When I first approached the Stack Overflow page to choose a site, I didn’t expect the process of choosing a page to take so long. I figured I’d end up choosing something I’m quite familiar with (leading me to look at Graphic Design and Arts and Crafts), but I was more interested in joining sites that I had almost no relevance in joining.

I ended up joining five different sites and then spending more time answering questions on the Graphic Design site, since I actually had a little bit of help to give. I already felt like I had a foot in that community given my experience, and I was actually really impressed with the expertise that was happening within that group – there appeared to be designers with 10+ years of experience, answering questions from how to adjust vector lines, to doing full critiques of another person’s logo. Even though my score indicated I only recently joined the community, I felt quite at home answering questions and writing critiques because those had been regular class assignments in the past. It also made the idea of messaging strangers seem significantly less odd. 

The sites that I spent more time exploring led to more bizarre experiences. I signed up for the Parenting Overflow, and immediately felt as though I was intruding on people’s private lives. Where some posts were more simple (baby product recommendations etc.), others involved trying to get help from other parents dealing with rebellious teenagers. I didn’t expect to stumble upon people so publicly divulging in on more intimate family issues, and I felt like an outsider entering a community that I didn’t belong to. The site is clearly not meant for people exploring Stack Exchanges – it is a very closed community in which people feel very comfortable sharing and exchanging aid as parents. 

I found that the Puzzling Stack Exchange site had a more dual-sided exchange, where people entered the site to find interesting puzzles and logic games to solve – and others can find an answer to a question that is stumping them. It was one of the more lighthearted communities, and though I could barely wrap my head around several of the questions asked, I learned so much because people were so willing to not only answer but teach the process of how to think through complex logic problems. 

I was at first really excited about the Coffee Exchange so that I could ask a question about what people’s recommendations were for good coffee types and flavors, as well as how coffee masters make the perfect cup of coffee – but as I was posting my question I was told from the site that the question was very likely to be taken down because it was so vague (that was fair – I legitimately asked for recommendations on anything related to coffee). 

The Arts and Craft Exchange seemed like one of the lesser controlled sites in terms of content – art projects of any media or kind were discussed on the site, so questions ranged from asking “whether or not the artist should leave their emotions out of their projects” to “common causes for sticky harness needles”.