Hi Markus, <div><br></div><div>When we chose to deploy <a href="http://answers.ros.org">answers.ros.org</a> using Askbot we definitely considered StackExchange, as well as every other Q&A engine we could find. I can't fine the archives of the mailing list where we discussed the deployment. But below's a quick retrospective on why we chose Askbot over StackExchange. We chose to host our own site for several reasons. </div>
<div><br></div><div>- We've had trouble relying on external hosting sites in the past. Even something as simple ass uptime nothings more frustrating than knowing your server is down and not having someone who's accountable for bringing it back online. </div>
<div>- Also StackExchange is very integrated in their own ecosystem and doesn't allow much customization, at the most basic they will only host on their domains. And they have a very onerous system for getting started. </div>
<div>- We're also an advocate of open source software and try to use open source software when possible. </div><div>- We have full control of our own servers such that we know that we have good backups of all the data. And don't rely on a 3rd party to persist this large (valuable) knowledge base indefinitely. </div>
<div>- We have been able to work with the active Askbot developers on specific feature enhancements our users have requested. </div><div>- We can integrate better with our other services like the wiki. </div><div><br></div>
<div>And with respect to maintenance of the server, yes there is a load, but it is not something that is noticeable once the server is setup. The majority of time required by the site is releated to maintaing/generating the content not keeping the site running.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Tully</div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 3:21 AM, Thibault Kruse <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kruset@in.tum.de" target="_blank">kruset@in.tum.de</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div>Some downsides and questions:<br>
<br>
- Unless there is an undocumented fast-track, we'd need to suffer
through the are 51 staging zone, where we cannot have our own css
styles etc.<br>
- Can we keep the URL "<a href="http://answers.ros.com" target="_blank">answers.ros.com</a>"?<br>
- How to migrate existing Questions and answers to a
stack-exchange ROS site and make sure user accounts in
<a href="http://answers.ros.org" target="_blank">answers.ros.org</a> match user accounts in stack exchange?<br>
- how can we migrate such as URLs for questions remain the same
(such as used for marking duplicates).<br>
<br>
It seems that stackexchange has a small army of staff that could
help with such questions, and developers who might help with
migration.<div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
On 08/16/2012 11:47 AM, Marcus Liebhardt wrote:<br>
</div></div></div>
<blockquote type="cite"><div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">2012/8/16 Arkapravo Bhaumik <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:arkapravobhaumik@gmail.com" target="_blank">arkapravobhaumik@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
+1 to Jonathan Bohren<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div>
<div>On 16 August 2012 13:51, Jonathan Bohren <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jonathan.bohren@gmail.com" target="_blank">jonathan.bohren@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<div>
<div>On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 3:38 AM, Marcus Liebhardt
<span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:marcus.liebhardt@yujinrobot.com" target="_blank">marcus.liebhardt@yujinrobot.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>The recent notification about a robotics
Q&A site on StackExchange made me remember
an old question on ROS answers: <a href="http://answers.ros.org/question/12386/is-ros-answer-able-to-join-stackexchange/" target="_blank">http://answers.ros.org/question/12386/is-ros-answer-able-to-join-stackexchange/</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>It raises the question about the
possibility of moving ROS Answers
to StackExchange, but unfortunately it didn't
get many answers. It is mentioned, that "our"
site is not compatible with StackExchange and
that some people are not happy with how things
are handled over at StackExchange (e.g. user
control).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I'm still curious why we actually created
our own Q&A site and/or why we don't move
our site over to StackExchange.</div>
<div>I see the following benefits in case of
migrating:</div>
<div>* less(no) maintenance work </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>* ROS gets more visible (and thereby
attracting more users)</div>
<div>* convenient for people already using other
StackExchange sites, such as StackOverflow</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>If this has already been discussed in the
past, please point me to the respective
information (and/or write a corresponding
answer on ROS answers). Thank you!</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
I think having a site that's ROS-specific decreases
the noise, and helps the community support itself more
efficiently. I don't think it would be a good idea to
try to merge ROS answers with another support site,
especially one as generic as "robotics".<span><font color="#888888"><br>
<br clear="all">
</font></span></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sorry guys, seems like I didn't make myself clear enough. </div>
<div>My intention is _NOT_ merging ROS Answers into another
existing Q&A site, such as StackOverflow (<a href="http://stackoverflow.com/" target="_blank">http://stackoverflow.com/</a>)
or Robotics (mentioned in the other thread).</div>
<div>I suggest moving our Q&A to StackExchange (<a href="http://stackexchange.com/" target="_blank">http://stackexchange.com/</a>),
which is an aggregation of various Q&A sites all sharing
the same underlying system (software as far as I understand).</div>
<div>So, we would still have our own, ROS-only Q&A site. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Cheers,</div>
<div>Marcus</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<div><span><font color="#888888">
<div>-j</div>
</font></span><br>
</div>
</div>
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<br>
-- <br>
<div style="text-align:left;font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><font style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif" size="2"><u>Arkapravo Bhaumik</u><br>
E-mail : <a href="mailto:arkapravobhaumik@gmail.com" target="_blank">arkapravobhaumik@gmail.com</a><br>
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<br clear="all">
<div><br>
</div>
-- <br>
<font size="1">Marcus Liebhardt <br>
Control Engineer<br>
Yujin Robot<font size="1"><br>
</font></font></div></div><font size="1"><span lang="ko"><span>주소</span></span></font><font size="1">: </font><font size="1"><span><span lang="ko-Hang">대한민
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>Tully Foote<br><a href="mailto:tfoote@willowgarage.com" target="_blank">tfoote@willowgarage.com</a><br>(650) 475-2827<br>