Minor correction: it was not in the IBM closed door on Sunday but rather in the SHARE volunteer orientation meeting on Sunday. https://www.share.org/p/do/sd/sid=15638&isnew=1&type=0 (You may need a SHARE ID to view.)
Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Charles Mills Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2018 11:28 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: StackExchange proposed mainframe discussion group I know this has come up here before. It also came up at the IBM closed session at SHARE. I confess I did not fully understand it before and I promised I would write a follow-up on IBM-MAIN. Yes, IBM-MAIN is wonderful but it has some shortcomings, such as topic drift, repeat questions, and a somewhat difficult search interface. It is also not the way the Gen-Xers do things, and without Gen-Xers, the mainframe is going to die. I use https://stackoverflow.com/. I really like it. Check out the programming questions there (NONE of them mainframe-specific). The proposed mainframe Web-based discussion list is here: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/118484/mainframes Given the different look and feel, I thought stackexchange was a "competitor" or "clone" of stackoverflow and kind of wrote off the earlier discussion here. But nay, it is the "parent" or something like that. https://stackexchange.com/sites Here is the deal. In order for the mainframe group to become real, they need people to "commit" to it. Here is what commitment means: "I commit to participate actively in Mainframes for at least three months, especially during the private beta, and to ask or answer at least ten questions." Your "commitment" carries much more weight if you have a reputation score of 200 or above on any other stackxxxxx site. You get points by answering questions, especially if your answers are up-voted by others. I had not paid much attention to that on stackoverflow so I have a score of only 103. I have registered now on stackoverflow to be notified of mainframe questions so hopefully I can answer some questions and improve my reputation score. If you have a reputation score of more than 200 on any stackxxxxx site you can really help by committing AND making sure you use the same userid on all stackxxxxx sites so that the mainframe group is "aware" of your reputation. I was unclear on all of this. Hope this helps. If this is old news to you, please just hit delete. But please consider committing to the mainframe site, for your benefit and for the benefit of the platform. http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/118484/mainframes Charles Mills ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
