[Biopython-dev] Encouraging use of Stack Overflow for questions

[Giovanni Marco Dall'Olio]

On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 3:20 PM, Brad Chapman <chapmanb at 50mail.com> wrote:

> Hi Nick;
>

Sorry for the late reply... I also use StackOverflow and I think that it is
a great resource, and it would very good if we can become more represented
there.
At the moment there are a few questions on biopython on SO, but there are so
few biopython users that people usually receive few answers and they prefer
to ask their questions again in this list.
I have answer to some questions tagged as 'bioinformatics' there, but lately
I have not been using SO very much, and moreover the field of bioinformatics
is so broad that sometimes it is very difficult to answer a technical
question.



> > Here is a link to various other Stack Exchange sites:
> >
> http://tumblr.marcosdecarvalho.com/post/252388387/the-stackexchange-family
>
>
Very interesting, thanks! I didn't know you could make Stack-Exchange
websites so easily. How did you do that? Is there a free software behind, or
do you have to pay some service provider?



> It looks like there are a couple of Stack Exchange sites with
> similar aims for open source bioinformatics and chemistry:
>
> http://biostar.stackexchange.com/
> http://blueobelisk.stackexchange.com/
>

I agree, maybe it would be useful to collaborate with these websites.
StackOverflow is great for programming-related questions; however, you can't
use it to ask something which is not completely related, like the protocol
for an experiment or which databases to use for an analysis.




-- 
Giovanni Dall'Olio, phd student
Department of Biologia Evolutiva at CEXS-UPF (Barcelona, Spain)

My blog on bioinformatics: http://bioinfoblog.it