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I'm Ina. I've been a member of StackOverflow and StackExchange for about five years. It's been a great community to ask questions in, and to grow as an independent professional.

When I found out that there was a Graphic Design meta, naturally, I thought this would be the appropriate place to ask my graphics software questions that don't seem to have answers available via the usual search engines.

Now, before you go ahead and tell me that I'm wrong, Graphics Design Stack is actually not about specific technique that is software-dependent, but more about general advice... well:

I've found out the hard way: I asked two specific questions relating to two different projects, and I've been downvoted to the point of being unable to post questions.

The first one was down-voted with no explanation. As an Autodesk 3ds Max certified professional and instructor, I can vouch that it's definitely a legitimate advanced question, that's both open to different answers in differing techniques and even different methodologies. After browsing through a few other questions with that tag, I realized that software-specific questions are haphazardly welcome for some and not for others. Some users answer specific questions, but the mod's seem to discourage this.

The second question is more general and about large-format wall printing mediums.

Granted, I could have phrased both questions in better words, but both were posted without understanding what this site is about.

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According to this site's FAQ, it's not supposed to be specific to how to solve problems, but more about the "why". (Although, in another preamble, there's the preference for de-facto answerable questions, rather than discussions... "Why" is often rhetorical.)

Graphic arts theory and history; "Why" we do what we do and not necessarily the "how" in logo design, fonts & typography, visual communication, Web design, Layout and printing, Illustration, Digital media

Looking at the latest questions asked, it seems that many others seem to have confused the "why" vs "how".

I respect what has been decided already about this site. New and confused users to this stack, such as myself, would appreciate that this be incorporated in the banner, or the main page or the ask page, so that we won't make the faux pas of asking questions that this site does not find acceptable.

(Although: I would appreciate it if there were a GraphicDesignSoftware stack, since a lot of people have advanced usage software questions.)

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  • Well i have tried to make the site decide if the 3d should stay or go. But the community it is terminally undecided on the issue. Personally i feel that unless we start accepting these we should kick them out. Because of this reason. BUT it is not impossible to ask a design related 3D question. As a side note: I am perfectly capable of answering your question, its just that I have decided to take a 1 year pause in answering 3d questions, to see if the questions themselves improve or do they really repeat themselves over and over (I did answer about 10, 3d questions daily for 15 years)
    – joojaa
    Commented Apr 16, 2015 at 11:57
  • Ina, I have now started a proposal for a Graphic Design Software Support stack. If you like the idea, please follow it and suggest some questions. area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/86994/…
    – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
    Commented May 4, 2015 at 21:46
  • why not graphics software support questions of all kinds (not just basic and int)?
    – ina
    Commented May 9, 2015 at 2:56

2 Answers 2

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Welcome to the site and sorry for the inconvenience but as you stated in your question and just for clarity you assumed what the site was about and did not first read the FAQ?

In regards to your print question it is in regards to print and not design? You say you're familiar with the SE model so in your question you ask for suggestions when our format is a Q&A. The downvotes may have been from what some may consider (as best as I can nicely put it) lack of effort and that you posted a duplicate question without doing research on the site.

In regards to the 3DSMax I cannot help you with why you got a downvote but there are discussions on what to do with them. Your comment

My apologies - if I am understanding correctly, this site is not about asking how to perform advance techniques (and tips) in the various design software out there - but more about "general design advice" (???)

that is a 3D modeling question and not a design question. Sometimes they can be in relation to a design problem but yours is a software suggestion/issue. It could have been downvoted since some look at 3DSMax questions come here as a last resort "no one else will take them anymore" since the past 3D site was closed.

Not at all trying to be rude and I appreciate your feedback plus I welcome any suggestions you may have on how we can make the site better.

In regards to this:

I thought this would be the appropriate place to ask my graphics software questions that don't seem to have answers available via the usual search engines.

If you read a few of our meta posts you will see expert and regular members are tired of being a technical support site and are wanting more questions that are design based on not software based. Many of the software based questions are being migrated to SuperUser and for good reason, reference: Are operation settings questions to Graphic Design Applications off topic here?

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  • To be fair, Graphics Design includes technical software know-how - if people want a pure "design-only site", it ought to be called UX Generalists Only or something. (Also, a posted question does not have to be answered. If you don't know the software, you should not feel compelled to downvote or to outcast as "does not belong to graphics design".)
    – ina
    Commented May 9, 2015 at 2:55
  • @ina I think you are confusing the word graphic with graphics
    – joojaa
    Commented Aug 24, 2015 at 16:41
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Welcome! Please don't take voting personally. No one here really knows you. Votes are based on the text being read and personality, education, experience, and attitude can be impossible to discern from text in many cases.

I down voted both questions.

https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/50894/3dsmax-morphing-a-cylinder-to-a-cube-or-v-v-the-easy-way

No effort is shown. In addition, this question is asking how to use software. And it has absolutely nothing to do with design. There's no design issue to solve, no visual problem to sort out. It is merely asking for software training. For software education you should try the manufacturer's site or the help files. (Or SuperUser.com)

Regarding the 3D tags.. please note how many of those question are unanswered or, if answered, have only 1 answer. We aren't really a 3D stack. As Darth_Vader pointed out, we merely seem to be the "last resort" for many 3D users since there's no other stack even remotely on topic. In reality, 3D is not supported well here even if the questions are allowed to remain.

For the most part, the 3D questions have been sporadic or rare so they haven't been a "problem" really. I imagine if we started to get many of them things would change and they'd either be set as "definitely off-topic" or, if we had users actually answering them they may be allowed to remain or even be encourage. However, with no one answering them I think we actually do a service to users by pointing out they aren't really on topic.

Wall-Sized Canvas Print

This is practically the same question you linked to in the question itself. Cheap very large scale printing methods (wall sized, 10,000 square feet) The only difference is your desired final size compared to the other question but the theory, practice, and answers apply to your question just as much as they do the duplicate question. I don't think it's on-track to allow duplicate questions to remain just because final output may be slightly different. The fact that you actually posted the duplicate within your question means A) you never actually read the duplicate or B) you phrased your question so poorly that it appears to be a duplicate. You are free to edit it to clarify if you feel it's dramatically different and the intent was not conveyed properly.

We've had several discussions as to what is and is not on topic regarding software. You are free to browse those questions here on meta:

Should extremely basic 'how to do this in software X' questions be off-topic?

Are we closing too many questions?

Are operation settings questions to Graphic Design Applications off topic here?

Are we so experts to not accept new naive questions?

Why do we allow 3D questions again?

Maybe we should add a tag line to the logo???

enter image description here

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    Good answer. The logo at the end cracked me up :D
    – J Sargent
    Commented Apr 16, 2015 at 15:17
  • The wall banner questions are totally different (I know, I answered the earlier one). One is about a normal-sized 10' by 10' wall on a normal budget. Some print shops can do roll-up exhibition banners and foam boards that size. The other is a 10,000 square foot wall - ten times bigger, 100' x 100' would be that size, we're talking the whole side of an 8 story building - on a student budget. A Herculean task requiring a Heath Robinson solution (hence my crazy-talk about projectors and robots).
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Commented Apr 27, 2015 at 22:37
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    Hi Scott, I still think that it's a different question. When you work with physical mediums such as prints, size actually matters. It's not just cost and material usage, but also technique. If you want to scale something up 1000 times, you're going to have to shell out for fractal scaling instead of regular Photoshop bicubic (which fudges out well enough ~10 times). There are also other differences.
    – ina
    Commented May 9, 2015 at 2:52
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    Also, you may wish to update your logo to also include: No 3D software questions allowed - instead of just AskAndBeDownvotedAndBannedIfYou'reNoob
    – ina
    Commented May 9, 2015 at 2:53
  • Fractal scaling was valuable in the 90s... not so much today. And I've worked with physical media for decades.
    – Scott
    Commented May 9, 2015 at 2:55

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