15

I just saw a question which asked for tutorials or sites where help could be gotten for VB.NET.

Are such questions allowed? Aren't they not constructive?

4
  • 3
    Link to the question?
    – yannis
    Jul 7, 2012 at 16:25
  • 1
    I would agree that a request for links/tutorials is off-topic. The primary reason is that I can't be much better at Google/Bing than the one asking the question. Besides an answer to such a question is just a breeding ground for linkrot.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Jul 7, 2012 at 16:28
  • @Yannis Rizos This is the question stackoverflow.com/questions/2041715/… Jul 7, 2012 at 16:34
  • Old question from times where such questions were tolerated.
    – Oded
    Jul 7, 2012 at 16:38

2 Answers 2

12

Yes, the question in question should be closed. Although typically questions that ask for a list of external resources are closed as "not constructive", I'd go with "not a real question" for this one as, imho, it is:

  • ambiguous (beginners?),
  • incomplete (no prior research),
  • overly broad (people can keep posting answers as long as VB.Net tutorials pop up),

...and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. It was originally posted on January 2010, a simpler and more innocent era, when we haven't yet realised how much of a trouble such questions can be. Feel free to vote to close it or flag it, whichever applies for your reputation level.

3
  • 1
    Okay. I am new to SO, so I thought it better to get clarified on this topic rather than ask a wrong type of question Jul 7, 2012 at 16:56
  • Won't "Not a real question" cause the question to get an additional downvote? While I agree with doing that on new questions, I'm not sure about doing that on questions that were asked within the bounds of the guidelines at the time the question was asked. :( With that said, to play devils advocate, it's just -2, so it may be more valuable to have the negative on the question than to try to preserve a mere 2 points...
    – jmort253
    Jul 7, 2012 at 19:25
  • @jmort253 Yes, NARQ carries an automatic downvote, but I don't think that's relevant. Although most would consider questions like the one in question NC, I'm more inclined to close them as NARQ, I feel it's easier to explain NARQ on Meta (same explanation I've given above), NC almost always confuses newer users (that get stuck in the English interpretation of it and not the SE one). Anyhow, if we start avoiding an otherwise valid close reason because it carries a downvote, I'd soon start advocating for all close reasons to carry a downvote.
    – yannis
    Jul 8, 2012 at 12:44
3

Questions about tutorials are not constructive, as normally who answers doesn't give any reason why the linked tutorials are preferable to other links given in other answers, and they are subjective because everybody can have his/her personal list of preferred tutorials. They are the type of questions where answers could be added every time a new tutorial is created on Internet; maybe who first answered would give a different answer, or would change the answer after X months.

Also, rather than questions about tutorials, it would be better to ask questions about the problem to solve. The answer would be on Stack Exchange, at least, rather than giving a link to another site, which could also be not anymore valid, if the tutorial is removed. (I saw this happening on Drupal Answers, where an answer about a tutorial contained a link to a page that returned a 404 error.)

3
  • Thats quite logical Jul 7, 2012 at 17:10
  • +1 "it would be better to ask questions about the problem to solve". But come on, can anyone tell me where I can get help on finding tutorials that can tell me where to get help on how to ask a question on SO?
    – demongolem
    Oct 17, 2012 at 20:12
  • @demongolem Sure, ask in a chat room.
    – apaderno
    Mar 4, 2013 at 10:31

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .