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Ones like this are not technical:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/545844/biggest-performance-improvement-youve-had-with-the-smallest-change

They're just chatter. It's hard to stop people answering questions like this because they're easy and have no wrong answer; it's nice to relax sometimes and chat... but that's what forums are for. It pollutes the purity of StackOverflow as being a purely technical programming site (which is what I love about it).

I can't down vote questions like this because I haven't enough reputation, and it wouldn't make a difference against 40-or-so other upvotes. If I post a comment like 'please post technical questions only' I have fears of causing a load of discussion about what is and what is not a right question to ask.

I basically hope that there is some way to keep the user base strict about being technical as possible, I know this is the aim of the creators Spolsky and Atwood and friends.

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  • Ah... And i just used up my close votes... :-(
    – Shog9
    Jul 27, 2009 at 17:37

2 Answers 2

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By and large, those types of questions should be Community Wikis. If they don't belong, then folks vote to close. Often, you see a lot of lower rep folks trying to answer questions that are doomed for closure in a quick attempt to garner some rep. We've discussed how to deal with that in the past, though.

Now, you could have absolutely picked a better example. That's a great thread which discusses how minor things that you wouldn't think about can have a huge impact. That's very valuable, especially to new programmers. Moreover, it's CW, so we don't have an issue there.

While SO is absolutely a Q&A site, it's okay to have a poll question now and again.

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  • This answers my question (whether I agree with all or not). Jul 27, 2009 at 17:49
  • 1
    CW was not implemented for subjective questions. That is just a side-effect that some people try to implement. Jul 27, 2009 at 17:51
  • @Lance: I didn't say it was for subjective questions. CW is clearly for questions that are poll-esque, meaning that there are multiple right answers (not subjective, just may have more than one way to skin a cat). Also, it's for answers that would have a greater likelihood of undergoing a bunch of edits. "What's your favorite language?" should be closed in an instant, but "How have you increased performance most notably?" is something that's absolutely valuable.
    – Eric
    Jul 27, 2009 at 18:02
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I disagree .. that is very technical. It could help someone greatly improve their program if theey know that have one of these pitfalls. Also allows them to be on the lookout to improve their code.

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  • 3
    Consider the answer right at the top. Jul 27, 2009 at 17:35

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