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We have mods now, that can change a lot of things, among them the site-description in the tour.

It currently reads:

Open Source Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people organizing, marketing or licensing open source development projects. It's built and run by you as part of the Stack Exchange network of Q&A sites. With your help, we're working together to build a library of detailed answers to every question about open source software.

It is outdated, as it still talks about open source software, although we already moved on and expanded the focus of the site. Read here about our focus as it is defined currently.

So, what should the current site-description contain? Please provide the full text maybe with some explanation. Vote on the suggestions you like.

There was an older meta-discussion about the site-description, but it only asked about inclusion of free software and was still software-focused.

EDIT: You can (and should) use $SiteName (as in the answer of ArtOfCode), as this is autmatically replaced with the current site name.

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  • I want to also add that we can place links in the site description.
    – Zizouz212
    Aug 13, 2015 at 21:05
  • @Zizouz212 can we use all the same formatting as a question/answer? Specifically, how about a bullet point list for topics?
    – Abhi Beckert
    Aug 25, 2015 at 4:40
  • @AbhiBeckert I believe we can
    – ArtOfCode
    Aug 28, 2015 at 9:16
  • @ArtOfCode $SiteName is still visible on the tour page!
    – curiousdannii
    Aug 28, 2015 at 9:58
  • @curiousdannii Thanks, fixed
    – ArtOfCode
    Aug 28, 2015 at 12:06

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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I really dislike starting with 'organzing', but can't really explain why... here's an alternative based a little on my wording for the on-topic page.

$SiteName is a question & answer site for people producing, distributing, marketing and monetizing Free and Open projects. This site is not limited to software, but also covers art, literature, hardware, databases and more. It's built and run by you as part of the Stack Exchange network of Q&A sites. With your help, we're working together to build a free and open library of detailed answers to every question about free and open culture, communities and projects.

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  • I think instead of "This site is not limited to software, but also covers ..." it would be better to say "This includes software, art, literature..." so that all topics are on equal ground (aside from being sorted in order of priority).
    – Abhi Beckert
    Aug 25, 2015 at 4:38
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    @AbhiBeckert: Put it as an own suggestion in a different answer, so that it can be voted.
    – Mnementh
    Aug 25, 2015 at 22:06
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$SiteName is a question and answer site for people organizing, marketing, licensing or using products or projects pertaining to open culture, whether it is Open Source and Free software, Open Data, Open Knowledge or other Free or Open projects. It's built and run by you as part of the Stack Exchange network of Q&A sites. With your help, we're working together to build a free/libre library of detailed answers to every question about open culture, communities and projects.

Stresses the broader scope, as well as our content being free/libre as well.

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  • Much better than mine. This is the kind of tone I was trying to go for, but I couldn't word it right
    – ArtOfCode
    Aug 5, 2015 at 14:57
  • I like your sugegstion but would appreciate if the description also made it clear the all sorts of free creative works is in scope. Perhaps having "the creative commons" somewhere in the list? I've nothing against source code, software and data, and having knowledge in there is great - but to broaden our user base, we should make it clear that sharing and remixing art, music and literature is welcome as well.
    – Free Radical
    Aug 5, 2015 at 15:29
  • @FreeRadical I don't know what the custom is with meta posts that already have votes, but I would encourage edits to improve the blurb (or shameless copy-pasting with changed wording in a new answer, whichever is better)
    – Martijn
    Aug 5, 2015 at 15:48
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Here is my take, shamelessly copypasted from Martijn's suggestion:

$SiteName is a question and answer site for people organizing, marketing, licensing or using products or projects pertaining to free and open culture, whether it is open source, free software, creative commons, open data, open knowledge, or other free or open projects. It's built and run by you as part of the Stack Exchange network of Q&A sites. With your help, we're working together to build a free and open library of detailed answers to every question about free and open culture, communities and projects.

I've changed "open" into "free and open", added a reference to the "creative commons", and changed key terms into lowercase to indicate that they're generic, and may not reference to the "official" term definition by some partisan group.

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  • I'd actually remove the bit about free beer being off-topic - since this is for the site tour, we want to include people, not drive them away. However, that's a good one to add to help/on-topic, and I like the rest of this.
    – ArtOfCode
    Aug 5, 2015 at 16:04
  • Removed. But as soon as you mention the "f"-word, some OSI acolyte is going to object: "How could we then avoid the 'Free as in speech, not free as in beer' issue?"
    – Free Radical
    Aug 5, 2015 at 16:07
  • I do appreciate that, and I think we definitely need to make that clear in the rest of our site literature.
    – ArtOfCode
    Aug 5, 2015 at 16:08
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    @FreeRadical let them object, and suggest alternatives
    – Martijn
    Aug 5, 2015 at 16:14
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$SiteName is a question and answer site for people organizing, marketing or licensing free and open projects. It's built and run by you as part of the Stack Exchange network of Q&A sites. With your help, we're working together to build a library of detailed answers to every question about the free and open source communities and ideals.

Notes:

  • I don't intend the italics to be part of the final formatting; they're here to denote where I've changed it.
  • $SiteName automagically translates to the current site name, which is useful for if we want to change it. Currently, it'll translate to Open Source Stack Exchange.
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$SiteName is a question & answer site for people interested in "open" works and licenses.

This is based on Open Definition.

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