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I work at Dimagi, an organization that builds software to enable other people to build data collection applications for community health workers all over the world. Configuring these types of applications can lead to many technical issues. We have begun to request that people ask questions on webapps.stackexchange.com. See:

In CommCare, which date case property references the date the case was created? https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/102145/commcare-how-can-i-filter-lookup-tables-based-on-previous-lookup-table-question

You can view CommCare at https://www.commcarehq.org. However there does not exist an adequate tag for asking questions pertaining to CommCare. I ask to have the CommCare tag created on webapps.stackexchange.com.

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  • If those are an example of the types of questions we can expect to see, I don't think they're going to do well here. One has already been closed, for instance. This is a development tool, no? I see a couple of CommCare questions over at Stack Overflow. It would seem that Stack Overflow is a more appropriate place for CommCare questions. This site is for end-user-focused questions, not developers, even if the development bit is really abstracted.
    – ale
    Jan 18, 2017 at 13:38
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    Some guidance you might want to review: Can I support my product on Stack Overflow? | Is it okay to use Stack Overflow as the support forum for a product or project?
    – ale
    Jan 18, 2017 at 13:42
  • @ale Appreciate the feedback. Those are the type of questions we would get. It's a semi development tool, definitely very abstracted. We were worried we would get moderated off of StackOverflow, but sounds like that is the correct direction to go. It also makes are problem easier as we have enough karma to create our own tags
    – Ben Rudolph
    Jan 18, 2017 at 17:14
  • @ale just a heads up - it's a bit confusing because CommCare is a self-service product, but it's also open-source, so we get both developer questions on how to set it up and user questions on how to use it and configure it. I think we're ok giving it a shot on stack overflow, but I suspect that the user-facing questions would end up getting moderated/closed over there. We can try it out though and maybe if there is a lot of closed content on SO we can migrate the user questions here and create the tag then?
    – Cory
    Jan 19, 2017 at 8:20
  • You should probably contact the Stack Exchange team about using any of the Stack Exchange sites, specifically Stack Overflow, for user support. I expect they'll have some specific advice for you. I've seen other companies do this, and it hasn't gone well.
    – ale
    Jan 19, 2017 at 19:15

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Generally speaking, tags aren't created until there is at least one question to add it to. (It's a feature of the system; you can't create a tag in a vacuum. There has to be a question where those with enough reputation can add the tag.)

While someone has gone and created the tag here, both of the questions you cite seem to be development questions, not web app usage questions. I suppose that for an app like yours that might be a fine line. Part of what makes Stack Exchange successful is the robust community moderation. Stuff that's off-topic gets closed and swept away, keeping the quality of what remains high, which attracts experts to answer questions, which keeps the content of high quality, and so on, in an infinite feedback loop. Unfortunately, if you shunt all of your support questions over to Stack Exchange, your users may not be used to the sort of moderation that occurs here. Further, there will be plenty of questions from your users that would not be appropriate on any Stack Exchange site. Questions that can only be answered by CommCare personnel, for instance, or which are so specific to one person that they can never be useful to anyone else.

It's also not unheard of for an app to be covered by multiple Stack Exchange sites. Dropbox, for instance, has a web interface, and questions about that are on-topic here. But the synchronization app that automatically synchronizes your files from your PC to and from the cloud is off-topic here. Questions about that belong on Super User. Similarly, questions about the Android and iOS Dropbox apps are off-topic here.

So, sure, general access/configuration kind of questions about CommCare will probably do all right here, and questions that are specific to development on CommCare will probably do fine and Stack Overflow. But if the questions you linked to are what we should expect, I don't think anyone is going to be happy.

I suggest that before you fully implement this, you check on some of the advice offered at Meta Stack Exchange and Meta Stack Overflow for people who have already done this sort of thing. (Is it okay to use Stack Overflow as the support forum for a product or project? is a good place to start, and the questions linked to it.) Not to mention the advice in the Stack Overflow Help Center. I'd also suggest you contact the Stack Exchange team for specific advice. You can reach them by using the "contact us" link at the bottom of any Stack Exchange site.

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