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A brief glance at this SE seems to tell me it's more filled with "why doesn't this code work" questions as opposed to "How could this code work better" (which I believe is the actual point of this SE).

Best way to enforce the intention of this SE?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Could you give some examples of (open) questions? Questions about "why doesn't this code work?" are clearly off-topic. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jamal
    May 22, 2014 at 0:19
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    \$\begingroup\$ Sorry, but the premise that Code Review has more off-topic than on-topic question is completely ridiculous. As I am writing this, only 4 of the 50 most recent questions are on hold. \$\endgroup\$
    – Adam
    May 23, 2014 at 0:30

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This is a good question. The rulebook is pretty clear about non-working code:

  1. Does my question contain code? (Please include the code in the question, not a link to it)
  2. Did I write that code?
  3. Is it actual code from a project rather than pseudo-code or example code?
  4. Do I want the code to be good code, (i.e. not code-golfing, obfuscation, or similar)
  5. To the best of my knowledge, does the code work?
  6. Do I want feedback about any or all facets of the code?

I agree that the rules could make it more visible that non-working code is off-topic. But there's people that don't read the manual and then there's people that won't read the manual.

We recently ran a contest here on meta, where the community voted on ad suggestions (at this time it's still showing up on the Community Bulletin). This is our winning entry:

def review(code): | """ Share the code | you are working on | for peer review. | """ | for line in code: | if line.smells: | improve(line) || {CR} tough questions, | smart answers.

The ad is now in effect on Programmers.SE and Stack Overflow. I find it makes a great job at capturing the site's essence, but there's indeed no explicit emphasis on working code. And the ad is quite successful, too.

We eventually want to have our own blog, which will give us an additional tribune for promoting Code Review and what CR is all about.

That's currently on hold until further notice though.

If anyone has any more ideas, bring them!

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I could actually say that saying "that you are working on" also implicitly implies not working code. However I doubt that the ad itself changed the mentality. \$\endgroup\$
    – skiwi
    May 22, 2014 at 13:17
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As you are talking about enforcing the intention of this SE-Site.

That's what we as Users do everyday, we comment, vote up, down, close and reopen questions, we edit, we chat, we ask, we answer,

we are Code Review

And by doing so, everyday, we enforce the intention of what we see as Code Review

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