Proposal - StackOverflow-like website [or forum integration] for Arma 3 mission editing & scripting

[inlesco 233]

Hi, everyone.

 

I'm making a simple proposal - integrating a StackOverflow-like system for any Arma title's modding questions, be it scripting, configs, modelling, [specific to Arma franchise] toolset, mission editing, etc.

 

It'd be great to have features like:

• proper tags, various filters (by tag, by date, by topic, etc.)
• ability to upvote / downvote each answer and comment on it
• ability to select an ACCEPTED ANSWER in the thread
• ability for people to edit or update old answer with the most relevant, up-to-date information, expand existing accepted answers, etc.
• ability to sort for the most upvoted questions; for unanswered questions, for questions with a bounty (set by the OP), etc.
• other... (if you have ideas, please suggest them in the comments. I'll add them here with proper credits. Thx!)

 

If you like this idea of such a system, don't hesitate to give an upvote, so we can the need for a such system that makes searching for content much more efficient.

 

My experience with SO and why it's very effective [sometimes, or most of the time]: 
Whenever I start with something new, for example, Redux application state management toolset for React (Javascript framework), I used to check out all of the questions on SO with a [redux] tag and sort by the upvote count.
I found a lot of useful stuff there just browsing the most upvoted questions without any specific goal in mind - f.e., the creator of Redux himself has answered why Redux is a great choice for what it does, why you should use it, why not, what are the alternatives and when you should consider them. This answer, being very honest and detailed, has received hundreds of upvotes itself, probably 4-5 times more than the question.

For me, it's fascinating to see that people actually take time to write great in-depth material on SO. Maybe they're not doing it for the points, but the points can still be a motivator sometimes (let's not lie to ourselves about this).

 

So, fellow scripters, perhaps there are products already made for emulating SO functionality for a modding questions forum? Please post the products and describe them, if any. Thank you.

[tirpitz 15]

So it may be possible to have a real stack exchange site:
http://area51.stackexchange.com/

Looking at the activity requirements we should be able create a site, although possibly just creating a tag on SO might be better, as this is programming after all.

Sent from my WAS-LX1A using Tapatalk

[zigzagtshirt 5]

You have my vote.

[soul_assassin 1723]

Many many years ago there was Armastack. It was actually quite popular untill a severe server crash put it down for a week. After that it was just unable to regain momentum again so I took it down. Maybe one day I can bring it back.

[bloodwyn1756 130]

That's exactly what I always wanted for Arma scripting questions. I am not sure if an own website is the right way since stackexchange is so popular.

[tirpitz 15]

I think if we can get a stack exchange then we will be onto a winner

Sent from my WAS-LX1A using Tapatalk

[inlesco 233]

2 hours ago, soul_assassin said:

Many many years ago there was Armastack. It was actually quite popular untill a severe server crash put it down for a week. After that it was just unable to regain momentum again so I took it down. Maybe one day I can bring it back.

Nice, I've completely missed it myself.

It'd be great if BI themselves were interested in a little promotion of a community-made-and-moderated ArmaExchange QA website / platform, be it posting it [at least] once on Arma 3 Facebook page, mentioning it on the SITREPS, etc.

Even providing a popup, whenever you enter ARMA 3 - SCRIPTING AND EDITING subforum, about a new platform with extensive functionality for QA exhange, would help greatly to get some traction
that's very important for the project's initial phase.

 

If there's any interest, I could even make an integration between ARMA 3 - SCRIPTING AND EDITING subforum content and the new ArmaExhange platform, so whenever someone posts a new thread, an identical question is being generated on ArmaExchange and the user in BIF, the author of the thread, is notified about the question being present on ArmaExhange and is suggested to continue the discussion there. 
That's one idea of an implementation, there are numerous other ways, ofc.

 

is there anything I can help you with making Armastack alive again, @soul_assassin ? Hosting, server costs, web development? I can do any of these.

 

Surely, another idea, as @tirpitz suggested (thanks, man!), is to make a proposal on Area51 and see how it goes.
But, in that case, we still need some input from BIS - to get the initial traction, so they could propose the new platform for content creators in some little ways (I listed them above).

[.kju 3239]

this would need a discord/slack/skype integration - otherwise it will be very hard to draw people in from what they are currently using

[inlesco 233]

5 minutes ago, .kju said:

this would need a discord/slack/skype integration - otherwise it will be very hard to draw people in from what they are currently using

I personally prefer discord and slack as it both of them have a huge following in the tech area currently. thanks, kju.

would you be able to help out on the integration on this? I know you're a Arma series veteran, so you know this community very well and any input is much appreciated.

[soul_assassin 1723]

59 minutes ago, inlesco said:

Nice, I've completely missed it myself.

It'd be great if BI themselves were interested in a little promotion of a community-made-and-moderated ArmaExchange QA website / platform, be it posting it [at least] once on Arma 3 Facebook page, mentioning it on the SITREPS, etc.

Even providing a popup, whenever you enter ARMA 3 - SCRIPTING AND EDITING subforum, about a new platform with extensive functionality for QA exhange, would help greatly to get some traction
that's very important for the project's initial phase.

 

If there's any interest, I could even make an integration between ARMA 3 - SCRIPTING AND EDITING subforum content and the new ArmaExhange platform, so whenever someone posts a new thread, an identical question is being generated on ArmaExchange and the user in BIF, the author of the thread, is notified about the question being present on ArmaExhange and is suggested to continue the discussion there. 
That's one idea of an implementation, there are numerous other ways, ofc.

 

is there anything I can help you with making Armastack alive again, @soul_assassin ? Hosting, server costs, web development? I can do any of these.

 

Surely, another idea, as @tirpitz suggested (thanks, man!), is to make a proposal on Area51 and see how it goes.
But, in that case, we still need some input from BIS - to get the initial traction, so they could propose the new platform for content creators in some little ways (I listed them above).

if you want we can start a open source project to facilitate this. 

 

And to complete BISs involvement it would be best if they become the owners of the data (providing the db, SSO etc.), I can develop an API (helps with down the road integration into Discord), and then we can together develop the UI.

[SimZor 8]

Isn't this what we got the Discord and scripting part of the forums for?

[inlesco 233]

14 hours ago, SimZor said:

Isn't this what we got the Discord and scripting part of the forums for?

 

you probably haven't read the features section in the op. post. Discord and editing & scripting forums have no such functionality and the best currently popular example for what's needed is obviously StackOverflow.

[SimZor 8]

17 minutes ago, inlesco said:

 

you probably haven't read the features section in the op. post. Discord and editing & scripting forums have no such functionality and the best currently popular example for what's needed is obviously StackOverflow.

My apologies.