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We all love Bitcoin Stack Exchange, but there is a whole world of people out there who need answers to their questions and don't even know that this site exists. When they arrive from Google, what will their first impression be? Let's try to look at this site through the eyes of someone who's never seen it before, and see how we stack up against the rest of the 'Net.

The Site Self-Evaluation review queue is open and populated with 10 questions that were asked and answered in the last quarter. Run a few Google searches to see how easy they are to find and compare the answers we have with the information available on other sites.

Rating the questions is only a part of the puzzle, though. Do you see a pattern of questions that should have been closed but are not? Questions or answers that could use an edit? Anything that's going really well? Post an answer below to share your thoughts and discuss these questions and the site's health with your fellow users!

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    Remember to search using incognito - otherwise you'll get biased results.
    – Nick ODell
    Commented Feb 13, 2015 at 3:49

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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[Satisfactory] Is it a chain of headers rather than a chain of blocks?

The page showed up fairly well on the following Google searches:

  • headers chain vs block chain bitcoin
  • headers chain
  • block chain headers [Rank 6, what the heck?]

There are about a thousand pages describing how blocks are chained, so even though I wrote the accepted answer (and I'm happy with it), I also don't think this is "far better than other available resources." (For all the searches above, the block chain section that I wrote for the Bitcoin.org developer guide ranks higher.)

I also agree with Nick that ODell that the question title could definitely be improved.

[Satisfactory] What exactly happens when a node detects a double spend?

Non-matching searches, no results in first two pages

  • bitcoin double spend
  • bitcoin core double spend
  • bitcoin double spend drop
  • bitcoin double spend confirm

Matching searches

  • bitcoin node double spend
  • bitcoin double spend keep

This question came up fairly often in the search results.

I think this question and answer are excellent for being specific and clear, but it "requires oddly specific search terms to find," so I'm grading it satisfactory.

[Needs Improvement] Is there a local wallet for Ripple?

Non-matching searches, no results in first two pages:

  • ripple wallet
  • local ripple wallet
  • download ripple wallet

Matching search:

  • local wallet for ripple

This question came up in every search result, although it describes something different and may be out of date (I don't follow Ripple).

The Ripple.com downloadable client announcement also came up in most searches and provides, I think, the best resource.

Because the "answer is no better than what can be found elsewhere," I'm ranking as needs improvement. Improvements could be further describing the security and privacy benefits of the downloadable Ripple client, or describing why it took so long for the Ripple project to create such a client. Also, any contraindications for using the downloadable client would be nice.

[Excellent] Which bitcoin script forms should be detected when tracking wallet balance?

Non-matching searches, no results on first two pages:

  • bitcoin wallet detect
  • bitcoin wallet output
  • bitcoin wallet scriptpubkey
  • bitcoin wallet pubkey script

Matching searches:

  • bitcoin wallet script [page 2]
  • bitcoin wallet script match [page 1, near top]

This is an important question for wallet and other program creators, it's clearly worded, and Nick's answer is clear and concise. I also think it will show up in search results for the most commonly used terms even though there are some negative results above. It's "well-written and has a clear, comprehensive answer that is far better than other available resources," so I'm rating excellent.

I'll amend this post when I get to the rest (this is a lot of work!).

Edit: not going to finish. Hopefully 4 reviews is enough.

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Final Results

Net Score: 10 (Excellent: 10, Satisfactory: 1, Needs Improvement: 0)

Net Score: 6 (Excellent: 7, Satisfactory: 3, Needs Improvement: 1)

Net Score: 4 (Excellent: 5, Satisfactory: 4, Needs Improvement: 1)

Net Score: 4 (Excellent: 5, Satisfactory: 4, Needs Improvement: 1)

Net Score: 3 (Excellent: 3, Satisfactory: 7, Needs Improvement: 0)

Net Score: 2 (Excellent: 3, Satisfactory: 3, Needs Improvement: 1)

Net Score: 1 (Excellent: 4, Satisfactory: 4, Needs Improvement: 3)

Net Score: 1 (Excellent: 3, Satisfactory: 2, Needs Improvement: 2)

Net Score: 1 (Excellent: 2, Satisfactory: 7, Needs Improvement: 1)

Net Score: 0 (Excellent: 2, Satisfactory: 5, Needs Improvement: 2)

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Which bitcoin script forms should be detected when tracking wallet balance?

I might be biased, but I think this is pretty good :). The only non-SE source I can find that touches on this is http://www.wildbunny.co.uk/blog/2014/03/18/watch_only_wallet/, but that uses bitcoin RPC to identify the transaction type and extract addresses. It doesn't go into as much detail, but it would probably be more useful to the average developer.

Is there a local wallet for Ripple?

Not much to say about this. It's a clear, concise answer. The information is available elsewhere, although it's difficult to find.

Other SE resources:

Non-SE resources:

Creating your own Bitcoin price ticker

An okayish question. The best non-SE resource I can find is https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=918246.0, which doesn't go into much detail.

It's tagged with , which I think ought to be burninated at some point.

I'll call this Satisfactory.

Receiving `error: {"code":-25,"message":""}` on sendrawtransaction with v0.9.3

He asked a clear question, which is good. He figured out the answer, and posted it to his own question, which is even better!

OTOH, it seems like a very localized question, and the views and votes reflect that. E for Effort, I guess.

Is it chain of headers rather than a chain of blocks?

This question takes the form of "misunderstanding, amiright?" which is problematic because it's really hard to search for and it makes it difficult close duplicates of the question.

DAH wrote a really good answer, but it's attached to a so-so question.

I'll add the other ones as I get to them.

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