Re: emacs stackexchange beta site

[Udyant Wig <udyantw@gmail.com>]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:

| I have already said some of the reasons. Pascal said
| some of the same things slightly differently, and added
| some more. In principle, I agree with what he said,
| though in practice I don't really mind Google spying on
| me.

 Why do you not mind Google spying on you?

 I ask because most of my reading on various fora had very vocal
 participants making known their outrage in no uncertain terms.  So, I
 would much appreciate a different view on this.
 
| But OK:
| 
| <snip comparison between general/mass tools and specific/expert tools>
:
| What I don't like with SX:
| 
| <snip displeasure at enforced goodness on SX>

 I assume they want participants to be nice and civil even while
 discussing matters technical.  Isn't that what moderation is all about?
 
| <snip displeasure at the distractiveness of the Web interfaces>

 I do not see the movement toward a GUI future abating.  Non-GUI fora
 like Usenet will perpetually be the shade under the trees by the road
 in that future.
 
| <snip displeasure at lack of discursive participation>

 I take it that "extended discussions" are "not constructive" and hence
 get "closed".
 
| But: discussion you should take part in, it is an
| interaction between people (the famous distributed
| peer-to-peer review of the FOSS world), or, if you are
| a lurker, follow step by step. So this is why I give
| the SX a half point - in the Google problem-solving
| world, you don't want to wade through never-ending
| Usenet threads: you just want an answer. So Google and
| SX is a good match and I won't pretend I wasn't helped
| numerous times.

 I wrote in comp.lang.c recently that I used to spend some time every
 now and then going through the archives of Usenet with Google's old
 interface.  It had been a fascinating experience every time.  But with
 the upgrade to the new JS-heavy interface, such exploration is hindered
 by its ease of use.
 
| While it is true that Google reduces the attention span
| in time and in space, and it by itself cannot offer
| deep understanding, sometimes you are just stuck on a
| detail and that isn't even in your big-hefted book you
| just read. Here is where Google can help you, so you
| don't get stuck and can move on to bigger and better
| things.

 I have done this myself, always making a note to read up on the point
 later.
 
| <snip postulation of tool with better interface doing Google's job>
| 
| <snip displeasure at the reputation system>

 Such a system or its variants are in widespread use on many fora,
 e.g. on Reddit, where the voting system tends to push popular answers
 to the top of a thread, but which may or may not be sound or valid.

-- 
Udyant Wig
GitHub:    https://github.com/udyant
Poetry:    http://www.writing.com/main/profile/biography/frosthrone