Interested in a Formula SAE Stack Exchange?

[ClemsonFSAE]

I recently learned about Stack Exchange, and I think it would be a great forum for asking questions and getting answers to FSAE and Formula Student questions. Any of you computer programmers are probably familiar with Stack Overflow, and Stack Exchange would let us build a similar repository for FSAE questions. Sometimes it can be hard to find the right thread to answer a question we're looking for, and this site is designed specifically for that purpose. We'd be glad to get a community started if there's interest in it. Reply here if you think this would be a good addition to our forum here!

[Will M]

ClemsonFSAE,

You're right that Stack Overflow is a great site for getting programming answers.
But I would have two concerns.

1.- In programming there are often 'right' answers; not so much in FSAE. This site has thrived because of discussion not because it will give you a perfect answer for a specific question.

2.- You say addition to the forum. does that mean it would be part of this website? There already is an 'offical' FSAE site and it doesn't get nearly as much traffic as here. Is there a risk of splitting the community? It would be best if it could be its own forum (Open FSAE Discussion, Competitions, Dynamic Events, ect) but still be part of the site and search function.


My two cents,
William

[ClemsonFSAE]

Thank you for the feedback. To respond to your concerns:

Much like racing and engineering, there are good and better ways of solving a problem in programming. The benefit of stack exchange is that the users can upvote a response/answer lending credibility to the response and responder. In this way the users' answers are well sorted based on users' satisfaction with the answer. This, in turn, is a form of discussion, but it removes the task of sifting through page after page of user commentary that may not be 100% pertinent to the question.

As far as conflicting the current sources of discussion about FSAE, I would encourage the stack exchange to be linked to on the nav bar of this website. I have little doubt that the vibrant conversation found in this forum would continue unhindered because us formula people can't get enough it! It would merely be a more concise way for people to find the answers they're looking for or ask new questions. Plus it gives the added functionality of the "upvote" and user "reputation" to increase the validity of users' responses. Unfortunately I doubt it could directly integrate into the search function of this forum given the large discrepancy in format, but I think a link in the navbar would serve that purpose equally well.

Thanks again for your feedback, definitely some pertinent concerns.

[Will M]

Maybe a Custom Google search could be added.

They say it can search across multiple specific sites.

"Search across multiple sites: This option expands your search to include other sites. For example, you might configure the search box to search all similar sites that you own to increase the relevant content searched."
https://support.google.com/sites/answer/155554?hl=en

-William

[ClemsonFSAE]

Sounds like a decent idea! But hey, we're here to build a racecar, not a website. Just thought we'd give this idea a shot. Seems like there's not enough interest anyways. Thanks for the constructive feedback though!