Creating a "Graphic Design Software Support" Stack

Question

Most of the community here is in agreement that "How do I do X basic thing in Program?" questions are not what we're here for. (The line between "basic" and "moderate" is blurry, but that's for dancing angels to work out.)

But I hate to see a front page full of [on hold] and [closed] questions from new users who then never return because we've closed the door on them so sharply, even if the closure is legitimate by our standards.

So my question for the mods, and the community at large, is can we in fact create the Graphic Design Software Support stack which these newbies are desperate for, so that we can migrate those questions rather than just kicking them out? This way users who might be interested in doing tech support can do so, and GDSE can be cleared out to focus on actual design questions, or at least more advanced How-to questions. (I can't rule those out — half of my questions here are how-tos!)

I mean, can anyone just go over to Area51 and propose something? I admit I'm not particularly knowledgeable in how the rest of the SE network operates.

Answer 1

This is a tough one. Ideally, graphic designers who have software questions should ask that here. But we do seem to get a lot of non graphic designers who are simply too lazy to google a photoshop tutorial.

The problem with the latter is that having a site just for that is pointless. No one wants to hang around a SE site answering lazy questions.

So I would vote no, we do not need a separate GD software site. Keep software questions here. Keep the good ones open, keep closing the lazy ones.

Answer 2

Stack Exchange is not a home for poorly asked or not very useful questions (Useful to only one person, to specific, Hlps plz), ever. The questions put on hold here are put on hold because they are below the Stack Exchange level. I'm not talking too simple or anything, I'm talking plain bad. The simple ones are fine here and have the home. The closed questions on GD.SE are not closed for lack of a home, they are closed for lack of worth.

Software questions should have a home here, but they need to be good. Any graphic design software question worth being on this network should be and is topical here

What you're proposing here is a garbage bin for questions folks might look back on and wish they'd never asked, a compost heap. I understand this brutal treatment of new users can feel wasteful (throwing traffic away) and elitist, however this attitude is what made Stack Exchange great.

The people who are either skilled or persistent enough (me being the latter) to survive and rise in this system are the same people who made these sites great. The brutality of Stack Exchange is how quality is kept up.

Graphic Design supports tool how-tos, anything beneath the quality level here deserves no place in this knowledge database*.

Note: I was brutally treated on Stack Overflow (auto-post banned); however, I stuck around on the network and survived...

_{*Stack exchange is literally a massive data base containing the knowledge of thousands of professionals}

Answer 3

After some thought.. here's my take....

What is "graphic design" if not problem solving in general??

To work or play as a designer you must have at least an entry level ability to solve problems. And that has nothing to do with experience levels. Even the youngest, newest, designer must be able to solve problems for themselves the same way they must understand measurement systems. If you don't know what an inch or pica or millimeter is, you can't be a designer. If you can't actively try and solve problems you encounter, you can't be a designer.

Lazy questions which show an inability to Google search or use the application help files do one clear thing to me... they show a complete lack of problem-solving abilities and a desire to have others do your work for you. Is that why everyone's here?

Bad questions are bad questions. MOST of the software or tech-support questions I see here are these lazy questions and that has always been my primary issue with them on the site.

On a personal level, I'd have no problem answering anything and everything someone asked of me. However, on a StackExchange site, if you can't even be bothered to spend 15 minutes trying to solve your own issue, you shouldn't be posting a question.

Looking at the proposal, all of the sample questions could easily be answered with 15 minutes of research and Google. None of those questions require a deep level understanding of the application or expert knowledge. The answers are easily found and steps or procedures clearly explained in application help files.

So... my inclination is the proposal would be, as others have stated, a "garbage bin" for lack-of-effort, easily answered, questions and ultimately no more valuable than any web site which currently displays the answers (of which there are many).

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After some discussion in chat about on and off topic things I've come to some further realizations.

I do not think all tech support here is bad.

Much of it can be, but there are very valuable tech support issues which we should handle here. The difference primarily is when answers would provide technical knowledge as opposed to application troubleshooting.

This question stirred a discussion:
How to get consistent color in Photoshop when using the [Print Screen] command?

Now, is that tech support and off topic or on topic?

I feel it's on topic for some clear reasons:

• Any answers would provide technical knowledge about how to calibrate a monitor or set color settings within Photoshop.
• Any answers would provide information which would be valuable to hundreds of visitors, even if they were somewhat experienced.
• Any answers would not need to be specific to a users hardware or configuration.

That being posted I agree that it is a tech support question. So I can see why it would possibly get close votes. But when a question would provide knowledge every designer may find valuable, there's still a lot of merit in the tech support question.

These types of tech support questions belong here and should be allowed to stay. The intent is to further knowledge needed in the graphic design field.

The Grey area

This question falls between what's above and below:
Why is Illustrator not making sublayers for each new path?

Is this tech support? To me, yes. However, it's not really asking for application support. It's asking more about workflow support. Yes, the answer is simple, straight-forward, and merely takes some knowledge of the application settings. However, if you don't know what you don't know, where else can someone ask this? Why not allow some of these questions to remain. This question, although basic, clearly shows some thought behind it.

In fact I've even purposefully posted such rudimentary questions to have answers available: How do I apply a gradient across multiple objects in Illustrator?

This type of question is admittedly a very, very, very large grey area and I don't begin to try and define these with definitive boundaries.

Would they fit with the proposal? Probably, yes. But only if they show effort, are clear, and not duplicates, in which case they also fit here, don't they?

The Garbage Bin

By comparison, these closed questions are rightly closed:

Error opening EPS in GIMP 2.8

https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/53321/mac-truetye-font-defaults-to-bold-style

https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/46728/panel-gone-too-big-in-workspace

Why? Because these deal with error messages or hardware issues which are specific to the user's environment. Application error messages don't always elude to tech support issues, but they can be a large contributing factor for me. Error messages can elude to workflow problems which are not related to the host systems. Each question is unique and depending upon error messages, and my application understanding, I judge what i feel is accordingly.

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So in summary, I feel this proposal is geared to handling these topics we are closing (the grey area or garbage bin). And seeing that, I can't understand how these types of off-topic tech support questions would make a valuable stack in itself.

I do think, at times, questions which fall under technical knowledge get unfair close votes. And I'm not claiming that I'm perfect by any means. This post is merely seeking to elaborate upon what I feel is on and off-topic and why a proposal for our closed questions may not be warranted.

Answer 4

I don't think SE needs a support stack just for Graphic Design. Instead of taking away or causing separation in what we have I think we need to, as a community, discuss some issues in hand.

I do not mind beginner questions and I do prefer more design based questions but my issue with new members is the lack of effort and it will always be that. Everyone has to learn and I get that but when someone comes and just asks how do I do X and says they haven't tried I feel it defeats the purpose of any stack site which is a place for professionals. Professionals, in my mind, will make any/all effort and document accordingly before proceeding with their questions, but when we get some people like "How do you make such a shape in photoshop?" I want to close this as broad because it would need a full blown tutorial and what areas are we really answering other than providing a tutorial. Does the new member need help, yes, but do they deserve it, no. So opening a new stack site still doesn't solve the problem and that this questions is flat out crap and in no way is professional.

Now would a new stack site work? Doubt it because the scope will be too close in similarity and we would battle the issue from people wondering what the difference is. We battle that now on what is considered software support and actually a design question. Even after posting to some meta questions new members have gotten annoyed and lashed out.

I know some aren't going to want to hear it but we should consider re-defining our scope. We addressed font-id questions, which caused us to go from 1 million a day to 1 about every other day. I will start working on closing all the 3dsmax and maya questions since it is clear from the meta post they are off-topic.

Overall we are just going to have to face the facts and that is if we want GD to flourish we are just going to have to take the very beginner questions and address them accordingly and encourage edits in a nice manner. That might be hard for some, because some people will not understand ad lash out at your comment and just want to argue, I get that, but you could look at it as working on your communication skills.

Answer 5

Okay, I've gone and done it.

http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/86994/graphic-design-software-support/

If you like the idea, or at least you're not actively opposed to it :) , please follow it and submit some questions — I just grabbed some likely ones from the first four or five pages here.

If there isn't sufficient support, well, at least we tried and now we know.