Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
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Do we want Discussions functionality on Retrocomputing?
I'd like to run an experiment here where we left long comment threads around. (I mean we tend to do that, but sometimes they do get moved to chat where they die.) It's just the way this particular ...
wizzwizz4Mod
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Should we avoid the low rep voting experiment?
There is a system-wide plan to test lower voting threshholds. The full details are here on Meta SE. In brief:
Reputation required to cast upvotes is changing from 15 to 1
Reputation required to cast ...
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What does the site gain from 'identify this game I vaguely remember' questions?
There has been a recent spate of 'identify this game' posts that are woefully short on content. The general style is that the questioner remembers playing a game, provides vague details ('it was on a ...
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What should we do with invalidated answers to a reopened question
Did type-in-programs ...? was closed as being opinion-based, but not until it had garnered a whole lot of anecdotal answers. Now the question has been greatly improved to ask for actual evidence, it'...
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One step from being closed but nothing wrong with the question
Help identifying a platform game for UNIX from 1990s
There is nothing wrong with my question, and was nothing wrong from the beginning. What is wrong is the unjustified negative opinions to close it, ...
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Are maintenance/technical manual requests OK?
Assuming a reasonable amount of searching has already been done, is it OK to ask for maintenance/technical manuals for old hardware here?
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Congratulations Raffzahn!
Massive congratulations to @raffzahn for cracking 200k! That's huge accomplishment, and a clear demonstration of Raffzahn's considerable contributions to the site.
Thank you for your efforts!
Matt LaceyMod
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Massive (Belated) Congratulations to Stephen Kitt!
Better late than never I hope, but huge congratulations to stephen-kitt on hitting 100k in reputation this year. Of course at this point he's sailed beyond that to 114k.
It's a considerable ...
Matt LaceyMod
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The Stack Exchange data dump has been turned back on (yay!)
On Meta SE: June 2023 Data Dump is missing.
On Meta SE: Moderation Strike update: Data dumps, choosing representatives, GPT data, and where we’re holding (Restoring the data dumps is a precondition ...
wizzwizz4Mod
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Introducing a new retrocomputing YouTube channel: Electronica Sovietica
Having checked self-promotion is OK here, I am writing to announce my new YouTube channel dedicated to my small but growing collection of Soviet retro computers and microcontrollers.
The first video ...
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Middle Sidebar Advertising
As you all know, advertising is an important source of revenue for Stack Overflow and it helps us support all the sites across the Stack Exchange Network and the resources that go into maintaining and ...
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What are the rules about self promo on Meta?
I'm preparing a video showing the functioning of the MT-1804 (A 1980s Soviet bitslice processor system cloned from the 1970s AMD Am2900 Learning and Evaluation Kit), and putting it as the inaugural ...
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Trivia question about snack shipped with computer products
I'd like to ask this question but I'm afraid it's off topic as trivia. Is it acceptable?
If it's acceptable but could be improved, please make suggestions.
I remember that there was a company that ...
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What is a computer? [duplicate]
We have many questions in meta about what 'retro' means, but fewer on what 'computing' is.
In the on-topic help, we refer to 'computing equipment' without defining.
We sometimes have questions that ...
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How many game identification questions would constitute a problem?
I was surprised to see some video game identification questions here, as they don't seem to fit the types of questions I'm used to seeing here that have been interesting and edifying. I checked and ...
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More specific close reasons needed badly
Currently, when someone sees a question about something that doesn’t seem a good fit for the site, the only thing they can do is the least-effort option is to vote to close it for the reason that it ‘...
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2022: a year in moderation
As we say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the preceding calendar year.
As most of you here are aware, sites on the Stack Exchange ...
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ChatGPT - Yes or no?
We have had our first post from the ChatGPT AI answering bot. Or at least, a post flagged by an AI detecting AI as 99% probable AI generated. The answer has not been deleted - yet, it isn't a very ...
ChenmunkaMod
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Are questions about curating and preserving resources on-topic?
Meta Stack Exchange has a question, Bulk Fix possible for "Old New Thing" links? Important Win32 resource. My answer to this is "no, not really; it's hard, and I don't know how to":...
wizzwizz4Mod
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Should we add a favicon to the main site?
Our site favicon (the websites little tab icon aka for meta and for regular) is pretty plain right now. The banner is also a bit stereotypical.
Should we change the banner and favicon to add ...
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Nearly 6 years from: 'Is XP retro'. Are we there yet?
So back in early 2017, Is XP considered retrocomputing yet was asked. I was of the opinion then that it wasn't. I think it now qualifies by a criterion not mentioned in that previous question.
While ...
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Abuse of moderator fiat vote
Not so long ago, the question https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/q/25438/15334 has been asked. As originally written, and even after revisions, I would consider it somewhat problematic (and ...
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Is asking for the existence of a device equal to a buying recommendation?
I asked for the existence of Game Boy clones which can read Game Boy cartridges.
The question was closed because it was seen as a buying recommendation.
Is this legitimate?
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Unpinning accepted answers
Some sites on Stack Exchange have decided to unpin the asker-accepted answer in the default sort order. The official rationale for this (at least initially) was to promote fresh, up-to-date answers ...
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Why doesn't stackexchange have a dedicated appeal system?
My experience with stackexchange has been...rough to say the least. People with more privilege then me tend to close my questions unfairly, and generally act unprofessionally. While this is far more ...
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Was my comment on my answer on this post removed, and why?
Was my comment on my answer on this question removed, and why?
What is this early 3D platformer?
It was an unpleasant shock to see the site silently misrepresenting me as rude by not acknowledging ...
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Is the RC2014 on topic or not?
The RC2014 is a computer based on a Z80, and designed to run Microsoft BASIC
From the front page of their website,
RC2014 is a simple 8 bit Z80 based modular computer originally built to run ...
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What's the difference between [cassette-tape] and [magnetic-tape]?
cassette-tape, 67 questions:
For questions about audio cassette tape, as used for computer data storage.
Many 1970s-era personal computers used audio cassettes for data storage. Some early software ...
wizzwizz4Mod
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Changing the close reason of a question
The question How does the BIOS distinguish Interrupt(08h-12h) from INT instructions, vs. actual exceptions inside the CPU? was originally written in a rather confusing way, to the point where I ...
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Should questions about connecting older hardware to modern networks be in scope?
SE:RC exists to ask and answer questions about "how to use or preserve computing equipment that is no longer manufactured or supported by the manufacturer" [see help].
I am interesting in ...
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Congratulations Retrocomputing!
I noticed this morning that Retrocomputing is finally out of Beta! Congratulations. It's possible that I'm late to the party and just didn't notice until now. When was this stack promoted?
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Should I write a canonical question about disposing of historical material?
I was just going to write a question, but then I thought that an generalised canonical Q&A might be better; then I had a second thought that there might already be such a resource but I hadn't ...
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[old-hardware-adaptation] versus [new-hardware-adaptation]
old-hardware-adaptation and new-hardware-adaptation are both meant for connecting new and old hardware to each other, but I am not sure about their definitional boundaries.
The basic premise is, the ...
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Does this site get featured in Hot Network Questions disproportionately often? Why?
Though the question rate on this site may be low, it looks like the questions we do get receive a pretty large amount of attention, and nearly every half-decent question makes it to the Hot Network ...
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2021: a year in moderation
As we say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the preceding calendar year.
As most of you here are aware, sites on the Stack Exchange ...
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Please reopen this question, I can make a good answer
Please re-open What was the most popular operating system on the PDP-11 computers?. I would make a partial answer (albeit, extended) regarding the PDP-11 analogs in the USSR.
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Transfer of Questions to Other Sites
From time to time questions come up that clearly would better fit to other sites. As of now, the procedure of
-> CLOSE
-> COMMUNITY REASON
-> OTHER SITE
only allows the selection of ...
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Do we get a banner/theming? If so: when, and what's needed?
Since RCSE is no longer in beta, do we get a slightly less plain banner at some point? :)
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What is the extent to which it is appropriate to edit a post?
Any member of this community can propose edits to any question or answer, even if originally written by someone else; the edit goes live when approved through the review queue. For users above a ...
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What was unclear about this question?
This question about Unix and virtual memory was deleted because it "needs details or clarity".
What was unclear about it?
Certainly, the questioner had some wrong ideas, but it seemed pretty ...
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How should questions about the Game Boy CPU be tagged?
The Game Boy is kind of notorious for having a CPU which few can agree how to name. The Sharp-manufactured design is similar to the 8080 and to the Z80, but the processor is not actually compatible ...
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Is debugging, programming, etc. [assembly]?
Is "scroll tearing" a symptom of scanline interrupts taking too long? was tagged assembly, graphics, 8080 and game-boy. I took 8080 off, because the Game Boy doesn't have an 8080 in it, and ...
wizzwizz4Mod
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We're graduating!
Retrocomputing Stack Exchange is leaving beta on the 16th of December. Here's the official announcement.
What is beta?
As the (somewhat out of date) Help Center article says:
“Beta” means that the ...
wizzwizz4Mod
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Would it be OK to crosspost an identification question from the SF&F SE that has not received any answers for years?
My family's first computer was a TRS-80 Color Computer 2. We later acquired a CoCo 3. I've had some luck in getting game identification questions answered on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Stack ...
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Should we have a [controller] tag?
I have just seen a user tag several questions with controller, previously nonexistent. I find this an unfortunate coinage, since the term ‘controller’ is ambiguous: it may refer to game controllers (...
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Question mischaracterized as off-topic
A while back I posted a question about GoldenEye glitching out when you press down on a chip in the N64 controller. The question was closed for being off-topic, presumably because it was about a ...
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Should [m68k] and [motorola-680x0] tags be merged?
m68k currently has 18 questions:
For questions about processors in the Motorola 68k (68000 series) range. Commonly used in Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh, Sinclair QL and Sharp X68000 computers.
...
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CRT repair and restoration safety resources
Inspired by the CRT safety related aspect of this recent repair question: Why might my CRT fry any HOT I put in it?
Shouldn't this be more a question for electronics.stackexchange.com? –
chthon
...
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Why is the question about running Windows 95 in DOSBox supposedly off-topic?
The meta question Is emulation on topic? has multiple highly upvoted answers, all of which agree that emulation of retro systems is generally on-topic, to one extent or another. The top-voted answer (...
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Do we really need both [game] and [gaming] tags?
Currently there is a gaming tag, created 5 years ago, with 88 questions and the following usage guidance:
Retro games, both hardware and software-based. NOT EVERY GAMING QUESTION IS ON-TOPIC. See tag ...
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