Stack Overflow is a site where people go out of their way to help other people find answers to programming questions. My colleagues won’t let me lie: more than half of all questions can be solved by searching this site. The idea of creating such a site turned out to be so successful that its authors launched the Stack Exchange platform with numerous sites on other topics. For example, about the English language and its usage, for sysadmins, about photography, Christianity, and many others, 101 of them in total. But Stack Overflow remains the most popular: 5 million questions, 10 million answers, 6 million visits per day.
There is a special site called Area 51 (named by analogy with the American military base in the state of Nevada, where secret technologies are tested). On this site, new sites that could be launched on the Stack Exchange platform are discussed and cultivated. Among other sites for beer lovers and pickup specialists, a proposal to create a Stack Overflow site in Russian is being discussed.
A lot has already been said both for and against creating a similar site in Russian. Like, programmers should all know English, every last one of them. Or that, in accordance with an old Russian tradition, instead of concrete answers, the site will convince the topic starter what an asshole he is.
As for me, I believe that studying programming is always better in your native language. This lowers the barrier to entry into the profession. It is known that the programming profession lets you live decently, gives hope.
So, a Russian-language site with questions and answers about programming is an excellent place where, for example, schoolchildren and students could ask questions and, most importantly, get answers to them from experienced colleagues.
But let’s get back to the proposal. For a site like this to be launched, at least 200 people willing to ask or answer questions have to be gathered, and among those 200 people there must be 100 users who have a reputation of 200 or more points on any other site on the Stack Exchange platform. Obviously, we’re talking about the English-language Stack Overflow. At the time of writing, 145 users had signed the proposal, 41 of whom have a substantial reputation. I.e., the proposal is 41% signed. Another 59 users with a reputation of 200+ are needed.
It would seem like such a good cause: supporting a site where your own fellow citizens, colleagues, could quickly solve current professional issues in their native language. Nevertheless, some of my acquaintances refused (albeit with arguments) to sign this proposal.
Besides, there is another question: will the site be launched if the proposal does eventually reach all the required user metrics? Let’s look at the experience of other countries. The picture below shows the proposals by the Turks, Chinese, Potruguese and Brazilians, and Spaniards (this proposal has not yet reached all the metrics, but it will soon).
If we go into these proposals, we’ll see the following message:
A loose translation: “Temporarily, sites cannot be launched because tags do not support letters of national alphabets. The launch of the site will be announced separately.” So, for example, the site in Chinese could have been launched back on December 16, when the required number of users had been gathered. More than four months have already passed, and the site still has not been launched. Nor have either the Turkish or Portuguese sites been launched.
But this is not a reason not to go and sign the proposal for a Russian-language Stack Overflow.