Anderton
Just seeing it for the first time. Seems to me like it's basically what we're doing here, but with a more formal structure that intends for the "cream" to rise to the top.
That is not at all clear. A substantial portion of the traffic on this forum has to do with technical problems with the software i. e. support issues by peers. Those would hardly fall under discussions of the general nature of getting help with a product or how to questions. There is nothing in the list
here that indicates peer technical support is part of the forum.
One of the big concerns expressed here is that too great a variety of topics being discussed makes it unmanageable, and there is a constant refrain, and editorial action by the moderators to move off topic threads to more well defined venues like Features, Techniques etc. The Barkery seems to be a surrender to the babble by inviting everything to a single forum. Numerical ratings may look more formal, but overall the list of topics to be discussed in the Bakery seems pretty formless to me. In any event, since virtually no one visits the designated specialty discussions now because questions there fall largely on deaf ears due to insufficient traffic and instead bring every topic here, these issues may be of no matter.