How well known is Stack Overflow with non-English speaking programmers?

Question

I'm thinking of promoting ELL to Japanese programmers who use the programming language Ruby.

If I wanted to promote a Stack Exchange site to Australian programmers, I'd say "[IT security Stack Exchange] is like Stack Overflow, but for [security issues]". But I don't know whether if I did that with Japanese programmers, I'd get a response of "What's Stack Overflow"?

I'm pretty sure that native speakers of Japanese who are living in Japan aren't very active on Stack Overflow, and possibly don't even have accounts. However, I don't know whether that means they don't use it at all, or that they're "read only" users.

Answer 1

I think it's worthwhile to promote the site, even if the audience isn't familiar with Stack Overflow. I wasn't familiar with SO when I saw a reference to "a new Q&A site" for my topic of interest, but the correspondent who mentioned it was one whose judgment I knew and trusted.

You should explain briefly how the site works, perhaps with a linkable reference to a particular question that you know is a current "hot topic", where you found a good answer. That should certainly be a magnet for anyone who's really interested, whether or not they're familiar yet with the "parent" site.

Good luck.