3 ms·

This will be the downfall of Stack Overflow eventually. The rules for question and answers try to be objective and specific, but they end up being too strict a

by cpburns2009 9y ago

This will be the downfall of Stack Overflow eventually. The rules for question and answers try to be objective and specific, but they end up being too strict and are making the site less useful over time. What they should do is allow broad, general, subjective questions. That would allow for answers with general guidance instead of directly answering a broad question. It would also allow a clueless person to get some direction. When you're working with an unfamiliar technology, you frequently don't even know what to ask. BTW: You can ask a question about it on meta, but based on your question I think the "too broad" closure is technically correct based upon the rules and how they're enforced.

Rotareti 9y ago
> This will be the downfall of Stack Overflow eventually. The rules for question and answers try to be objective and specific, but they end up being too strict and are making the site less useful over time. I never really understood what their issue is with broad questions. There are so many question from the early years of SO which became popular healthy Q&A despite being "broad" and they are now too popular to get closed by some trigger happy mod. Some of these questions wouldn't survive a minute if they were asked today. The typical mod on SO shoots a question dead as soon as s/he has the slightest suspicion. I guess the site would be better off with (a lot) less mods.
- lightedman 9y ago
  "I never really understood what their issue is with broad questions." The people there are too obtuse to see a broad question as one that is looking for guidance, and not as a 'do my homework for me' question. Some people ask the question in a general manner so that they don't have the answer just given to them. They'd like an explanation with reasoning that they can follow. Good luck ever getting that on SO.
mr_toad 9y ago
> What they should do is allow broad, general, subjective questions. But you can’t answer those questions. You have to engage in an extended discussion with the asker to find out what they want, what they know/don’t know. And SO isn’t a discussion forum. Honestly I think those sorts of of questions are better asked in the chat channels, or somewhere like Reddit.

Rotareti 9y ago

> This will be the downfall of Stack Overflow eventually. The rules for question and answers try to be objective and specific, but they end up being too strict and are making the site less useful over time. I never really understood what their issue is with broad questions. There are so many question from the early years of SO which became popular healthy Q&A despite being "broad" and they are now too popular to get closed by some trigger happy mod. Some of these questions wouldn't survive a minute if they were asked today. The typical mod on SO shoots a question dead as soon as s/he has the slightest suspicion. I guess the site would be better off with (a lot) less mods.

lightedman 9y ago
"I never really understood what their issue is with broad questions." The people there are too obtuse to see a broad question as one that is looking for guidance, and not as a 'do my homework for me' question. Some people ask the question in a general manner so that they don't have the answer just given to them. They'd like an explanation with reasoning that they can follow. Good luck ever getting that on SO.

mr_toad 9y ago

> What they should do is allow broad, general, subjective questions. But you can’t answer those questions. You have to engage in an extended discussion with the asker to find out what they want, what they know/don’t know. And SO isn’t a discussion forum. Honestly I think those sorts of of questions are better asked in the chat channels, or somewhere like Reddit.