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Ask HN: Where do you go to ask questions that don't fit stackexchange.com?

by yeetard on 5/24/22, 1:30 PM with 32 comments

• by pavel_lishin on 5/24/22, 2:10 PM

  Sadly, I usually ask in one of my Slacks or Discords. This is sad, because the question evaporates into the aether, but in those communities I know enough about the people to tell who might be able to help, and who has the time and bandwidth to discuss this with me.

  It's also mostly async, but synchronous enough that we can have a reasonable discussion without it taking two weeks.

• by de_nied on 5/24/22, 1:35 PM

  Sometimes, asking a question is not possible unless you personally find someone (or someones) qualified to answer it. Rather, you'd pick up a book and/or watch some YouTube videos regarding the subject. Then you can brainstorm and bruteforce attempts at understanding the topic until you finally achieve some level of comprehension of whatever it is you're trying to learn.

  So most of this would boil down to RTFM, except it would be in published academic books or videos of "experts" discussing it. It would be up to you to define what an expert is. Choose carefully.

• by swah on 5/26/22, 1:17 PM

  So this would kind of a mentoring help, right? I feel like that is one of the main advantadges of working inside a Big Co. Its hard to do the same without being part of a group.

  What probably works best "outside" is writing a blog post with your problem, and throwing that into HN/Reddit for discussion.

• by aendruk on 5/24/22, 2:59 PM

  In a forum about that specific topic! NixOS, OpenStreetMap, and Rust all have active Discourse instances.

  For things that are too vaguely defined for that, I’ll bring it up at the local “Linux” user group, which in practice is just a nerd social group with an active group chat and biweekly gatherings.

• by tra3 on 5/24/22, 7:36 PM

  You're looking for Ask.Metafilter [0]. The "Popular questions" [1] section is usually full of gems:

  - Seeking a Paradigm Shift: What is an article or essay that you have read that caused a dramatic change in your thinking / perspective / life? [2]

  - How to become a person who just goes out and does things? You: a person who goes out and does things, just because. Things like hiking, going to the farmer's market, casual day trips to nearby places, checking out local events, etc. Nothing in particular really, just things outside the house. What does your thought process and mindset look like? How do you decide when to go out and what things to do? How do you keep track of what events are going on in your locale so you remember to go to them? How do you trick yourself into going places when you are feeling ho-hum about it? [3]

  There's a wide gamut of questions. I've asked some random things before and gotten good responses.

  [0]: https://ask.metafilter.com

  [1]: https://ask.metafilter.com/home/popularfavorite12

  [2]: https://ask.metafilter.com/354882/Seeking-a-Paradigm-Shift

  [3]: https://ask.metafilter.com/355442/How-to-become-a-person-who...

• by pseingatl on 5/24/22, 2:41 PM

  Reddit. Metafilter. Metafilter seems to be not as popular as it once was. This means an answer won't be immediate. RTFM won't help when you want to know industry best practices, for example, or want to find someone who's been through an experience you're about to suffer. TripAdvisor. Google unfortunately won't be of much help.

• by dan1234 on 5/24/22, 4:31 PM

  Usually Reddit, since that seems to have replaced a lot of forums. Obviously pretty hit & miss depending how active a subreddit is…

• by gysfjiutedgj on 5/26/22, 12:20 AM

  researchgate.com