The question at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18601128/trying-to-simulate-a-1-dimensional-wave seems to have been migrated from gamedev.SE to StackOverflow. While it doesn't have 'game' anywhere in its title, it's clearly a question that arose in a game development context (as evinced by the fact that it was posted here in the first place); it's a question that's likely to be of interest to game developers; and moreover, as a programming matter it's unlikely to be of interest to anyone but game developers (I'm hard-pressed to think of any other field that would be doing this sort of simulation at this level of simplicity). It was moved very agressively (within an hour of being posted) and AFAICT without any discussion at all, and I'm just a bit confused as to why this question in particular was picked out of dozens if not hundreds of similar simulational questions.
1 Answer
I migrated it because it wasn't specific to game development. Simulating a 1 dimensional wave is not something a game developer would know how to do better than another developer. Per the help, it did not pass the following test:
Would a professional game developer give me a better/different/more specific answer to this question than other programmers?
The question is asking about implementation of a mathematical algorithm:
m*x[i]''=-k(2*x[i]-x[i-1]-x[i+1])
Taking math equation and implementing code for it is not something that's specific to game developers. The question does not ask about games in any way.
Further, I can assure you I was very calm while migrating it, and there wasn't any aggression :)
Unfortunately, questions being posted here does not necessarily mean they have a game development context. This can be seen in the frequent questions about compiler errors, null pointer errors, linking issues etc. Those questions are typically asked here because the OP was in the process of making a game when the issue arose, but it doesn't mean it's a game development issue.
Even if the question we're talking about said it was for a game, it would be off topic here, for the reasons above.
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\$\begingroup\$ Thank you for the quick answer! I should note that I meant 'agressively' in the sense of 'quite quickly', rather than implying any sort of actual agression on your part. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 3, 2013 at 23:19
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\$\begingroup\$ I assumed that :) Just making it clear. Does this answer your question? \$\endgroup\$– HouseSep 3, 2013 at 23:22
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1\$\begingroup\$ That said, I'm not sure that I agree with your assessment with 'would a professional game developer give a better answer than other programmers?'. As I noted in my question, this sort of simulation is endemic to game development and shows up almost nowhere else; I do think a game developer would give a better answer to this question than other programmers would, because of experience. What differentiates this from, e.g., a question about A* in your mind? Both have equal levels of algorithmic content and both tend to show up primarily in game development contexts. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 3, 2013 at 23:23
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\$\begingroup\$ Well, I don't think they're equal. A*'s uses are very common to game development, and not as common in other environments. A one dimensional wave could have applications in a very wide variety of fields. As I said before, it's true that these issues may be commonly dealt with by game developers, but they're also commonly dealt with by developers in lots of fields. My goal is to get questions answered. If an algorithm question is borderline (on the side of SO in my opinion), I'd rather move it to SO where there's far more traffic and it's more likely to get answered. \$\endgroup\$– HouseSep 3, 2013 at 23:33
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1\$\begingroup\$ Fair enough; we'll have to agree to disagree here, I think. I have almost never seen this sort of simple simulational code in other environments (games are arguably the main driver of simulation these days, just as they've become the main driver of graphics), but I've done very similar work on discretizing differential equations on multiple game projects. I also feel like this sort of question is more likely to get answered on gamedev.SE where it can actually get noticed in the noise, but that's another matter... \$\endgroup\$ Sep 3, 2013 at 23:46
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\$\begingroup\$ By the way, it seems to be doing pretty good over at SO. \$\endgroup\$– HouseSep 4, 2013 at 2:30
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\$\begingroup\$ Now Byte56 will be moving questions agressively and vigorously.Take that question! Aaaarrrghh! \$\endgroup\$– petervazSep 12, 2013 at 15:00
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1\$\begingroup\$ Given that the accepted answer was from someone who has more rep on gamedev than SO, kind of best illustrates @steve standnicki's points, which I agree with from the ideal classification standpoint. From a user perspective, I do prefer posting where the odds are highest. But there seems to be inconsistent emphasis from moderators on whether we should be putting things in the ideal place or the place it gets answered quickest (or more likely to be answered).If the goal is to make gamedev the place to go for gamedev answers, then migration such as this doesn't support that goal. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 9, 2013 at 6:24
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\$\begingroup\$ I also notice that the poster of the question has rep on Mathematics, Physics, and SO etc. So he would seem to be aware of where he's posting in relation to classification and possibly even aware that it'd be of greatest help to game developers... thus posting it here. \$\endgroup\$ Nov 9, 2013 at 6:46
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\$\begingroup\$ Thanks for your input, I'll keep that in mind next time. \$\endgroup\$– HouseNov 9, 2013 at 6:52