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Proposal: App Stores

If the provenance of users is observed, it is mainly users from the Stack Exchange sites Stack Overflow and Programmers. Apart from the business problems (and even those are often asked on Stack Overflow itself), I don't see why any question related to the App Store site could not be asked on Stack Overflow, or Programmers. Creating another low-use site seems a bad idea, reducing user focus and participation in the long run...

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There are no comments on proposals. This is the proper place for this discussion :) – Matthew Read Aug 22 '11 at 15:21
The link to the proposal page in your question is what causes the reciprocal link to this discussion to appear on the proposal itself. – moberley Aug 22 '11 at 23:27
Ah, great, thanks for the information! – Kheldar Aug 23 '11 at 8:24
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These kinds of questions can't be asked on StackOverflow because they will be closed. I don't know if they're allowed on Programmers. – Slapout Feb 8 '12 at 18:06

6 Answers

up vote 25 down vote

I'm of the opinion that it isn't a terribly useful site. There aren't that many app store questions, and once they're answered, I'm not sure the site would have enough traffic to sustain interest.

If what @Moshe says is really true, and the proposal is "about bridging the gap between the development and business aspects of the App development process that don't fit on other StackExchange websites", I'd roll it into a larger proposal. "The business of development".

We have a site that's essentially "The business of being a programmer" (Programmers), and I think that would have both a broader reach and a larger base of questions. After all, there's all kinds of projects that could use some help bridging the gap between the development and business aspects that will never come near an App Store.

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I agree completely with this. A "Business of Development" site could be incredibly useful, while an AppStore-specific site feels like it would end up fizzling out after with a bunch of links to duplicates that say, essentially, "Contact Apple." – Hrafn Dec 28 '11 at 8:22
up vote 14 down vote

I disagree. An App Stores proposal is useful. Here's why:

There are many questions, such as approval process questions, that are entirely nontechnical from a programming standpoint, yet they have definitive answers. For example, a question about the cost of submitting to an App market, or a question about the approval process may have a canonical answer, yet will have no relation to the actual development aspects of the app. (It's true that the cost of joining a developer program is "too localized", but in reality, those things don't change often enough for that to apply.

I've seen questions about iAd activation being delayed. The general consensus is that contacting Apple is the appropriate course of action. That is a great question and answer pair that would work. For example:

Question: My app was approved last week and I'm still seeing test ads. My implementation is correct, what should I do?

Answer: Contact Apple. You can reach the developer relations line at (nnn) nnn-nnnn

App Stores is about bridging the gap between the development and business aspects of the App development process that don't fit on other StackExchange websites. Yes, I believe that this is a useful proposal.

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I don't agree ... this is usually the kind of thing that if not directly asked on Stack Overflow then it gets discussed in the chat rooms or faq's on the app store website ... I don't see it having the audience for a whole Stack Exchange site ... having said that, this is probably a good reason to split Stack Overflow as the android and ios communities are so large now that Stack Overflow is being bunged up with mobile nonsense. – Merlin Jan 15 '12 at 21:26
If anything, this should be a sub-site on Stack Overflow or Programmers. – David Nolan Feb 1 '12 at 4:02
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My Android Play-related questions are consistently closed, on Stack Overflow AND on Programmers. Those are usually difficult questions, that Google Search can't find. There is no more forum for Android Market/Google Play: groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/forum/#!forum/… – Nicolas Raoul Apr 19 '12 at 7:56
@DavidNolan I agree but they don't want it meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/131388/… – MarkJ May 4 '12 at 16:04
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"That is a great question and answer pair that would work. For example:" How is that a great Q&A pair? A "Contact Apple" answer with a phone number is functionally no different from a "Read the documentation" answer with a link to the docs. – Nicol Bolas Aug 29 '12 at 12:28
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I believe that most answers will be "Contact Apple" and this is not the sense of Q&A. – miho Oct 23 '12 at 11:46
up vote 3 down vote

An app store site is a dire need for the developers who develop software to upload on app store. We don't possess all the knowledge regarding something. Some of us know better, whereas some have inadequate knowledge on something. So for the developers who have some confusion or some questions about app store like uploading software on app store or something, they can question this and eventually any person with this particular knowledge can help him answering that particular question.

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That might be useful for a nice FAQ or something, but that doesn't explain why we need a whole Q&A site. – Nicol Bolas Aug 29 '12 at 12:29
up vote 2 down vote

Here's why app stores is useful to me:

  1. It will allow me to access individuals who have done innovative things with app stores (I am particularly interested in the Android platform)

  2. People who have got around problems with current app stores can publish their solutions here and connect with people who have similar issues

  3. Publishers who have used app stored in innovative ways, maybe to sell/distribute mobile content which could not have been distributed in other ways

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Those innovations would likely be encapsulated within a different site being that all of those examples would be programming innovations. – Steve Buzonas Dec 28 '11 at 18:21
up vote -3 down vote

I'd find it useful:

A. Because the howto's of getting your app out there are not particularly well known although they are well known to those who do it. and

B. Because more and more companies are moving their marketplace to app stores - hopefully there would be one CW question like 'what appstores exist'?

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And that covers/would cover about 10 questions total before the site fell through; where as, the information could probably be relitively easily found via a quick google search/site search in SO or Programmers.SE – Jeff Langemeier Aug 23 '11 at 17:30
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@JeffLangemeier I wish you were right, but it appears that the information would have been removed from SO and PSE as off topic meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/131388/… – MarkJ May 4 '12 at 16:05
up vote -4 down vote

You know who the best people to answer that question would be? App Developers.

It seems that it's app developers that want this site. And that non app developers here are the nay-sayers.

Non programming app related questions aren't welcome on the other sites, so why do have a site for app developers to ask questions?

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I'm an app developer. It seems that this site is not needed. – Kheldar Mar 8 at 9:22
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If you're an app developer who doesn't want to use the site, then don't use it. But why not let developers who want to use it have it? – Slapout Mar 8 at 15:45
You're missing the point: area51 is about which sites are useful or not to create. I don't think this proposition is useful. If asked my opinion, I give it :p – Kheldar Mar 8 at 21:50
See David Nolan's comment earlier, which I entirely second. Besides, your assumption was that App developers are the best people to ask. Well, as an App Developer, you got my answer. That's all ;) – Kheldar Mar 8 at 21:52

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