Hi,

StackExchange is a Questions/Answers website split into different categories.

Examples

Stackoverflow is for programming question.
Mathematics is for maths.
Etc...

The complete list: http://stackexchange.com/sites

You can also propose your own categories. A proposal for the Esperanto language has been posted, but the community has to vote for it.

If you want to helps us: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/13148/...

That would help a lot for the popularity of Esperanto. Stackexchange is very popular.

Thanks.

there already is one:
http://demandoj.tk/

@SuperMarc92: +1 for the suggestion. I committed back in July 2010

With that said, I don't think an Esperanto stackexchange could make it out of beta. Most StackExchange proposals that become a first-class site in the SE community are designed to have mass appeal:

* Q&A for programmers (stackoverflow/programmers.se)
* Q&A for computer users (superuser.se)
* Q&A for gamers (gaming.se)
* Q&A for recipes (cooking.se)
* Q&A for photography (photo.se)
* etc

To have a fighting chance at becoming a full-blown site, you need about 1,000 committed users. After that, when the site goes into beta, consistent user activity -- about 1500 unique visits and 15 or so new questions asked everyday. Sites without enough activity are deleted (see the Artificial Intelligence proposal as an example).

I think its worth the time to commit, but it still might take an act of $deity and non-trivial marketing to make it work.

@Genjix: regarding the demandoj.tk site:

* its is basically dead. The last activity was sometime around Sept 2010.

* .tk domains stick out like a sore thumb. Users are going to wonder if the site has some connection to spam or phishing scams (which is frequently true), others will see right away that you're using a free service and wonder whether to take the site seriously. Long story short, .tk domains lack credibility, and that means less traffic and less room to grow a community.

.com, .net, and .org domains are about US$6-20/yr. Its worth the expense if you want to genuinely run a serious site and build up a community.

* on the plus side, +1 for Shapado (for those who don't know, Shapado == open source clone of the very popular Q&A engine used by the StackExchange network). For people who don't want to be affiliated with the StackExchange network, or communities which are too small to become a first-class SE site, Shapado is a good alternative. A Shapado site is probably the best and only way to develop a nice Esperanto Q&A.

Demandoj.tk is actually made with Shapado, but I have to say: it sucks and people wil have a bad image of Esperanto.

So it's too bad if it doesn't work on StackExchange, but it think it worth to try.

Demandoj.tk seems to be questions in general in Esperanto, and the StackExchange on topic/off topic ideas go completely off of my head, and seem to be not so much about being on topic but more about avoiding flame wars (which in the case of "OMG DO YOU GUYZ LIKE MY CONLANG ITS SO BETTER THAN ESPERANTO" is valid, but other things like "Is Esperanto a religion" being called offtopic confuses me).

Best to say that someone should just make their own separate to both.

This forum software is pretty awful (non-standard post syntax, no way to post images, too many balkanising sub-forums)... However is it enough to cause people to move away? This forum already has a sufficient mass to self-perpetuate. The arguments listed above against demandoj.tk is that it's dead- why though? For all intents the software is the same as stackoverflow.

You have to realise that stackoverflow sites while being an excellent format, are non-linear and for technical people. That's why programmers love this logical format- it makes sense!

It's funny how to 3 of us in this thread are coders (don't know about ceigered)... Says a lot.

Genjix:(don't know about ceigered)

Technically not a coder, as I don't do any coding anymore (used to do crappy coding when I was doing IT and was interested in making games with Flash/Gamemaker/etc), but for all intents and purposes put me as sitting on the fence. Just make sure the fence has no barbed wire.