Proposal: Consumer Electronics
Isn't this basically another incarnation of gadgets.se, which basically fizzled out? The problem was lots of askers .. but very few well rounded experts who could provide good answers.
Proposal: Consumer Electronics
Isn't this basically another incarnation of gadgets.se, which basically fizzled out? The problem was lots of askers .. but very few well rounded experts who could provide good answers.
Possibly. But do you really want a moratorium on consumer electronics for all time because we had a failed site at some point in the past? It's a perfectly valid subject so, whether it's a change in the approach or the site or simply allowing the audience to embrace the subject organically, we'll have to watch for ways to assure some future site will not run into the same problems of the past.
I can't see Stack Exchange growing and going mainstream with a legacy of beliefs like "we can't have a site about electronic gadgets."
Since this was proposed, Ask Different (for Apple/iOS) and Android Enthusiasts (for... well... Android enthusiasts) have both gone live, and between them they encompass the overwhelming majority of mobile devices on the market (phones/tablets/e-readers) as well as Apple laptop/desktop computers. Super User handles most PC-type hardware/end-user questions, including both Windows and Linux. Pretty much the only remaining class of consumer electronics that doesn't have a home is home theater components, and there is an "Audiophile/Videophile" proposal which, as proposed, will handle technical questions about home A/V components.
I say that the time for the idea of a general "Consumer Electronics" site has passed; despite the rampant success of the SO "melting pot" of general code questions spanning all programming languages, requiring participation from experts in what we might consider very different fields, the trend in the "techie" SE sites has been toward specific technologies rather than entire product classes.