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by pugworthy 2973 days ago
If your goal is to post problems and associated solutions, yes it is better than a Wiki.

First, it gives you a template to post in - you are not given a blank page and told "document this"

Second, it encourages you to document single, smaller, focused pieces of information. You're not being asked or expected to write a multipage document, you're being asked to write a single entry in what essentially is a crowd sourced FAQ.

One thing the SO approach also does is that it respects the content that each person posts. If I post an answer, only I can modify it. Nobody will modify my answer to reflect what they think, and make it seem as if I was presenting a different solution that what I suggested. What people with alternative ideas CAN do though is post alternative answers, or comment on my answer with suggested changes.

2 comments

If your goal is to post, then SO is excellent. But if your goal is also to read, there are questions. Nobody ever tried to use Stack Overflow without Google yet. given all its bell and whistles are intended for those who want to post, there are questions yet to answer.
I use SO without Google sometimes, in this way: I search for a phrase or tag, and read the 20 - 30 highest upvoted questions & answers about that — and I learn a lot, sometimes things that I didn't know, that I ought to know.
> If I post an answer, only I can modify it.

Teams users won't be able to edit answers?

Well, I'm assuming it works like Stack Overflow. I can edit my own posts, but not those of others. Only high reputation moderators have the ability to edit other people's posts.

Here's how we coach moderators on the internal Stack-like site we run...

Editing

When editing content written by others, do so with respect to the person who is the original author of the content. Correct simple spelling and grammatical errors, but don't rewrite whole sentences or restructure some else's document. Instead, post a comment suggesting changes or corrections.

It's the same as stack overflow. Any user can make an edit and it goes into a review queue.