Meta Ask: Share your favourite "Ask X" site for particular specialist topics.

March 29, 2009 5:49 PM

Meta-Ask: We know Ask MeFI is great, but sometimes you need to dig deeper among a smaller but more spedialised crowd. So which are your favourite "Ask X" sites?

I am in love with Stack Overflow, and I have found only yesterday that Instructables have started an Answers section that could be called "Ask Instructables". I like the format more than that of forums, so am curious to know which other "Ask X" websites mefites would recommend for specialist topics.

Old-style forum software is fine, I guess, but I dn't know what makes it less useful to me than a format closer to that of Ask MeFi / Ask Slashdot / Stack Overflow / Instructables Answers. So if you know of an "Ask/Answers" site, please mention it even though it may not be your first go-to resource on a given topic.

posted by kandinski to grab bag (15 comments total)

Ask a Linguist is pretty great for language-related questions.
posted by ORthey at 6:07 PM on March 29 [2 favorites has favorites]

Ask a Librarian
posted by MLIS at 6:21 PM on March 29

You can post "AskX" to the following sites http://news.ycombinator.com/ http://www.reddit.com if they are good questions usually they are answered. thats where I go. Also just good sites in general.
posted by peregrine81 at 6:23 PM on March 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

MetaTalk, from the other day.
posted by hermitosis at 6:29 PM on March 29

Straight Dope forums.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:10 PM on March 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

hermitosis: those are great from the reference point of view, I am definitely adding some of them to my reference list. However, few of them are of the "Ask X" form.

After posting the question, I have thought of one reason why I find the Ask X sites more useful tan forums. It's not the software, but the implicit contract that Ask X are less chat and more Q&A based.

Also, the only forums I use are mostly technical ones, where answers are drowned by noise or outdated (try being a Ubuntu newbie these days: it's great, and there are loads of information, but it's also too much information to manage).
posted by kandinski at 8:11 PM on March 29

Ask A Specialist about school-based behavior, autism, adhd, and mental health.

Ask a Special Education Expert
posted by Nickel at 8:39 PM on March 29

Stack Overflow is exceptional for programming questions. It's become my first (and often last) stop for advice on such matters.
posted by Afroblanco at 8:49 PM on March 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

FreeAdvice Legal Forum
posted by querty at 8:51 PM on March 29

My second link also has a lot of other Ask an Expert categories.
posted by Nickel at 8:52 PM on March 29

Ask Dr. Math
posted by ZeroDivides at 11:14 PM on March 29

Ask A Philosopher
posted by Thorrent at 5:42 AM on March 30

AVS Forum is where i go when i want to get the latest information on a particular piece of electronics. You want to know which TV is the best bang/buck right now then this is the place.

High Sierra Topix is where i go when i'm planning a trip to the high sierras. If i want to know recent conditions of a particular trail or advice on which trail/lake to visit, i go here.

Go (the board game) related questions go to Go Discussions.
posted by escher at 10:29 AM on March 31

Afroblanco: I even put Stack Overflow in the main text, it really rocks!

Everyone else: thanks, this is a keeper.

Now, if I only had remembered to ask about Linux video editing...
posted by kandinski at 12:50 AM on April 1

A shy soul sent me private email with this ReadWriteWeb article about "Ask" sites. Great one, and thanks, youknowwhoyouare!
posted by kandinski at 8:12 AM on April 10