Is the answer “Don't do that” an acceptable response to a “how do I” question? [duplicate]

Question

Hold up!
before you click that button to report this question as a duplicate of this, consider that not only is that question 10 years old, but is also fairly non-specific, and doesn't make good use of the good subjective, bad subjective blog post in the following year. To fix a 10 year old question and expect new answers is to paint a 10 year old car and expect to sell it for MSRP.

This question is about questions that begin with "how do" or "how does", meaning questions about methodology and application. It's been a meme in most outside communities that on stack exchange the answer to the question "How do I do A" is objectively "No, don't do A, do B instead". While this may be helpful in some instances, it's at the least, very condescending.

This means this question is actually two wrapped up in eachother, and very intertwined. The first is, as above, "Is the answer "Don't do that" an acceptable response to a "how do I" question?". The second is then, following the first, "When can we assume that the person doesn't actually want to know what their question asks?" The very two are asking two parts of the same scale.

I want to throw one more subject into the ring just to make answers more concise, and cut-throat. Stack exchange isn't know for being particularly "nice". Despite the "Be nice" policy employed site wide, many users feel that they are rejected for asking questions that may be trivial to others, even if a bit ignorant. The epitome of this, in my opinion, is EE.SE, who usually refuse most (even slightly) ignorant, questions based on arbitrary guides. This has caused a huge riff in the community over the years. Going back to good subjective bad subjective, the riff appears in the professional elites, which, in a sense are the 'top 1%ers' of the site, controlling a majority of the reputation and the subjective commoners. There have been multiple people who straight up leave because the users there won't abide to said arbitrary standards, and as such the "don't so that" is said a lot there. Thus the question I want to throw in is: Does your answer support the "Be nice" policy, and will your answer have a positive effect on users if what your answer was the rule?

So let me repeat my questions: Is the answer "Don't do that" an acceptable response to a "how do I" question? When can we assume that the person doesn't actually want to know what their question asks? Does your answer support the "Be nice" policy, and will your answer have a positive effect on users if what your answer was the rule?

I encourage all to use examples of "Don't do it" answers in your answer.

Answer 1

Don't do that

is perfectly fine as an answer (on the majority of sites) to questions that ask

How do I.

specially if it is a valid answer. It might help a bit if the advice comes with some explanation or citation so future visitors understand why somethings shouldn't be done.

So yeah, totally fine and acceptable on any site. If it is the most useful in all cases depends on context but I trust the voters in each community to judge such answers on their merit.

Answer 2

"Don't do that" is an acceptable answer, as long as the answerer's frame challenge is justified by something more substantive than "I don't like this" or "this is silly". Note that answers which don't involve frame challenges require proper justification all the same, lest they slide into bad-subjective, and so "don't do that" answers are entirely normal in that regard.

It's been a meme in most outside communities that on stack exchange the answer to the question "How do I do A" is objectively "No, don't do A, do B instead". While this may be helpful in some instances, it's at the least, very condescending.

Those "don't do that" answers that come across as condescending aren't problematic merely because they include a frame challenge. What goes wrong in such cases is that the answerer, for whatever reason (it can range from a simple lapse of attention, to taking an unnecessary risk on an unclear question, and to actual haughtiness), overlooks some aspect of the problem that makes the plans of the asker reasonable. That can be largely avoided by considering the question with sufficient care, and, if need be, requiring clarification from the asker before committing to the frame challenge. Again, this sort of due dilligence is no different from what is ordinarily expected from normal answers.