[development] Drupal Answers: A Stackoverflow/StackExchange site proposal

[E.J. Zufelt]

I've only been casually following this thread, but I thought I'd chime in on accessibility.

Using the WAVE accessibility evaluation tool I found at least 70 errors on the URL posted in the below message.  The results can be seen at http://weba.im/218

Now, it is possible that not all of these are true errors, the tool can give false positives and false negatives.  However, the number was large enough for me to not bother manually assessing the page (something required even when using an automated tool.

This brings me to my point. While we do not have a perfectly accessible d.o, we at least have the ability to improve accessibility problems when they are noticed. I doubt we would have the same freedom on an external service.

Now, I am not saying that this means that we should definitely not use an external service, but this should be given appropriate consideration when making decisions about how to best implement a solution for our inclusive community.

Thanks,
Everett Zufelt
http://zufelt.ca

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On 2011-01-31, at 4:57 PM, Josh Koenig wrote:

> Stew,
> 
> Thanks for starting this thread. This is important stuff:
> 
> http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/2978/drupal-answers
> 
> I want to put my support behind this proposal and explain my thinking in doing so.
> 
> The Drupal community is already growing faster than Drupal's infrastructure can easily support. With the release of D7 and all the other associated projects getting off the ground, drupal.org is increasingly often a bottleneck or blocker. We have wonderful hosts from OSUOSL, but the human resources needed to develop, maintain and manage our own infrastructure (which is a 24x7x365 job) are limited.
> 
> We have to pick our battles. I much would rather see energy, effort, attention and money poured into continuing to improve our git and module infrastructure — which is much more deeply intrinsic to the health and future of the project — and accept that even though we *can* build our own StackOverflow (@eaton proved this already) that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best use of limited resources, or the best thing for the project.
> 
> Drupal can theoretically/technically solve a lot of its own problems, but I think we often suffer from a "not built here" prejudice as a result. In the realm of getting good quality answers to Drupal questions out to the most people possible, I can't see how a StackExchange site would do anything but help. I would love to see the community embrace something really cool and useful from the wider Internet as a way to promote the project.
> 
> Finally, I should say that I *do not* think a StackExchange answers site replaces anything. It's not an issue queue, and it's not a replacement for the dialogue that exist in the forums. I would say it's a new resource, something that can help the 10s of 1000s of people who will be trying to wrap their mind around Drupal in the coming year. 
> 
> Cheers
> -josh

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