New Home Brewing Stack Exchange Q&a Site

[dr_nailz]

There is currently a proposal up for a new home brewing Q&A site on StackExchange here. It needs some more "followers" to get off the ground, and for those wanting to be admins/mods, now would be the time to get involved. It would be great to see some AHB people on there.

StackExchange, for those who don't know, hosts Q&A sites. The questions are moderated by the community (those with high "reputation" from answering questions and such). The design encourages questions and answers, and discourages discussion. You could say phpBB is to discussion as StackExchange is to Q&A. My interest in such a site is to find answers to specific questions, and to find what the community thinks is the best answer to specific questions. That's hard to find in a forum.

If you want to see it created hit the link, sign in/create an account and "follow" the proposal.

 

[brettprevans]

what's your affiliation with the site.

Given its set up, I assume there is some sort of $ to be made for the host/owner of the site?

 

[bum]

Because there is just one right answer to any question in this game...?

 

[Pennywise]

The design encourages questions and answers, and discourages discussion.

I'm with bum here, IMO dicussion is the only way to get answers in this hobby/obsession. There's a hell of alot of ifs and buts in HB'ing.

 

[WarmBeer]

what's your affiliation with the site.

Given its set up, I assume there is some sort of $ to be made for the host/owner of the site?

I don't think there's any way to monetize a Stack Exchange site.

It's grown out of a computer programming Q & A site over the last couple of years, and grew to encompass a bunch of other "IT" related spheres. Then the owners/developers cracked the shiznitz with people trying to work out how to make money out of it and decided everything on their servers would be considered public domain.

Only going from a podcast I listened to months back (yeah, I'm a geek, so what!), so might have the details wrong, but Stack Overflow as a concept is predicated on the idea of sharing knowledge, not making bucks.

 

[brettprevans]

I don't think there's any way to monetize a Stack Exchange site.

It's grown out of a computer programming Q & A site over the last couple of years, and grew to encompass a bunch of other "IT" related spheres. Then the owners/developers cracked the shiznitz with people trying to work out how to make money out of it and decided everything on their servers would be considered public domain.

Only going from a podcast I listened to months back (yeah, I'm a geek, so what!), so might have the details wrong, but Stack Overflow as a concept is predicated on the idea of sharing knowledge, not making bucks.

just because im paranoid doesnt mean they're not out to get me.

fair enough.

the concept maeks sense in science fields where there is only 1 answer.

 

[peted27]

just because im paranoid doesnt mean they're not out to get me.

fair enough.

the concept maeks sense in science fields where there is only 1 answer.

from what WarmBeer said it was developed from a computer programming Q&A site. which probably has more ifs and buts than HBing.

 

[dr_nailz]

what's your affiliation with the site.

None, other than I want to use it to ask and answer questions.

Given its set up, I assume there is some sort of $ to be made for the host/owner of the site?

The people who run the site will presumably make money from displaying ads.

Because there is just one right answer to any question in this game...?

Each question can have multiple answers, the community votes which is the "best", and they are displayed in order of rank (and which one the OP thought was best). That way you can get an idea about what the community thinks is the best answer to a question. E.g. "Which yeast should I use for an IPA?", and there are 27 answers with varying ranks, some of which say things like "If you want X type of IPA, use Y yeast", "It will depend on X, Y and Z". etc. In a forum it's harder to tell who agrees with someone's assertion.

 

[Bribie G]

Is it along the lines of Yahoo Answers where everyone looks like this? and questions are like "what's the best vitamin pill to give a cat" or "why does my weird uncle get erections when he visits our farm?" etc?

 

[dr_nailz]

Is it along the lines of Yahoo Answers where everyone looks like this? View attachment 38623 and questions are like "what's the best vitamin pill to give a cat" or "why does my weird uncle get erections when he visits our farm?" etc?

Heh. It would be like this: http://stackoverflow.com/

 

[Fatgodzilla]

just because im paranoid doesnt mean they're not out to get me.

CM, You are not paranoid, everyone is out to get YOU ... h34r:

never seen a Q & A site before (sorry, not a geek) and can't see it being relevant in home brewing as the range of questions are huge. And who would believe a home brewer anyway .. more liars here than a room full of ex cricketers.

 

[bum]

Each question can have multiple answers, the community votes which is the "best", and they are displayed in order of rank (and which one the OP thought was best). That way you can get an idea about what the community thinks is the best answer to a question. E.g. "Which yeast should I use for an IPA?", and there are 27 answers with varying ranks, some of which say things like "If you want X type of IPA, use Y yeast", "It will depend on X, Y and Z". etc. In a forum it's harder to tell who agrees with someone's assertion.

Yeah, I basically assumed as much but here's the thing, 700 people voting for what basically amounts to an arbitrary answer to an open ended question (that is not open to discussion) doesn't make it right - it is just 701 people saying "I like Nottingham" (Nottingham chosen for example only).

 

[haysie]

I visited geeks world.......


"Hello World!
Stack Overflow is a collaboratively edited question and answer site for programmers regardless of platform or language. It's 100% free, no registration required".

They can have it!


edit, oops looks like i clicked their programmers site, then clicking the link from the O/P, it took me to some homebrewing questions, I`ll check that out then comment again

comment2, thats gotta be hard work getting followers behind those limp dick questions, if Doc`s beer faciando thingo didnt take off, Good Luck.

 

[Wolfy]

None, other than I want to use it to ask and answer questions.

That's what these (and other similar) forums are for.

 

[boobiedazzler]

I dont get it either. If I ask a brewing question, I dont just want 'an answer', but a few points of view, and extensions into related considerations on matters that may also effect the outcome of what I am asking.

www.ausiehomebrewer.com.au is already an almighty helpful resource, the best I have found, and I dont see how or why AHB members would divert their time to a Q & A site instead of just staying here within this community, which is straightforward, friendly and most of all local. Add to that there's many members that know each other outside of the forum, and also experienced members that are happy to get a newbie over for a brewday to see how it all works. How exactly is this other website going to be more helpful to brewers than AHB already is ? Or for that matter any of the well regarded US based websites? Just my 2cents worth, and best of luck if you have a vision for the brewing stack that somehow covers bases that AHB has missed. Or is going to be more detailed than the five years of brewing discussion and wiki entries already here ?

 

[boobiedazzler]

[quote post='640760' date='Jun 8 2010, 02:17 PM']The design encourages questions and answers, and discourages discussion. [/quote]

How straightforward do you want to take the science & art of brewing?

That site is probably OK for the cavemen out there.

 

[bum]

Whoa there, big fella! Dial it back a notch. You're going him a little hard. Plenty of space on the interwebs for everyone.

 

[manticle]

I actually don't think it's a bad idea at all. I am presuming that all answers to questions are visible - it's just that they will receive votes for which makes the most sense or is considered the most useful. Hopefully it's not intended to be a collection of absolute brewing facts.

This site (AHB) generally encourages discussion and disagreement on occasion. I like that. However getting simple answers to questions can also be useful (considering you can ask a question and get 18 different answers here from people who never actually read your initial post). A brewer can potentially get information from more than one site. Room for both and room for more.

 

[haysie]

I actually don't think it's a bad idea at all. I am presuming that all answers to questions are visible - it's just that they will receive votes for which makes the most sense or is considered the most useful. Hopefully it's not intended to be a collection of absolute brewing facts.

This site (AHB) generally encourages discussion and disagreement on occasion. I like that. However getting simple answers to questions can also be useful (considering you can ask a question and get 18 different answers here from people who never actually read your initial post). A brewer can potentially get information from more than one site. Room for both and room for more.

Yeah..... I hear you, but look at the questions on there. Lame, when you can go on AHB, start your own thread and receive instant yes/no`s with a mouthfull of this n that to go with it.

 

[bum]

Prompted by Haysie, I spent a bit more time looking at the ins and outs and here's what I'm getting at above - 4 people (out of 4) say that the following question is a great example of a good question/thread:

How can I measure the IBU of my hop pellets?

Unless the answer is "You can't, dickhead. You're a homebrewer," and everyone votes for it I don't understand how the site can be more useful to anyone.

I also read that someone suggests that recipes are a bad idea in response to a question about cloning commercial beers.

I'm aware that this stance somewhat contradicts my most recent post but when something is run by committee (without a community) like this before it has even begun it is doomed to irrelevance to its purported audience.