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From what information I've collected, so called "recommendation questions" are forbidden everywhere on StackExchange network.
Any explanations why?

UPD "I don't like this question, but don't tell you why" is not a good answer.

Why not create a special site for polling-type questions?

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  • 5
    That's pretty much explained here: blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/11/qa-is-hard-lets-go-shopping
    – Bart
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:13
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    Because "This is not a discussion board, this is a place for questions that can be answered! ... The more people that join the discussion, the more noise each of those connections bring. So the forums get progressively noisier and noisier, and suddenly one day … you stop learning." Quoted from: blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/good-subjective-bad-subjective
    – Aziz Shaikh
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:15
  • It's about "what is the best to buy" question type, what is obviously subjective. However, it's widely applied to questions like "suggest any tool to solve this problem". This is not explained at all.
    – user626528
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:15
  • How are they different? 'What to Buy' and 'what tool to use' are the same thing, just without actually involving money.
    – JonW
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:17
  • @Aziz Shaikh, if you have too much noise - the obvious solution is to block off people who make too much noise, rather than creating 100500 new rules "what you can't do".
    – user626528
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:19
  • @JonW, it's not about "what is the best". It's about "what I can try".
    – user626528
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:20
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    @user160319 If you have a problem to solve, that's great. You don't really need to explicitly ask for a tool, just say: "This is my problem, I tried this and that and couldn't solve it. Help?" If a tool happens to solve your problem, it will appear in the answers naturally.
    – yannis
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:20
  • @Yannis, so, you suggest me to rephrase my questions to hack the broken system.
    – user626528
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:21
  • @user160319 I'm suggesting that you word your questions in a way that conforms with the site's guidelines and have proven to be quite effective. Up to you, you can try my way, or you can keep calling "broken" a system that works for thousands - if not millions - of other people.
    – yannis
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:23
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    I believe someone created slant.co just for this kind of question.
    – Oded
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:23
  • @Oded Ah, dammit! That's the site I've been trying to recommend to the OP in his other questions. I couldn't remember. Thanks for that one.
    – Bart
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:24
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    @user160319 Well that's only a problem if your proposed solution is more elegant than the hack. And "suggest any tool" is not, far from it.
    – yannis
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:30
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    Exactly. Give us a problem to solve. Phrase your questions to focus on explaining the problem, and not on what answers you expect (tools, etc). Why the heck would you even want to narrow your question to exclude answers that solve your problem but aren't tool recommendations? Just tell us what the problem is, and what you've already tried.
    – yannis
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:34
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    Your suggestion of a specific site is a duplicate of many questions including: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/170079/…, meta.stackexchange.com/questions/59247/…, meta.stackexchange.com/questions/70697/… and meta.stackexchange.com/questions/180767/…
    – ben is uǝq backwards
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:41
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    @user160319 This isn't a "problem", a "bug" or something that needs to be "fixed". Quite the opposite in fact, it's how the company and community want the network to run. It's part of the reason the network is so successful, and how we maintain the highest of standards at all times. Please don't be so arrogant as to think that because you don't like something, that everyone else has automatically got it wrong. The clearly thriving communities that build up around the SE model prove that the current format and rules are correct, and that they are working efficiently.
    – Clive
    Jun 21, 2013 at 15:24

1 Answer 1

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Stack Exchange has found from bad experience that these questions have multiple problems such as

  • No way to objectively choose the best answer - opinion and familiarity end up deciding votes
  • Answers go out of date as new tools/books etc appear
  • Without very detailed information of the requirements, it's hard to judge the merits of different answers
  • Some good answers would be lists of resources - how do you judge one list against another when each misses a good resource out?
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  • 2
    If you want polling questions, slant.co
    – AndrewC
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:34
  • 1. it's up to readers to decide. 2. any answers are becoming outdated with time. 3. just require more information? 4. forbid lists, only separate answers?
    – user626528
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:35
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    thanks for this one. I'm glad to see someone solved the problem that StackExchange preferred not to see.
    – user626528
    Jun 21, 2013 at 10:36

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