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Comment by pjc50 | Hacker News Reader

StackExchange needs a sibling forum.

I know forums are in opposition to everything that SE stands for, but for quite a lot of cases the questioner would benefit more from a back-and-forth, or open-ended discussion, and then at the end of the process if it's been refined then turn it into a question. If not, then let the thread auto-close and maybe even expire into deletion.

Also, any SE equivalent needs to understand the power dynamic between questioners and answerers, and what motivates people to put in the huge volunteer effort on which it's built.

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Programmers, among others, are notoriously unable to give up on arguments. What makes you think discussion would help someone refine inquiries into a question rather than just an endless tribal war or bikeshedding session?

Additionally, I can't imagine any format less friendly to a beginner/intermediate programmer than an endless thread of experts arguing minutiae and holy-wars couched as objective fact. Even as an advanced user, sometimes I want a straight and to the point answer, even if it's not the best possible one, so I can get on with my work or research from there.

Remember, SE is foremost a site for readers seeking existent answers. Not askers. Not answerers. Neither of those last two groups has dwindled substantially enough in response to askers/answerers complaints to impact the experience of users seeking existent answers. Therefore, in my opinion, SE still works well.

those arguments are how you learn.

I get what you're saying, but I can tell you personally I learned SOOO much from getting into arguments with people and then going off and doing research during the argument.

And sometimes I'll completely do a 180 after a few years because I REMEMBER those arguments, and I eventually understand their perspective because I started coming across the problems they were having.

I may not always do a 180, but I WILL more fully understand the pros and cons of everything.

And this is a major reason why the "discourse" here on HN is only half useful.

Too many people think not being challenged is somehow good and educational. Perhaps for a subset of people, but there are many like me who learn through challenge.

Just consider that often the very act of responding to someone forces you to consider their position better. Which is why trite dismissal is one of the poorest forms of argumentation ever made.

Each site has a chat room where you can have the back-and-forth to clarify a question or refine it. So this already exists to some degree.

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