FAQ Index for Programmers.SE

Question

This is an index for discussions relating to frequently asked questions about Programmers.SE.

Our main FAQ covers the answers to those questions in brief: these questions cover various aspects of the FAQ and the functioning of Programmers.SE in detail.

Adding new entries to the FAQ

If there's a question that frequently comes up and is not tagged faq or listed in this index, create a new question and tag it faq-proposed.

Try to follow the Q&A format: ask the question, and provide the answer separately.

Answer 1

Site purpose and usage

• Programmers.SE FAQ
• How do I get started with Programmers.SE?
• What's the difference between Programmers and Stack Overflow?

On-topic and off-topic questions

• Are "I'm looking for X" questions on topic?
• Why is "what language should I learn" considered off-topic?
• What types of programming-related questions are off-topic?
• Can I ask career advice questions?
• Are Career Advice questions useful to anyone except the poster?
• Are questions not directly related to programming (but might concern programmers) on-topic?
• Are software law questions off-topic here?
• Are book recommendations on-topic?

Moderation

• A guide to moderating programmers.stackexchange yourself - close voting
• What are the rules around moderators closing questions outright?
• The Six Subjective Question Guidelines -- Enforcement Notice

Blog

• Contributing to the Blog

Other resources

• Good Subjective, Bad Subjective
• Real Questions Have Answers
• Q&A is Hard, Let’s Go Shopping!
• Gorilla vs. Shark

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Is your question not part of the FAQ?

First look at questions tagged faq-proposed to see if there is a question not in this index that might have the answer you seek. If you still can't find an answer, then see the following instructions for proposing an FAQ question.

How can a question be added to this FAQ?

• Ask only the question, stated plainly and simply, in the question body. The answer goes in an answer.

• Tag as faq-proposed and support. When a post seems to hit a mature state, it will have faq added by a moderator.

• Flag for a moderator to mark community wiki. Any FAQ post not yet community wiki should be made into a community wiki.

• Add a link in the above table of contents.