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  • Good write-up! I rather suspect the last three categories are a huge part of the site's current popularity though... Commented Sep 24, 2010 at 23:33
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    The jokes and cartoons definitely are related to programming and software development (any answers that aren't should be downvoted); I don't see why that's a gray area. Re work environment, do we really want all the various cubicle-hell pet peeves from any profession, plus any from jobs like secretary to delivery driver? "What version control practice do you find annoying?" would be more acceptable where "coworker habit" isn't. In contrast, "music while coding" is more bent towards programming, but not by much. Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 0:05
  • +1 for the "differentiates the exceptional programmers" example. Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 0:19
  • @Gnome: "music while coding" is about as programming-related as "snacks while coding" - which is to say, not very related. I'm sure there are some folks who think their setup is what makes them the Programming Gods that they are, and nothing but the right music, food, equipment, co-workers and ambient light will do... But I suspect most of these are just GTKY questions. Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 0:20
  • @Shog9: I know where you're coming from, and I 99% agree (I qualified "not by much" about "music"), but there are fewer jobs that let you listen to anything you want and where creativity can be important than there are where you can eat while at work. (Of course, not all programming jobs let you listen to anything you want, but it seems to me—though I've only worked in a handful of professions—this is much higher than average for programmers.) Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 0:24
  • I'm not sure about the atheist question, though I know it could quickly degrade. Compare to other religious comparisions (about halfway down; post itself also deals with race). Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 0:28
  • @Gnome: I've only had a few different lines of work, so can't speak authoritatively on this... But the sole job where I couldn't listen to music involved answering phones (so, kinda obvious). Factory, farm, even janitorial work were all fairly tolerant of a radio or something at workstations, so long as it didn't interfere with work or communication. This strikes me as another instance of "programmer exceptionalism" - programmers thinking programmers are special because they're programmers. Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 0:30
  • @Shog9: For my 1% disagreement, I'm picturing headphones and isolation—definitely interfering with communication and much less common in other jobs, rather than a radio an entire office can share, but I suppose this may reflect how I tick more than anything. Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 0:39
  • @Gnome: I prefer a good amp and great big speakers cranked up loud... Which probably explains why I didn't picture headphones. That said, "Can listening to music interfere with your job?" might actually make a decent P.SE question... though I'm hardly surprised that no one has asked it. Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 0:49
  • Oh man, you wouldn't believe the amount of flak the locking of the atheist question got on Meta.Programmers.SE. It's the textbook case of how Programmers.SE has gotten derailed due to lack of discipline. Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 0:53
  • @Gnome: "Do we really want all the various cubicle-hell pet peeves from any profession, plus any jobs like secretary to delivery driver?" - No, that's why I listed it under the "bad" heading. Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 3:07
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    @Shog: I suspect you're right about all of the "bad" topics being largely responsible for the site's popularity; the trick, of course, is finding a set of topics that can sustain some popularity without turning it into an intellectual wasteland. Once you eliminate all of the garbage GTKY-type questions, there still seems to be a pretty large number of real (albeit subjective) programming/programmer questions. Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 3:10
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    @Shog: I think he was implying that everybody likes beer, irrespective of their vocation. Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 3:30
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    I'm not sure I can say "fun" is a gray area on p.se. IF you buy that "programming culture" questions fit, then I think most of these fall into that.I think the work environment tag just needs more definition: "what colors for your ide" or "how much lighting is best" seem to be perfectly ok to me. But the questions you highlight are indeed lousy. If it were up to me, I'd also just auto-ban people who asked anything that smelled of holy war. One of the things attracting me to SO is the fairly neutral ground it stands on. Commented Sep 25, 2010 at 19:43
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    I've just read Do programmers have higher tendency to be atheists than non programmers?. Risky topic, but without inflammatory responses, some quoted studies, some self references and others public references, it doesn't look a bad question... Commented Oct 7, 2010 at 16:41