next. ...
SpencerG's user avatar
  • 6,001
-1 votes
2 answers
139 views

Where can we find a site charter/purpose that tells us the types of question on/off topic?

There's a question currently posted at What unexpected things can happen if a user runs commands expecting a text file on input lacking a file-final newline? that's closed as it's been deemed ...
Ed Morton's user avatar
  • 176
7 votes
1 answer
81 views

How far do we need to go with unattributed images? [duplicate]

The CC licensing requires attribution for any content that isn't your own, including images. People often post unattributed clarifying images copied from somewhere else. It is clear from the post that ...
fixer1234's user avatar
  • 7,199
-11 votes
1 answer
129 views

Preparing a better question: large data file (JSON from a SVG) on Pastebin.com to be run through JavaScript, AWK, and sed:

I have a task that will benefit from writing a good question on Stack Exchange - in that I think the results will be instructive in general. Of course. There is a large SVG file already on Pastebin....
Bryan-StackExchange's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
60 views

Sign up button on Talent redirects to home page [closed]

I am on Stack Overflow Talent, and I have two questions. I tried to log in first, and it took me to the login page, but it seemed I am not a registered user, so then I tried to click on the Sign-up ...
Amar Singh's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
99 views

Asking for any/"best" program for X vs. asking how to do X with specific program, and the "X/Y Problem"

I can find myself struggling to write a question about doing Y with any of the usual GNU/*nix tools like awk, sed, tr, .. perl (not sure that's GNU/*nix..), or perhaps others I do not know of. I saw ...
Bryan-StackExchange's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
164 views

Guidance for "me too"ers (answerers / commenters and upvoters)

On Web Applications SE we have a lot of short questions that get lots of views and "a lot" of "me too" or alike answers, comments and upvotes. Regarding me too upvotes, from ...
Rubén - People First's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
1k views

Did Stack Exchange's traffic go down since ChatGPT?

I was wondering whether the traffic of Stack Exchange sites went down since the open access to ChatGPT. There is so much gossip in terms of "Will programmers be unnecessary with ChatGPT? Will ...
Tarquinius's user avatar