224
votes
How can we help users who are put off by the use of golfing languages?
Stop upvoting trivial solutions
It's easy to imagine why a new user would be frustrated when the highest-voted answer is a 3-byte solution in a golfing language with a built-in that nearly solves the ...
- 144k
87
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Can we get a custom Tour page?
The most important part of the onboarding experience for new users (especially those who don't arrive via other sites from the network) is the tour page. Moderators can ...
- 196k
71
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Built-in support for scores and leaderboards
The vast majority of PPCG challenges involve minimizing or maximizing the score of a solution, usually the byte count of a program.
As it currently stands,...
- 42.5k
63
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Remove the "you already have an answer" pop-up
When you post an answer on a question where you have already posted an answer, a pop-up appears asking you if you really want to do this and ...
- 11.2k
61
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
s/question/challenge/g
This is pretty big and this might actually be a lot of effort on SE's part, but I think the overall impression of this being a Q&A site would be greatly reduced if the site ...
- 196k
59
votes
How can we help users who are put off by the use of golfing languages?
What SE could do for us...
One of the most popular suggestions from "We're not a Q&A site, but what should be done about it?" is to add software support for answer metadata (mainly scores and ...
- 196k
53
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Fixing the Help Centre
This has the same problems as the tour page. On one hand it's not quite as urgent because it's not as prominent as the tour page, on the other hand the problem exists on a much ...
- 196k
48
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Modify the trigger for low quality posts
Occasionally, very short answers to code-golf competitions written without explanations will end up in the low quality posts queue on the ground that they are ...
- 8,899
46
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Remove the Accept feature
This feature is likely way too integral to how SE instances work for this to be possible without forking the software, but I don't think the concept of accepted answers is ...
- 196k
45
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Better Close Reasons
This has now become its own separate feature request.
Mods can edit a few slots of custom off-topic reasons. However, the majority of close vote reasons are fixed and cannot ...
- 196k
43
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Don't steer new users into posting challenges
The SE interface points first-time users to ask a question. The Ask Question button is bolded and the tour is largely about asking. Answering is more ...
- 144k
42
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Tag badges for challenges
Questions (challenges) aren't counted towards tag badges. Seeing how much emphasis we put on the fact that high-quality challenges are the main contribution someone can give ...
- 196k
39
votes
Should we consider planning a move off StackExchange?
It wouldn't be a move
Rather, the new site would be another community (built on the experience of this). Users of the new site would not necessarily be the same we now have on this site. The current ...
- 104k
36
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Remove "This question has more than 30 answers already" pop up for challenges
It doesn't make sense to restrict the number of solutions to a challenge. In some cases there may be solutions in more ...
35
votes
How can we help users who are put off by the use of golfing languages?
As someone who doesn't use golfing languages, I can sympathise to a degree with the users left burnt by golfing langs.
You spend time solving a problem in a popular language, post your solution, and ...
- 575
34
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Vote button tooltips
Whenever someone asks why their challenge or answer was downvoted (or whether they should up- or downvote some other post), the best response is often "well, what does the ...
- 196k
34
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Increase the "Ask Question" Privilege Threshold to +2
I should note that I'm not convinced that this is a good idea but I figure I'll mention it to see how others feel.
On Q&A sites, the point ...
- 24.6k
33
votes
How can we help users who are put off by the use of golfing languages?
Stop accepting trivial solutions
Note: As of September 2021, accepted answers aren't pinned to the top anymore.
Don't give the green checkmark to the shortest solution when it's shortest by being in ...
- 144k
32
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Better Bounty Reasons
This has now become its own separate feature request.
When starting a bounty, people here almost always use either "reward an existing answer" or "draw attention", ...
- 196k
32
votes
A proposal to combat Meta Bloat™: The Big Consensus Freeze
I propose that each commonly-used language have a separate explanation of the rules that most pertain to it, with code examples. I think this is more digestible that a big general FAQ, especially to ...
- 144k
31
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
A bounty-like feature for challenges
Sometimes, challenges are so well-designed and/or have taken so much effort, that I want to give the author a bunch of my rep for the great service they've done ...
- 196k
29
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Support for indefinite bounties
I don't know if any other site is doing this, but it's quite common here to promise a bounty without actually starting it, because some are asking for additional ...
- 196k
29
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Modify the placeholder search bar text
If you look at the top right corner of the page, you'll see a search box with the placeholder text "Search Q&A." Even outside of the context of ...
- 24.6k
29
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Stop automatically protecting challenges
Right now, a question will be automatically protected if it gets three or more deleted answers. This is a good move for Q&A sites, but the nature of PPCG ...
- 58.9k
29
votes
How can we help users who are put off by the use of golfing languages?
De-emphasize code-golf
And concentrate on other challenges, tricks and hacks with the code where golfing languages are less advantaged. Make PPCG more about Programming Puzzles than about Code Golf.
- 2,697
29
votes
Should we consider planning a move off StackExchange?
After seeing the updated COC, I'm going to contribute as little as possible. I still sometimes need to find existing answers, but I refuse to contribute answers or content to a website under such ...
- 23.3k
27
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Collaborative posts with equal rep sharing
Occasionally 2 or more people will work together on writing a challenge or a solution. Currently all the reputation goes to the person whose name it is in. ...
26
votes
Who are you? Why are you here? And more introspection
Who are you?
Hi there! I'm Alex. I'm a moderator pro tempore an elected moderator on this site.
Why are you here?
What brought me here
Once upon a time I was working on a project for my job that ...
- 24.6k
25
votes
We're not a Q&A site. But what should be done about it?
Feb 2017 - status-completed See this feature request.
This little blurb from Downgoat's PPCG Design Userscript:
Before you post, take some time to read through the forbidden loopholes if you haven'...
- 5,849
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible