Digital Preservation Q&A - Recent questions tagged meta

Could MarkDown support be added to this site?

Wed, 27 Aug 2014 10:49:01 +0000

Would it be possible to add MarkDown support to this site? Personally I find the default WYSIWYG editor a bit awkward, and adding HTML tags directly doesn't work either.

Seeing that this site runs on Question2Answer, adding Markdown support would be a matter of installing this plugin:

http://codelair.com/11/markdown-editor-plugin-q2a

I think this could greatly enhance this platform's overall usability.

How would we approach providing long-term access to Digital Preservation Q&A?

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 20:11:01 +0000

So this question is kind of meta, but I think is applicable beyond the confines of this site. How would one approach preserving a resource such as Digital Preservation Q&A, or something built on StackExchange, in such a way that it remains useable and expandable?

What makes a good answer?

Thu, 26 Jun 2014 20:32:07 +0000

What makes a good answer on this site?

Should answers provide citations to sources? Is individual expertise or experience a valid basis for an answer? Can answers respond to other answers, in a discussion-like style? Is opinion allowed?

What makes a good question?

Thu, 26 Jun 2014 20:29:41 +0000

Are there any guidelines or standards for what makes a good question on this site, other than that they should be on-topic?

Must the question have an answer? Must it have only one answer or a quantifiably "best" answer? Can it ask for opinion, debate or supposition?

Should discussion about questions be in the comments or the answer fields?

Thu, 05 Jun 2014 17:11:09 +0000

I raised this on twitter and am moving the conversation here.

There is sometimes a lot of discussion that goes into answering the questions on this site. Should this discussion be in underaken in the answer fields or in the comments?

I tend to think that it should be in the comments and that the answer fields should be reserved for actually answering the questions (with background discussion in there also if needed).

Is digitisation on topic?

Mon, 02 Dec 2013 13:24:06 +0000

There have already been a couple of questions focused on digitisation rather than digital preservation. I would assume that these are actually off topic and should be closed? The boundary is of course a little fuzzy.

I would propose that this community should be involved in decisions related to the results of a digitisation initiative. For example, the file formats and metadata schemas used, where/how the results are stored, and so on. However, questions focused on how to engage in digitisation, what types of scanners should be used or resolution to digitise at, will be off topic.

This question is about OCR, although is phrased in the title as a more general digitisation question. Is this in scope? Its a tough call.

As many of us in the digitisation community are well aware, confusing digital preservation for digitisation is a common mistake. I'd suggest adding some clear scoping detail on this to the "What kind of questions should I not ask here?" section of the FAQ. Examples may well be necessary to keep things clear.

Paul Wheatley

(from ZDPSE)