All the UI on this site talks about "Ask Question" and "Post Your Question". Those terms don't suit Meta Stack Overflow which is also used to accept bug reports, feature requests etc.
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2So, your question or advice is?– Mp0intCommented Jan 28, 2014 at 10:51
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2I don't have a question; I was directed (misdirected?) here to report bugs. I don't have any advice either, except maybe change what it says on the buttons?– KaruCommented Jan 28, 2014 at 11:02
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@MartijnPieters I suppose so, but I don't really see why that's relevant.– KaruCommented Jan 28, 2014 at 11:04
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7Why would you close a feature-request as a duplicate of support questions?– StijnCommented Jan 28, 2014 at 12:38
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1 Answer
You are right, bug and feature-request and discussion are not questions, they are various other types of posts that pretend to be questions. There isn't a specific reason for this (that I am aware of) except that the meta sites (including MSO and the soon-to-be MSE) are special sites that were force fit into the Stack Exchange format.
Site regulars understand how meta works and how to use the site appropriately, but it does not make it easy for new users who are unfamiliar with our quirks.
Maybe there is a way to make it easier for new users to understand how to use the site.
Off-topic question on meta occur on a regular basis, most from users who get lost and ask programming questions on MSO (or on-topic question on the respective parent site), so there might be some logic behind modifying the UI slightly to help guide them.1
How about replacing the "Ask Question" button with 4 separate buttons on all meta sites. Each of the buttons can correspond to one of the required tags:
- Report Bug
- Propose Feature
- Get Support
- Initiate Meta Discussion (ok, this one is a little long, but maybe it can get tweaked a bit)
Clicking one of these buttons would open the new question page with the appropriate required tag already added. You don't have to change anything else about the page, just open the same new question page with the appropriate tag prefilled.
1 - I am not a graphic designer so I'm not going to even attempt at trying to show an example, but hopefully you get the idea
answered Jan 28, 2014 at 11:18
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1Very interesting idea. Maybe the latter could stay "ask [discussion] question" or something– PekkaCommented Jan 28, 2014 at 12:10
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1@Pëkka I wanted to avoid discussion on its own as much as possible. Without identifying a limit on what discussions are intended, it doesn't help with the "well, I want to discuss my programming problem" Commented Jan 28, 2014 at 12:35
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2Less invasive would be do simply change the heading "Ask a public question" to "Ask a public question / request a feature". This would signal new users that they are in the right place. Commented Mar 9, 2022 at 18:06