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Proposed wording: off-topic: This question does not appear to relate to open source, within the scope defined in the [help]. (Changed wording in bold - the final close reason will not require bold.)

Just so that there is some history here (cause everyone loves history, right!) The term "free software" is older, and is reflected in the name of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), an organization founded in 1985 to protect and promote free software. The term "open source" was coined in 1998 by a group of people — the founders of the ...

This site is not solely about software. I'm rather partisan of keeping it simple. Definitely keep “Open Source” as the site name. Mention somewhere in the description that this includes all free/libre/whatever-you-want-to-call-it software. And explicitly declare debates about terminology off-topic and have moderators kill them in the bud.

I disagree. With a scope that is ever changing, it is pre-mature to request name changes. Not all questions on this site will be about licensing. One of the main focuses, which sadly isn't coming to life fast enough, is the organization and marketing of projects. If we continue to broaden the scope, the name change would be detrimental to the site's ...

Since no one on the site has the 1250 reputation required to suggest a tag synonym (And no one would have for at least a few more days). Your best bet would be to flag for moderator attention, and hope that one of the Community Managers see it. Looks like the managers hath heard our prayers.

I'd like to suggest a different approach than what I've seen on most sites: rather than just having a list of topics I think it would be wise to first define the core topic which this site is about. I think it's important to state that except in the rarest of questions "open source", "free" and "libre" are considered synonymous ...

Free/Libre Software and Open Source software are two groups which overlap rather a lot, but not entirely. Any software licensed under the NASA Open Source Agreement is Open Source, but not Free. The WTFPL and the CeCILL License v2 are approved by the Free Software Foundation, but not approved of by the OSI. This lack of approval doesn't necessarily mean ...

Free software is the beginning of discussing the phenomenon as a concept (free software/open source software was existing before but wasn't noticed as such). The term open source was coined later and while it has many merits, free software does to. Mentioning it would not only acknowledging the heritage, it would also clearing up confusion of users, that may ...

I think we should definitely have "free" as well as "open" in the title and/or the description, and ideally also "libre". This site is not about free/libre/open software and not about free/libre/open content. It’s about free/libre/open licenses and licensing, and maybe to some extent even the free/libre/open culture. But the kind of work (software, music, ...

Open License would be a different site. Anyone who wishes to see an openlicence.SE can propose it on Area 51. The site we are presently building is opensource.SE and that is not subject to change.

Basically in general... Any question related to licensing libre/open source projects Any question related to the marketing of libre/open source projects Any question related to the organization and management of libre/open source projects ... Anything that's libre/open source. Also, we allow: Questions on the history and philosophies of the FSF and the ...

Proposed wording: off-topic: This question does not appear to be about open source concepts, within the scope defined in the [help]. (Changed wording in bold - the final close reason will not require bold.)

I think FreeRadicals suggestion is good, but it would be better this way: What's your question about open source or free culture? Be specific. This way we avoid the word software altogether and cover 4 keywords: free, open, source and culture. Some of these four are usually used in the context of the things we cover here.

I think it should be changed, but "open source" is not the solution, as the accepted meaning of "open source" is "open source code" (i.e. software source code). We need to broaden this site's scope to more than source code - for instance that we also care about freedom. There is not much room in this field, so a full list of all the stuff that's on topic is ...

Well... licence will now always become license. :D