Let's get critical: Jun 2013 Site Self-Evaluation

Question

We all love Graphic Design Stack Exchange, but there is a whole world of people out there who need answers to their questions and don't even know that this site exists. When they arrive from Google, what will their first impression be? Let's try to look at this site through the eyes of someone who's never seen it before, and see how we stack up against the rest of the 'Net.

The Site Self-Evaluation review queue is open and populated with 10 questions that were asked and answered in the last quarter. Run a few Google searches to see how easy they are to find and compare the answers we have with the information available on other sites.

Rating the questions is only a part of the puzzle, though. Do you see a pattern of questions that should have been closed but are not? Questions or answers that could use an edit? Anything that's going really well? Post an answer below to share your thoughts and discuss these questions and the site's health with your fellow users!

Answer 1

One pattern that I have been seeing is that questions do not get flagged as answered. We see answers (that are often not rated, just like the questions aren't) and the user asking the question doesn't return. So even when browsing questions it is hard to find the ones that still need answering. As they look exactly like the abandoned ones. Which is frustrating to me when I have time to sit down and look for questions to answer and I keep running into the same old ones. Also, a question asker that never returns or even bothers flagging the question as answered does not exactly motivate to post detailed answers.

So yes, I see a trend. And it looks like this:

Which leads to the old "we need better questions" discussion. But I have no answer for this. Maybe we need to start asking each other questions a lot more. To generate content. Which again, isn't exactly the purpose of this site.

My overall impression of GD:SE right now? There is a big mismatch of questions (very basic) and the potential of the question answerers (very skilled). But maybe that's a problem with Graphic Design in general. Because if you'd be strict about it, we could close 90% of questions for being too localized. There simply are very few "true" answers except for the basic ones. And the strength of graphic design (custom design, localized solutions) is a weakness in the context of this site.

Answer 2

Final Results

• How to make a "highlighter" effect for text background in CSS?

  Net Score: 1 (Excellent: 4, Satisfactory: 5, Needs Improvement: 3)

• Rounded Polygons in Photoshop CS6

  Net Score: 7 (Excellent: 7, Satisfactory: 5, Needs Improvement: 0)

• Rules for adding colors to a black and white palette in web

  Net Score: -5 (Excellent: 1, Satisfactory: 5, Needs Improvement: 6)

• How to put a design in best light before showing it on Behance or Dribbble

  Net Score: 0 (Excellent: 3, Satisfactory: 6, Needs Improvement: 3)

• What computer hardware matters to a graphic designer?

  Net Score: 8 (Excellent: 8, Satisfactory: 3, Needs Improvement: 0)

• An action to export a Photoshop document with file name intact

  Net Score: 5 (Excellent: 5, Satisfactory: 6, Needs Improvement: 0)

• What is this horizontal shadow effect called?

  Net Score: -2 (Excellent: 1, Satisfactory: 7, Needs Improvement: 3)

• Custom square brush defaults to circular?

  Net Score: 9 (Excellent: 9, Satisfactory: 2, Needs Improvement: 0)

• How to create a light border for an app icon

  Net Score: 1 (Excellent: 2, Satisfactory: 8, Needs Improvement: 1)

• How to make a line in illustrator with $ signs

  Net Score: 6 (Excellent: 8, Satisfactory: 1, Needs Improvement: 2)