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Would a mission statement like the following be helpful?

The reality is that most of us use computers (some very heavily) to make a living. Therefore, we tend to like questions that lead to answers that are "binary" (yes-no, true false), or at least "well-ordered(greater than, equal to, less than). And they lend themselves well to flow charts, and "branching" and computer algorithms generally.

Our site likes "facts," in answers, and questions soliciting such facts, as they would appear to a computer or a person working with a computer. These include:

  1. Empirical facts.
  2. Mathematical computations.
  3. First hand observations an experiences (to the extent that you believe in human or artificial intelligence.
  4. An "expert" opinion that can be looked up in an authoritative source such as the Encylopedia Britannica. E.g. "The Axis had an outside chance to win World War II" is an opinion, but "WINSTON CHURCHILL thought that the Axis had an outside chance to win World War II based on [this speech] or [that writing]" is a FACT (about Churchill's opinion).

"Not a real question" means that you haven't given us enough facts to frame the question in our preferred binary format. "Not constructive" means that there are too many moving parts.

If we managed to explain that QUESTIONS should solicit facts of the above variety, would that improve questions?

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    The title says "answers" whereas the question body says "questions" - which are we discussing?
    – Anthony Grist
    May 7, 2013 at 12:42
  • @AnthonyGrist: Both. I expanded both parts to include questions and answers.
    – Tom Au
    May 7, 2013 at 12:45
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    We already explicitly state that we don't welcome opinion. Does not not already imply our preference for fact based questions and answers?
    – Bart
    May 7, 2013 at 12:45
  • @Bart: That's not obvious to or understood by "newbies." It took me quite a while to figure this out myself. So the question was, can we be clearER...?
    – Tom Au
    May 7, 2013 at 12:47
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    Meh, perhaps. Though you'd be surprised by the amount of times we hear "yeah, but I'm looking for facts, not opinions" when we close something as "not constructive".
    – Bart
    May 7, 2013 at 12:49
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    Are you asserting that too many questions rely on opinion rather than fact? Or are you trying to nail down a concrete definition of 'good subjective'? Your question leaves me confused as to exactly what you are wanting to discuss.
    – slugster
    May 7, 2013 at 12:54
  • @slugster: I'm trying to nail down some definitions. Like "good subjective." And even "fact." I see newbies honestly believing in certain "facts," as in "everyone knows..." that experienced site members would not consider "facts."
    – Tom Au
    May 7, 2013 at 12:57
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    This has already been covered in the blog post Good Subjective, Bad Subjective which is linked from the FAQ.
    – slugster
    May 7, 2013 at 13:07
  • @slugster: I do sse some overlap between your link and my post. But does it say anywhere something explicit like "even a "good subjective" question draws an answer that is about 80% fact and 20% opinion. My question was about the level of "explicitness." Or, in plain English, "how hard should we hit new users over the head" with these guidelines./
    – Tom Au
    May 7, 2013 at 14:22
  • And now we're talking about personal mission statements? Boy, this question has morphed.
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    May 13, 2013 at 13:15

1 Answer 1

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Different SE sites have a different allowable level of subjectiveness. That level of subjectiveness is up to that site, and that site's meta, to determine. SO, for example, allows very, very little subjectiveness, as a rule. All but the smallest amount of opinion drive a question to be closed or moved elsewhere. Programmers on the other hand, allows a noticeable greater level of opinion than Stack Overflow does, due to the nature of the questions in its scope.

If you're curios about SO specifically, the answer is simple, very little subjectiveness is allowed. If you're looking for something applicable to all SE sites, the answer is there is no answer; go to the FAQ/meta of the specific site you're interested in for the guidelines it uses to determine an appropriate level of fact and subjectiveness.

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