[alongub]

Finding answers for SourceMod questions is not exactly easy. From my personal experience, searching the "Scripting" forum for above-average questions is a terrible experience.

Let me propose something new:



StackExchange is a platform for Q&A websites. The most popular example of a Q&A website built with StackExchange is StackOverflow. The most important fact about these Q&A websites is that there are no discussions. It's all about high quality questions and answers.

Let me try to convince you why a Q&A website for SourceMod is far superior to our current system:

• Duplicate Questions - The "Scripting" forum has lots of duplicate questions because there isn't a real way to deal with them with dozens of SourceMod questions asked every day. StackExchange solves this by letting the community close duplicate questions. When you see a duplicate question, you can vote to close it. After 5 votes the question will be closed. In addition, when a user asks a question, he will see a list of similar questions.
  
  But why would we care about duplicate questions anyway, you might ask? Because overall, it reduces the quality of the answers to that question. If there are multiple threads of the same question then the answers are spread between them and the Googler will need to open all threads and collect all data.
  
  
• Questions don't get outdated - in a forum system, each thread has its create date and people usually don't comment on old threads. In a Q&A website, it's completely different - it is actually encouraged to post a new answer to an old question when the other answers are outdated.
  
  There are currently lots of great questions in the "Scripting" forum with completely outdated answers. This is the main reason we see things like GetMaxClients() instead of MaxClients in plugins made by new developers.
  
  
• Voting System - Each question and answer can be voted by anyone up or down. There are many advantages to this. Take a look at the list of the most voted C# questions in StackOverflow. Those great questions are an invaluable resource for learning C# in addition to tutorials, books, etc. Imagine the same thing for SourceMod.
  
  Answers can be voted too, so if a question has multiple answers, you'll be able to see what is the best answer.

Even though I discussed mostly about development questions, the site can also be used for users questions.

If you support this idea, make sure to follow it here:



We need at least 60 followers and the approval/support of the SM team to start this.

if you haven't encountered StackOverflow before, check out this:
http://stackoverflow.com/about

[psychonic]

Shall we just get rid of the forums then?

[alongub]

Originally Posted by psychonic Shall we just get rid of the forums then?

Yes. You should definitely get rid of the Scripting forum imo. This is a much better alternative.

[DruGzOG]

There are a lot of people who ask similar questions but refer to something else.
Something similar to this : http://mywiki.wooledge.org/XyProblem

Also the purpose of the forums would be pointless.

[Powerlord]

I'll follow it, but there's a good chance that the proposal will be closed as a duplicate of StackOverflow since much of the SourceMod questions are programming questions.

[Dr. McKay]

The forums are sufficient for our needs imo.

[11530]

We've had people bring up posts similar to this before. The issue is that once it's implemented people will have to start visiting multiple websites to search for their answer. Best sticking to this, we have sufficient members here visiting daily, and most questions will usually get answered before the week is done.

[napalm00]

What about you get a proper moderation cover on the Scripting forum and mark topics as Solved when a solution for the OP's problem is found, possibly moving them to a subsection? Would make it a lot easier to find solutions for the scripting questions.

[Dr. Greg House]

Originally Posted by napalm00 What about you get a proper moderation cover on the Scripting forum and mark topics as Solved when a solution for the OP's problem is found, possibly moving them to a subsection? Would make it a lot easier to find solutions for the scripting questions.

^
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This

[Mavrick4283]

Originally Posted by Dr. McKay The forums are sufficient for our needs imo.

I would have to agree with McKay, but a restructure could help allot.