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> a question that is very specific to one person may be voted to close or voted down That's the opposite of the guidance, or at least the guidance as it was ba

> a question that is very specific to one person may be voted to close or voted down That's the opposite of the guidance, or at least the guidance as it was back when I was active on SO. General questions "What's the best way to do X" are shut down. Questions should be specific and about actual problems you have rather than general problems. Solving real problems with real solutions builds up a strong data set, not questions about imagined problems and their answers

jalapenos 3y ago
"The best way" type questions would still create a ballot with the best solution probably rising to the top, for use by others who encounter a similiar situation. People aren't always starting from a very specific problem, but from a vague general one. Ultimately though, Stack Overflow just faced the customer service curse: as volume rises, moderation gets blunter.
- Arnt 3y ago
  SO doesn't have such ballots for a reason: SO doesn't want opinionated discussions. If you think that choice is wrong, SO is not going to be a good place for you. But there are very many other sites where you can have opinionated discussions. May I ask your SO id? It'll be a link like https://stackoverflow.com/users/1 https://stackoverflow.com/users/1, except with a different number.
gilleain 3y ago
That's fair - maybe I expressed it badly or just that it's hard to come up with succinct rules for questions. Consider two scenarios : a) I have installed some software X but messed up one of the install steps and now there is this weird error. Or b) when installing this software, it always errors if library Y is on an old version. For b) it is clearly a 'general' problem that many people will face. For a) it could be seen as a user error and therefore not generally useful. From the point of view of the people facing a) though, it absolutely is a problem!
michaelt 3y ago
My impression of stack overflow is they were looking for questions in a Goldilocks zone. "How do I sort a list of US States in Python 3.10?" Too specific. "How do I sort a list of strings in Python?" About right. "How do I sort a list with my computer?" Too general.

jalapenos 3y ago

"The best way" type questions would still create a ballot with the best solution probably rising to the top, for use by others who encounter a similiar situation. People aren't always starting from a very specific problem, but from a vague general one. Ultimately though, Stack Overflow just faced the customer service curse: as volume rises, moderation gets blunter.

Arnt 3y ago
SO doesn't have such ballots for a reason: SO doesn't want opinionated discussions. If you think that choice is wrong, SO is not going to be a good place for you. But there are very many other sites where you can have opinionated discussions. May I ask your SO id? It'll be a link like https://stackoverflow.com/users/1 https://stackoverflow.com/users/1, except with a different number.

gilleain 3y ago

That's fair - maybe I expressed it badly or just that it's hard to come up with succinct rules for questions. Consider two scenarios : a) I have installed some software X but messed up one of the install steps and now there is this weird error. Or b) when installing this software, it always errors if library Y is on an old version. For b) it is clearly a 'general' problem that many people will face. For a) it could be seen as a user error and therefore not generally useful. From the point of view of the people facing a) though, it absolutely is a problem!

michaelt 3y ago

My impression of stack overflow is they were looking for questions in a Goldilocks zone. "How do I sort a list of US States in Python 3.10?" Too specific. "How do I sort a list of strings in Python?" About right. "How do I sort a list with my computer?" Too general.