Proposal: Stack Overflow (in German)
This proposal was created 9 month ago and it seems everything goes very slow. I'm following SO in German for ~3 month and I tend to say that it will never reach an open beta and if it will reach this phase I think it won't survive because of the lack of active users.
What do you think? Is there a chance for Stack Overflow in German or Stack Overflows in Language XX in general?
Thanks for your responses!
Generally speaking, proposals that tend to move this slow do not end up creating viable sites. It is difficult enough to create a successful site, even in the best of circumstances. Momentum is a big part of the proposal process. Without seeing the enthusiasm and energy needed to build an active site, I'm afraid this proposal is not likely to do well, at least in this iteration.
I think it's hard(er) for proposals for sites in other languages to reach enough commitment, because only those people are active on Area51 that already are StackExchange users.
These users are already fine with using the sites in English.
Sure, as you can see, some of them would like to have an additional site in their native language, too. But I guess they would not represent the majority of users on these other-language sites. Instead, such sites would attract primarily people that are currently not registered at any StackExchange site.
As soon as a German StackOverflow is released, German speaking people who a) never heard of StackOverflow before or b) couldn't speak (good enough) English or c) didn't like to write/read English, are potential users. They won't vote for this proposal here. So we'd have to get this site running for their benefit.
The problem is, as unor already pointed out, that Area51 is in English. Those that would need a German SO because they know no English or aren't fluent wouldn't be aware of it and therefore can't vote.
A bigger problem is: SO, the original, has a particular way it works. There are certain dynamics at work there. You cannot clone that. So even if this proposal got through, there is no guarantee that the German SO - even with original content and all - would ever be anything alike to the English one. This is an important aspect, because it's those dynamics which make/made SO attractive in the first place.
There is, btw, one site that is similar by design to SO and you can tell by the (lack of) quality of questions and answers how this proposal might turn out: http://codekicker.de/
