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This question, on ASP.NET MVC best practices, has 5 delete votes and was unilaterally closed by a moderator. Why? It's not a list question, it can be objectively answered by an expert (and has been), it's useful—and it's not even fun.

It's been favorited by 238 people, and upvoted by 166.

Are questions like this no longer welcome on Stack Overflow.

Related: meta question on number of delete votes needed for popular questions

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    What part of everyone throwing down their ideas doesn't make it a list?
    – random
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:02
  • Because some ideas can be judged as more correct than others. If I were to say that putting all data access into your controller was a best practice, I'd be downvoted into oblivion because that's wrong
    – Adam Rackis
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:03
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    @phoenix - short appositives are supposed to be offset with commas, not em-dashes. Strunk & White page 9: Use a dash only when a more common mark of punctuation seems inadequate.
    – Adam Rackis
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:11
  • The irony is that this question will likely precipitate its deletion :)
    – Adam Rackis
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:48

2 Answers 2

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The descriptive text for the Not Constructive flag reason (the reason for which Will closed the question) explains this (emphasis mine):

This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion.

That question is essentially a poll for ASP.NET tips & tricks, albeit an interesting and popular one. It's therefore not a question at all, but an invitation to post one's favourite content on that topic.

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  • I think extended discussion is the more relevant part of the reason, but your point is taken. Thank you.
    – Adam Rackis
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:22
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    @Adam - each "answer" to that question has the potential to develop into an extended discussion, that's for sure.
    – razlebe
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:23
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"Please share your ideas" is not a question, it is a forum post, and it cannot be objectively answered. It may have been acceptable when asked two years ago, but the evolution fo Stack Overflow has made these kind of questions unsuitable for its current Q/A format.

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  • I think you meant cannot be objectively answered :)
    – Adam Rackis
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:07
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    @AdamRackis It cannot be answered objectively or subjectively. It would get closed on Programmers as well, even though we welcome some subjective questions. Lists are off topic everywhere...
    – yannis
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:12
  • @Zaphod - it can be answered subjectively. But it cannot be answered objectively. I think that was meagar's point. Subjective questions are not allowed. I think this is a good constructive question that can be answered objectively, but clearly the community disagrees with me.
    – Adam Rackis
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:13
  • @AdamRackis meager obviously means "objectively", but I really don't think it's a constructive subjective question. Of course it can be answered, but it wouldn't fly on Programmers, where several similar questions are constantly migrated (and subsequently die)... But don't take my word for it, try and ask it there :)
    – yannis
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:16
  • @Zaphod - ok - we can agree to disagree about this question. My original comment was only meant to correct meagar's typo—he clearly means objectively, like you said
    – Adam Rackis
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:18
  • @Adam Yes, derr. Objective was intended.
    – user229044
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:18
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    @AdamRackis: I don't think its a bad question, its just one of the type of questions that we (as a community; this has evolved over time) don't want to encourage. Your question (IIRC) was cited as a reason why another question of this type shouldn't have been closed. "Why close my question? Look at this one! Its not closed!" Don't take it personally.
    – user1228
    Jan 13, 2012 at 16:54
  • @Won't - Thanks Will. Can you elaborate? My question was cited? Which one? Not a link, just a topic—I'm sure I can remember. And I'm taking anything personally - just wondering about this. I agree it's not a bad question, but I didn't realize this topic has evolved so much.
    – Adam Rackis
    Jan 13, 2012 at 17:02
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    @AdamRackis: It usually goes like this--user asks question which would have been fine in '08 but gets closed outright now. Question gets flagged. Mod handles the flag, closes question. User knows that similar questions are around, is annoyed that he got closed whereas the others didn't. "Why was my question closed? This one wasn't [link]!" There have been quite a few questions here like this, but I don't have any links offhand.
    – user1228
    Jan 13, 2012 at 18:04
  • @Won't - ahh. Yes, I've argued before that popular questions be un-deleted, and the historical banner displayed atop. But I do respect that mods have an interest in keep new crap from coming in the door. I'd love to see a legacy.StackOverflow.com or fun.Stackoverflow.com set up as a readonly way to view old fun questions, but I know that'll never fly
    – Adam Rackis
    Jan 13, 2012 at 18:06

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