Hi!! Learning three.JS since a few times now. So my question is about support matter.
Why is there at the same time a forum-discourse (this one) and also a stack overflow topic? Where to go next? Hi to all!
Others may want to chime in, but here’s my thoughts (and note, the way I’m starting this reply is not something I could put in a Stack answer!)…
Both are great resources, and there is some overlap. But, Stack Overflow (for any topic), is strictly a Q&A for specific issues. For example, questions that might be answered with as little as one response like “FBX animation stops playing when some.thing.value is modified on page in iOS” or “Can I import mechanical linkage from Some Software Program as a This Plugin Dataset?” would be great on Stack Overflow. It also has a wider audience, potentially (but not necessarily) improving the chances of solving an issue correctly and/or more quickly. However, Stack Exchanges are is not suited for, nor are they supposed to be used as, a medium for discussion.
Discourse’s more traditional forum format fills in this gap for anything that’s more than just a Q and an A. This could include things like showcasing a personal project, sharing a demo for a new library, demonstrating a special technique, or asking open-ended questions like “There are so many ways to do this thing when you start a project, which way do you all personally prefer?”. It can also be used for any question you could ask on Stack Overflow, but has less restrictions which can potentially lead to more responses, and adds the ability to have a back-and-forth discussion on them.
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For beginners, there are more opportunities to get help with beginner questions. The “question quality” is more important in stack.
Things like Collection of examples from discourse.threejs.org (with an example for beginners BeginnerExample ) only fit here in this forum.
I believe that this is called “free will”
To be fair, this platform is also not to be used for discussion. I’ve seen people get warned for going off topic and such. I think they are very similar except SO is much more strict/professional.
However due to the audience and the quality of documentation or who knows what else, the question quality for the three tag is super bad:
It’s still around 40% unanswered all time, and at 93% in the last two weeks.
I would avoid asking questions on SO and just use this. Here, there is literally no such thing as a stupid question. On SO you need a phd just to post one and not have it taken down.
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If this question was Stack Overflow, however…
I think your answer might appear like this:
I am actually a huge fan of SO, I think it serves a very valuable purpose for almost all of the topics the Stack Exchange sites cover. And, although it can make asking and answering a bit more difficult, I believe their rules are mostly well-crafted and generally work to achieve the network’s larger objectives of effectively building a massive, effective, and dependable knowledge base.
With that said, some topics certainly do better than others, and as you pointed out three.js is not one of the best over there. I would indeed suggest that users (especially since they’re already here if they’re reading this) follow your advice and just post here, at least to start.
I’m not necessarily disagreeing… I haven’t really spent much time here (nor on any Discourse), so I am curious why you say this. From what I have seen, I wouldn’t have perceived this as a rule or guideline of any sort. In fact, quite the opposite, especially based on the three.js Discourse FAQ (which mentions “discussion” 8 times and “conversation” 5 times). I do get keeping on topic, however.
Cheers.
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Stack Overflow feels more like asking a question in a classroom or at a conference, straight to the point and you don’t want to ridicule yourself. Here it feels more like a café or even a bar. I’ve even witnessed some interesting back-and-forth bar fights over hot topics 
I was banned for discussing things. Eg one time I said “I’m not a fan of Greta thurnbeg, but I really like this work”. One time I posted this topic and got banned permanently.
I never got unbanned, but no one is complaining about a different account… it may be that I am a bit special, but I would advise against being too broad when discussing things.
Never ever question any design decision about threejs! And maybe try to avoid plugging the three react thing.
The slack channel is pretty chill with cool people, maybe that would be a good platform for broader discussion.
This, as you’ve elaborated is just a less strict version of SO, because, as you’ve seen, people are not successful at formatting questions for SO.
If I get banned for this post, I hope it will become clear what I mean. If not, I think things are improving!!! Yeey
Uh… I try to tread as lightly as possible here because these words are open to interpretation. What one word means to you may mean something else to someone else. It’s rather subjective IMHO.
Hi again, OK i get it, also it is a matter of time to have to develop a threejs project, …i mean the improving cycle can be quite long especially when you get to do anything else . Even if this tech looks promising, maybe not, huh … i mean - i just got right with the compiling process, the last version of three, etc. they are big questions!
TOO BAD that discourse, itself, is very very not the most userfriendly platform forum i’ve had. So, thanks for that debate, and surely threejs+forum discourse is not yet “accessible” for everyone right now
There are other aspects to consider:
- anyone can create some question/answer forum at any system that allows custom topics, so the answer to “why” is just “why not”
- stackoverflow (as a site and service) is operated by another team, so it may disappear at any time irrespective to what the Three.js team wants or needs
- some users may prefer only one of the existing help forums for a variety of reasons: from “it-provides-better-answers” via “I-just-feel-better-there” to the mere “I-don’t-know-why”
So, my answer to the OP question is: “It just happened so. And as both have gained significant momentum, it might be too late to abandon any of them and to keep using only the other.”
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