I was just wondering if anybody would be interested in backing an Inkscape Stack Exchange site.

If you're not familiar with Stack Exchange sites, they're devoted Q&A sites that are better for "how-to" type questions than a normal forum. Basically, they try to solve the problem of a question that is looking for a specific answer, but on a forum ends up with pages and pages of replies that the user has to wade through with no real way to tell which of those replies is the best answer to the original question. Questions like this one: http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=820&sd=d. You can read more about how it works at [url]stackexchange.com/about[/url].

That's not to say that such a site would make this forum obsolete. Stack Exchange sites are very poorly suited to open-ended discussions; discussions about things like the future direction of Inkscape, what constitutes good design, etc. These are the type of discussion where an open forum really shines.

There is already an existing graphic design stack exchange site at [url]graphicdesign.stakcexchange.com[/url] with a few Inkscape questions on it but they're spread out pretty far and wide. Still, some of you may find it relevant for non-Inkscape design questions.

If you would be interested in backing such a project, you can find the proposal here: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/40299/inkscape and instructions about how the process works here: http://area51.stackexchange.com/faq.

I guess I should mention that I'm in no way affiliated with Stack Exchange. I'm just an old user of a variety of Stack Exchange sites and a new user of Inkscape. And as a new Inkscape user, I can see a way that other new users might benefit from access to an Inkscape Stack Exchange.

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

As a moderator, I see almost every message that's posted here. I would say 90% are "How do I do this?" kind of questions. There are relatively few open-ended questions posted here. Although quite often, there are more than 1 or 2 ways to accomplish a particular task. Personally, I don't think there's a need for what you're suggesting. But I support Inkscape, and like to see it grow and gain more and more users. So I hope the proposed forum works out for you.

I'm not sure how you made it look like the topic you referenced starts with the last message posted to it, and ends with the first. But in case anyone is interested, this is the correct topic which jimirings referenced viewtopic.php?f=5&t=820. Please note that it is a "sticky" or "pinned" topic, which usually draw a lot of response, and which are often several pages long. That question posted in any forum would be just as long, assuming the forum had enough members. All the info needed is given in the first message, and users don't need to read the whole thread to get the answer. (unless they read the backwards version)

I approved this topic, knowing that you're trying to get enough support to make that proposed forum work. I think the more people who know about and use Inkscape, the better. And as I said, I hope it works out for you. But the little deception with the backwards topic wasn't necessary.

Well, I really like the way Stack Exchange works (I use it for questions related to Math, LaTeX, Unix, and a few others). But I have a few concerns:

• What are the options to configure a subpage for Stack Exchange? Could you add custom "Smilies"? The small pictures of the available tools in Inkscape are really helpful for explaining things to new users.
  
  
• Is it possible to attach SVG files? Often it is really useful for someone to upload their SVG file, to illustrate the problem or question.
  
  
• An entire subpage just for Inkscape seems a little specific, i.e. how much would it be used? Perhaps a better idea would be to create one for vector software in general? That way, questions asked for other software (e.g. Illustrator) could give a boost for developing new/improved functionality in Inkscape!

brynn wrote:I'm not sure how you made it look like the topic you referenced starts with the last message posted to it, and ends with the first.

On phpBB forums you can configure the sorting order of the posts in a topic (ascending or descending). Note the sd=d at the end, that makes it sort in a descending order (based on the date). Quite useful if it is a topic you're regularly checking for updates .

Are you talking about that thing where people vote posts up or down with 'did this help you?' questions? Those are funny bcause sometimes the correct but technical answer is buried under the incorrect but simpler answer. In addition unless there's a lot of quoting it's difficult to follow back and forth discussions. But as long as it's a changeable preference .

Thanks guys, for the info on the order of posts. I thought about that, but I thought since I have mine set to view the other way around, that my settings would show me the same topic in the way that I have set in user control panel. Isn't that the point of having the choice? Also, I've never seen a linked topic shown backwards like that, in this forum, in all the years I've been here. It seems to me that some minor percentage of members must prefer the other way around. But since I've never seen it, I assumed my user prefs must have been overriding it, for those few who must use it.

I apologize if it wasn't an attempt to mislead anyone.

Sorry, I hadn't meant to post it backward like that. I did reverse it while I was looking at it but I figured it was one of those settings that is only applicable to the current browser session. I only meant to illustrate that if you're someone who has that same question, 54 answers is a lot to sift through to try to figure out the best answer. Especially if you have to try a few wrong answers in order to find out that they're wrong.

@druban: I've rarely seen that happen on Stack Exchange sites. Generally, the voting up of correct answers and voting down of incorrect answers ensures that the better answers are at the top and the lesser answers are at the bottom. The exception to that is that the original poster can "accept" an answer which automatically bumps it to the top of the list, regardless of the number of votes. But the highest voted answer will still be second, so it's usually pretty obvious if the OP jumped the gun or something.

@Ailurus I'm not sure about how configurable a Stack Exchange site, i.e., whether or not you could add the smilies. But I totally see your point. Most of the programming Stack Exchange sites use [url]pastebin.com[/url] to share code. I don't see why this wouldn't work for svg files. As far as how much it would get used; brynn said that about 90% of the questions posted in this forum are how-to, so if it was successful I would imagine about as much as this one. The strictly Q&A format might even make it more successful.