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I'm not criticizing the decision, I simply want to understand. If M4M, one of the largest stacks chose OSQA, I want to understand why. Is it the look N feel (more similar to Stack Exchange)? The features? I don't think it's the pricing plan, because both Shapado & OSQA can be self-hosted for free. So far I have been active on the Shapado meta, but not so much on OSQA, and I want to make sure I'm not betting on the wrong horse. |
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I do agree OSQA looks a bit more like StackExchange. Personally, if I were to go in this direction for my own site (which I'm not contemplating at this time), I'd want to tweak the CSS and get it to look even closer to what StackExchange looks like. For instance, I find a lot of the fonts here at OSQA smaller than StackExchange defaults. Too small. Margin/spacing is also insufficient, IMHO, leaving this design feeling a little more "crowded" than StackExchange. But, that being said, OSQA does look like a closer match to StackExchange than Shapado ... and I suspect what I've complained about can be tweaked, assuming a clean separation between HTML and CSS. Sounds like the CSS is completely separate, but it's in one big file right now. Rick said they're working on CSS customization relatively soon. You could tweak it now, but you have a bit more work to do when you upgrade. The colors were OK for a meta site, so I didn't bother.
(Apr 19 '10 at 20:01)
Scott ♦♦
@Chris - take a look at this question on meta-OSQA. If you do work on tweaking OSQA to look more like SE, please add an answer there. http://meta.osqa.net/question/912/guide-to-styling-your-osqa-to-be-a-stack-exchange-look-alike
(Apr 20 '10 at 02:26)
ripper234
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It wasn't a slam-dunk in either direction. We did like that the look and feel was closer to StackExchange, so it wouldn't be as much of an adjustment for our community. Also, it's a fork of CNPROG, which has been around a bit longer. Plus I spent a bit of time clicking around both and I was more comfortable with OSQA at this point. As I said, it's not a slam dunk though. If the community was absolutely against OSQA and suddenly wanted Shapado, we'd probably listen. I just don't see that happening though. |
With Stack Exchange now being venture capital funded, it's not unlikely for their VCs to end up filing for a design patent similar to what Google did with the Google search page. Then being similar in design to Stack Exchange is going to turn overnight from a positive to being Very Bad Thing.