4

Problem

In Web Applications we got, some times more off-topic questions than on-topic questions, about

  • Apps for other platforms (desktop, Android, iOS, etc.)
    Most web applications doesn't have the same features and look and feel than the apps for other platforms. Most of these questions aren't about overall app concepts like friends in Facebook, DM in Twitter, labels in Gmail or formulas in Google Sheets.

  • Help desk, customer service alike requests
    These are posts about issues that required troubleshooting (a lot of back and forth) or that only app developer agents might answer.

  • Seed questions
    Single sentence or not practical, detailed questions about a problem that is faced by the OP lacking of a fuller description and research. Might work as discussion starters, brainstorming "ideas", backlog item titles to be developed later.

  • Concern delegation
    Apparently some OPs see the posts as tasks to be added into a to-do list, as a job to be added into job jar or into job board listing, delegating to others the improvement of the question, adding a fuller description, search this site and researching or doing some external job like posting a feature request / issue in the app developer tool for such effects or using this site to make public a dispute with the app developer or among parties.

  • General reference
    How the Web works, or how websites / webapps in general do things.

  • Systems development lifecycle

    • Developing web applications
    • Administering email services and other cloud hosted services
    • Web services (Amazon Web Services, etc.)

It looks that the OP only see "applications" or see in Web Applications as a place where to ask all questions that can be asked about the Web.

Element to be customized

The Step 1: Draft your question box from the Ask Question form currently shows the following for Web Applications:

Step 1: Draft your question

Step 1: Draft your question

The community is here to help you with questions about web applications. Provide details and share research with your question.

Specific request

Modify the wording for the Step 1 Draft side panel block as follows:

The community is here to help you with interesting, high quality questions about using applications in the Web as end-user. Check this page for details.

Search the site and study the web application resources for end-users. Try to do what need / solve the problem by yourself. Then ask. Beginner questions are welcome but blatantly basic questions and questions that delegate the post author responsabilities don't. Check this page for details.

Help desk / customer support like questions are off-topic. For details see On which Stack Exchange site can I ask customer service questions about product X or company Y?

Let's make this super clear, questions about using:

  • apps that should be installed on devices with Windows, Mac, Android, iOS or any operative system are off-topic.
  • a web browser for managing web services, domains, DNS hosts, email services, or doing any other task belonging to the systems development lifecycle for personal, group or corporate use, are off-topic.

If your question is about this community, ask it on meta instead.

Ready to ask your question?

  1. Provide a brief but complete description of what you are trying to do. Questions related to handling data should include sample data as text directly in the question body.
  2. If you had a problem related to an error message or something that is not working as expected, show what you have tried to solve it. Include the textual error message in English, you might have to change your account or web browser settings temporaly to get the error message in English.
  3. Share what you found from this site and from the resources for end-users offered by the developer of the web application and why these findings don't meet your needs. If you have googled and found nothing, you might try to ask a question about an app with a very small user base, you might have not studied enough or might have to ask a question about using a web search engine. Optionally you might explain what make your question insteresting for this community.
  4. Add the tag that corresponds to the web application about what is being asked. Don't include tags related to stuff that was mentioned to help you explain the problem or expected behavior. If there is not yet a specific tag use a general tag like , , , , , etc. See How do I correctly tag my questions?
  5. Review the question title. See How do I write a good title?

Related Announcement in Meta Stack Exchange

Similar feature-request from sister sites

Ask Ubuntu Meta

6
  • 1
    This is not a bad idea, but I don't know that this is something that moderators can readily change.
    – jonsca
    Jul 12, 2018 at 22:45
  • @jonsca Originally I was not thinking that the diamond moderators were able to implement this but I just remembered that the CM of Stack Overflow en español is able to change some text from the UI which make thing that could me very nice that diamond moderators of sites like this have access to that.
    – Rubén Mod
    Jul 12, 2018 at 22:49
  • 1
    We have control of a few things in the Help Center, that is true. I'll poke around a bit.
    – jonsca
    Jul 12, 2018 at 22:54
  • Also, see this MSE post for specific guidance on customizing the guidance shown on the Ask Question page: What site-specific changes can be made to the Ask Question page to help askers on that site write better questions?
    – V2Blast
    Mar 16 at 18:32
  • 1
    @V2Blast question "fixed"
    – Rubén Mod
    Mar 18 at 1:44
  • 1
    @Rubén: Thank you! That seems a lot easier to parse at a glance.
    – V2Blast
    Mar 21 at 16:53

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

After reviewing the suggested update, we can't accept this as is. This update would make the asking question modal about five times longer than any other updated modal I could locate.

I appreciate the desire to include all of this as its helpful information. However, we have to remember that this is the modal that appears after a user has decided they wish to ask a question about something, so putting a large block of text in front of them with links to more reading likely isn't going to change the outcome this modal is attempting to address.

This particular modal will be the most effective when it's concise. Linking elsewhere is encouraged, but we don't want to overwhelm them with too much information that will disincentivize most users from reading it.

I will move this to status declined as is, but feel free to switch the tag back if you wish to shorten this into a more digestible format.

Below are a couple of examples of some updates other sites have done:

  • Links to site-specific guidance on scope and/or how to ask a question more effectively (see Server Fault and Mathematics).
  • Links to related sites that are common migration targets (see English Language & Usage).
  • A brief overview of what is in and out of scope, usually focused on commonly-closed question types (see Cooking).
  • Reminders to include often-forgotten elements in questions (see Role-Playing Games, Code Golf).
1
  • Thanks Spencer. This request was not about the modal, but anyway, I think that the still the same applies. In the short term I think that the best will be to put this in stand by to favor other type of initiatives, like creating a question sandbox, if there are voluntaries willing to help with something like that.
    – Rubén Mod
    Apr 6 at 20:30

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