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Many of you have already seen announcements both on main and on meta announcing this site's graduation. At the request of a few of you who were skeptical (or perhaps merely in shocked disbelief), I'm here to confirm that yes, the Community Team has indeed decided that Code Review should graduate. Congratulations, Code Reviewers!

Over the past few years, you've built a community here that excels by pretty much every measure we look at sites with, and you've shown the willingness and ability to take action and get results in dealing with issues as they've arisen. The entire community has done a great job, and you should all be very proud of yourselves. We're certainly proud to have you as part of the network!

I hope you'll join me in giving your moderator team an extra round of virtual applause. Jamal, rolfl, 200_success and the pro-tems who came before them have done an incredible amount of work, both publicly and behind the scenes, in getting this site to where it is today.

What happens now?

Code Review has been added to the list of sites that the SE Design Team will be creating unique site designs for. Unfortunately, the list is long, so it may be several months before you see the first mockups.

In the meantime, this provides an opportunity to think about how to be an even better site as privilege thresholds increase, elections are held, and you continue to grow. As this community should understand better than most, no matter how good you are, there is always room for improvement.

In the interest of both reflecting and planning ahead, I'm posing a question to the community:

Is there anything you'd like to see Code Review Stack Exchange do better?

Weigh in by posting an answer below!

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    \$\begingroup\$ As I mentioned in the post, you have great mods on this site, and I thought they would enjoy getting to make the graduation announcement. I'm sorry for any confusion I caused by not posting about it myself initially. (At least it wasn't April 1!) \$\endgroup\$
    – Pops
    Sep 30, 2014 at 18:12
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    \$\begingroup\$ I have to say that 200_success' post on the main site was an utterly fantastic way to make the announcement; especially since the actual announcement was hidden in code, and beautifully leveraged the new stack snippets feature - thank you, community team, and [big round of virtual applause] to our moderators. I've said it before, I'll say it again: CR's blessed with a dream team of moderators! ...and thanks everyone for being part of this wonderful community! \$\endgroup\$
    – Mathieu Guindon
    Oct 1, 2014 at 15:37
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    \$\begingroup\$ I think that the top 50 users on Code Review should be given an unlimited amount of stars for chat everyday, we have earned it! \$\endgroup\$
    – Malachi Mod
    Oct 1, 2014 at 19:03

10 Answers 10

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I personally would like to see more reviewers drawn to this site. We almost always have a larger number of questions coming in than reviews, causing our unanswered count to increase over time. Fortunately, we don't have to have a question answered quickly (reviews, especially long ones, do take time). However, a short review is always encouraged, and could even be considered an "appetizer" for a larger review to come, whether by the same user or possibly another one.

Speaking of short reviews, we must also make it clear that short reviews are not discouraged. There are many long reviews around, so it's understandable that new users would assume that that's the kind of review they should come up with. It absolutely is not. In fact, if you've read enough reviews, you can notice that each regular reviewer has their own "style" of reviewing. That can help add more "personality" to the review, but again, it's not mandatory of any review. As long as the review is good and not too short (link-only especially), even if it's just a drive-by review, then it can really help us out.

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We need to be better about pointing out what the OP of a question did right. Particularly if "the code looks good." It's an important part of a review that often gets overlooked. It's good for morale and stops questions containing impeccable code from zombifying.

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    \$\begingroup\$ +1 Really good point. It's very easy to be over-critical. \$\endgroup\$
    – xDaevax
    Oct 9, 2014 at 15:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ See my response below - add to it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Keith Barrows
    Oct 31, 2014 at 21:38
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I don't know SEO, but make this site be included in the first few results of a Google search with query "review my code".

Current

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    \$\begingroup\$ Hm... maybe we should redirect all gimmetehcodez questions to paidcodereview.com. After all, no one wants to truly give teh codez for free. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jamal
    Sep 30, 2014 at 22:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ Related: meta.codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/2136/… \$\endgroup\$
    – RubberDuck
    Sep 30, 2014 at 22:56
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Jamal We need a paidcodereview.stackexchange.com evil twin site... \$\endgroup\$
    – h.j.k.
    Oct 1, 2014 at 3:03
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    \$\begingroup\$ we should make sure that this answer (programmers.stackexchange.com/a/139324/62519) has our updated mission statement \$\endgroup\$
    – Malachi Mod
    Oct 1, 2014 at 13:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Malachi: I have the rep to edit the question. Point me at the new mission statement. \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin York
    Oct 3, 2014 at 12:48
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When posting on a site for the first time, there's really nothing worse than gaining the tumbleweed badge. This happened to me the first time I asked a question on Mathematics and it really didn't made me enthusiastic about returning to that site.

I would like to...

I would like to eliminate the tumbleweed badge. No new users should ever have to gain this dreadful badge!

To help with this I have of course created a query to check for possible tumbleweed candidates.

Even if it's just an upvote and/or a comment of the form "You have an interesting question here, I am personally not able to answer it but I do hope you will get an answer", any response is better than no response.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Nice Answer, This was the reason I stopped posting questions on SO. \$\endgroup\$
    – bhathiya-perera
    Sep 30, 2014 at 22:59
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    \$\begingroup\$ Maybe it's because of the whole SEDE update timing, but one of the questions in the query has several answers. codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/64053 \$\endgroup\$
    – RubberDuck
    Oct 1, 2014 at 1:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ @RubberDuck not maybe, but most probably ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – Vogel612
    Oct 1, 2014 at 7:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ @RubberDuck Yes, SEDE is only updated once every week. I am also not sure what the best WHERE statement is for the query, but I am on purpose selecting more possible candidates than necessary. \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Forsberg
    Oct 1, 2014 at 7:58
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I feel that when closing a question, even though there is a "This question has been put on hold"-message, adding a comment explaining a bit more about why the question was closed often helps a lot, and educates the user about what Code Review really is, and if the comment is written in a friendly way then I believe the probability is higher for the OP to return, and post a real Code Review question.

I'm using the auto comments script to not have to write more or less the same comment over and over again, and many of you have probably seen me write this:

Welcome to Code Review! I'm afraid this question does not match what this site is about. Code Review is about improving the cleanliness of existing, working code. Code Review is not the site to ask for help in fixing or changing what your code does. Once the code does what you want, we would love to help you do the same thing in a cleaner way!

This is a message that in a nutshell describes what Code Review is to many posters who ask an off-topic question. It is also written in a positive way, describing how much we really want to help them once their question is on-topic.

I would like to...

I would like to reduce the number of closed questions without comments. Preferably down to zero for all incoming questions. Be aware that the SEDE does not show deleted questions, so there are inevitably more questions than shown in the query. I also believe that users who has their question closed are not notified about this by the Stack Exchange system, which increases the need for a comment even more.

When the moderator tools for users with that privilege could be used for handling flags, I remember that the Community user automatically flagged questions that was closed without a comment. I believe that auto-flag exists for a reason and should be best handled by adding a comment to the specific question.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for the script link. I used to have simple textfiles for the different comments. \$\endgroup\$
    – Heslacher
    Oct 1, 2014 at 6:30
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    \$\begingroup\$ I would want this to be a site-wide setting, such that everyone will use it automatically. \$\endgroup\$
    – skiwi
    Oct 1, 2014 at 14:45
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    \$\begingroup\$ I suggest striking out "the cleanliness of". \$\endgroup\$
    – 200_success
    Dec 10, 2014 at 7:02
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I'd like to see us do a better job of downvoting bad questions and answers. We tend to focus on generating upvotes. With graduation we will be getting at least a little more exposure. We need to be on our game when it comes to policing the site and guaranteeing quality content.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I agree with this. I think I have given the highest number of downvotes on this site, probably because I care about the quality that much. Graduation will only bring in more people, so possibly more crap. When we've said to increase voting on the site, that also included downvotes. Both are very important. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jamal
    Oct 1, 2014 at 4:00
  • \$\begingroup\$ most of my downvotes get removed by deletion.... \$\endgroup\$
    – Malachi Mod
    Oct 1, 2014 at 13:19
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    \$\begingroup\$ I would add a but to this : But we should still stay friendly with new comers. I think it's a plus for us. \$\endgroup\$
    – Marc-Andre
    Oct 1, 2014 at 13:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ Yes @Marc-Andre! I absolutely agree. We should remain friendly! I personally try to keep an eye on things I downvote to see if changes are made. If the post is improved, I will often reverse my vote. Obviously, it's not always possible to keep track though. \$\endgroup\$
    – RubberDuck
    Oct 1, 2014 at 14:16
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    \$\begingroup\$ Downvoting answers is tougher here than on SO because a reviewer can give five pieces of great advice and then one that you disagree with. You can address that outlier in a comment, but should you hold off voting until it's addressed? What if they persist but you still vehemently disagree? Downvote? \$\endgroup\$
    – David Harkness
    Oct 11, 2014 at 23:07
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    \$\begingroup\$ @DavidHarkness, that's a good question. I figure you could downvote it for having anything bad information in it. Or you could just not vote on it at all, up or down. Personally, I would downvote an answer containing some bad information, no matter how helpful the rest of the answer is. \$\endgroup\$
    – RubberDuck
    Oct 12, 2014 at 11:36
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    \$\begingroup\$ @DavidHarkness That could be a good subject for another meta question, I sometimes wonder the same thing. \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Forsberg
    Oct 13, 2014 at 12:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ i know this is a year old, but i think it's worth revisiting. if a professor at my university said, "to keep up the prestige of this university, we need to do a better job of failling out the bad students," i would say, "no, that would leave all the students feeling that we don't really have their back. what we need to do a better job at is working to bring all the students up to a satisfactory level of competence/performance, by giving helpful feedback. we're educators. remember?" \$\endgroup\$
    – abcd
    Oct 22, 2015 at 6:10
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    \$\begingroup\$ put another way, if you show that you're good at failing people out, you're going to scare some good people away (and seem mean and unhelpful). if you show that you're good at raising people up, you're going to attract everyone (and seem awesome). for what it's worth, it is incredibly difficult to fail out of, e.g., yale. the support system there is incredible. (consider george w. bush.) in contrast, those off-shore, barely accredited med schools? they specialize in failing people (for all kinds of dumb reasons). so we see what strategy has worked in the university system. \$\endgroup\$
    – abcd
    Oct 22, 2015 at 6:17
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More of a Request than something that we could do better, I would like to see us all get a cool badge CodeReview Mug that participated in Public Beta and brought CodeReview back to life! (or at least those on like the first 3 pages of user {rep based})

FREE SWAG FTW

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    \$\begingroup\$ I think this is a cool idea, except there's 46,000 of us... how do we deal with that? \$\endgroup\$
    – rolfl
    Sep 30, 2014 at 21:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ we have a couple of Active Member queries on SEDE we could figure out some metric to use I think. \$\endgroup\$
    – Malachi Mod
    Sep 30, 2014 at 21:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ It is a little known thing, but the top X users on the site often get swag at graduation time. This seems like a somewhat fair and more practical award than a badge. \$\endgroup\$
    – rolfl
    Sep 30, 2014 at 21:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ @rolfl I agree with you there! \$\endgroup\$
    – Malachi Mod
    Sep 30, 2014 at 22:33
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    \$\begingroup\$ I want a Code Review mug. \$\endgroup\$
    – Morwenn
    Oct 1, 2014 at 10:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Morwenn, me as well! \$\endgroup\$
    – Malachi Mod
    Oct 1, 2014 at 13:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ I need a Code Review mug!! \$\endgroup\$
    – Mathieu Guindon
    Oct 1, 2014 at 17:11
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    \$\begingroup\$ Gimme the Mugz LOL :D \$\endgroup\$
    – bhathiya-perera
    Oct 1, 2014 at 18:06
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    \$\begingroup\$ @JaDogg: I read meta but hardly participate (you seem to have it covered). But I feel I did my share of reviews for a mug. :-) \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin York
    Oct 3, 2014 at 12:53
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    \$\begingroup\$ How about 46000 mugs? Is there a problem with that? We could resell them, and buy codereview.com \$\endgroup\$
    – IEatBagels
    Oct 6, 2014 at 15:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ A CR mug would be awesome.. \$\endgroup\$
    – konijn
    Oct 13, 2014 at 19:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/67703/… \$\endgroup\$
    – bhathiya-perera
    Oct 23, 2014 at 16:20
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Listing "CodeReview" as part of the "This Question Belongs on Another StackExchange Site" flag at StackOverflow would be both appropriate for many questions there and promote this site to its natural audience.

Currently, the only way to signal the possibility of migration is to flag directly to moderator attention...and escalating "migrate this question" to that level seems like a bit of an impedance mismatch.

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    \$\begingroup\$ SO seems to have a history of sending over some questions to us, via cross-posting, that are still considered off-topic. This has happened enough to where they may possibly not have us as a migration target right away. It may not be very inconvenient, but SO has to learn what we expect. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jamal
    Oct 16, 2014 at 17:12
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ Cross posting may be a symptom of not understanding what is on-topic in general. \$\endgroup\$
    – ben rudgers
    Oct 16, 2014 at 20:43
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Give Us a Domain

Here are some suggestions and prices (from a Go Daddy search):

Suggestion_1 Suggestion_2 Suggestion_3 Suggestion_4 Suggestion_5 Suggestion_6 Suggestion_7 Suggestion_8

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    \$\begingroup\$ You guys are going to have to run a lot of bake sales and car washes to make codereview.com happen. \$\endgroup\$
    – Pops
    Oct 1, 2014 at 17:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ If you used .codes, it could just be review.codes or reviewthe.codes :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Dan Lyons
    Oct 1, 2014 at 17:07
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Pops we could start with some CR tees! ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – Mathieu Guindon
    Oct 1, 2014 at 17:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ @DanLyons nice suggestion, It's available too. I've updated the answer \$\endgroup\$
    – bhathiya-perera
    Oct 1, 2014 at 17:23
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    \$\begingroup\$ reviewdezcodez.com is available! \$\endgroup\$
    – Anonymous Penguin
    Oct 1, 2014 at 23:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ I would go for: codereview.sexy see: newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/delegated-strings \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin York
    Oct 3, 2014 at 13:04
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    \$\begingroup\$ Or codereview.it the only sensible thing to do. :-) \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin York
    Oct 3, 2014 at 13:06
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    \$\begingroup\$ Or coderevie.ws \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin York
    Oct 3, 2014 at 13:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ @LokiAstari turned it into wiki \$\endgroup\$
    – bhathiya-perera
    Oct 3, 2014 at 13:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ Is posting domains we're looking at a good idea prior to buying them? \$\endgroup\$
    – xDaevax
    Oct 9, 2014 at 15:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ @xDaevax probably this is a community after all, But I'm no web guru. \$\endgroup\$
    – bhathiya-perera
    Oct 9, 2014 at 15:27
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    \$\begingroup\$ cdn.meme.li/instances/500x/53425246.jpg \$\endgroup\$
    – TMH
    Oct 15, 2014 at 12:13
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I would like to see some indication, other than an upvote, that the code being reviewed is good/golden/immaculate/etc.

Yes, it would require some changes to the SE code stack. Maybe a super header on the thread with up/down icons for different things:

  • Good Code (+/-)
  • Clean Code (+/-)
  • Adheres to Pattern (+/-)
  • Passes my code review (+/-)

Thoughts?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Upvotes on questions don't indicate good or bad code. They indicate interesting quality questions. Interesting idea though. \$\endgroup\$
    – RubberDuck
    Oct 31, 2014 at 21:57
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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm afraid this would make Code Review more of a contest. I don't think these different voting options would be a good idea. \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Forsberg
    Dec 13, 2014 at 22:39

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