Q:

Should SO Documentation be used for documenting file formats?

Is it worthwhile documenting common file formats? What about proprietary file formats?
In the case of the former, there is an issue of redundancy since detailed specifications will probably be available elsewhere. In the second case, where crowd-sourced documentation of reverse-engineered file formats would most useful, is there an issue with copyright?
Obviously, cutting and pasting copyrighted file format documentation is a problem, but what about original documentation explaining copyrighted file formats (e.g. Autodesk .bip format)?
Related question about proprietary file formats and Q&A.

A:

Understanding and implementing file formats is a fairly common programming task and there exist tags for common file formats like TIFF, HDF, .. in the Q&A part of Stack Overflow. I don't see why you cannot have documentation of file formats on Stack Overflow Documentation then if the following points are taken into account.

Don't duplicate good documentation that is available elsewhere. Common file formats are usually well documented, however, stuff that goes beyond (examples, tips and tricks) would probably be useful.
Always respect copyright. Only publish material here that can be licensed under the Stack Overflow license.
Be aware that you need currently five people with experience in a tag on Q&A Stack Overflow to also create a tag on Documentation. This might severely limit tags about file formats.
Topic proposals may be rejected as not needed. It may be seen as too specific to be of interest. This might limit topic creation about file formats.
The good thing is that the scope of topics on Documentation can be broader than that of a question in the Q&A part of Stack Overflow.
Finally, while documenting file formats is programming related, Documentation is also very example centric. I wonder if the current structure of a topic page really fits the needs of documenting file formats well? It might be Documentation is not the best way to document file formats, except if you have many good examples.

