As an extension to this previous question - Should our FAQ contain a list of what's off topic and if so what should that list contain?, can we add two categories of questions that are often asked by new users but not on topic :
- "coding homework" questions - recent question / Recent discussion about homework tag
Specific enough questions can be migrated to StackOverfow. They accept coding homework questions with this politic as the tag description explains :
Homework means the asker is requesting help with school homework. This lets potential answerers know that they should guide the student in solving the problem, rather than simply showing the complete answer.
This means people shouldn't answer directly a question that looks like homework before migration. But I don't know how to enforce that (in the FAQ ?). Any ideas are welcome on that subject, and may be part of another question if it proves extensive =) (There is an extensive discussion about how to answer homework questions on Meta-SO)
- personalized lesson plan / school guidance -
What courses should I follow/ What should I start with to learn X with my specific background
- recent question
The same idea as career questions. If it generalized enough, why not. If it's too localized, it's off topic.
It's also close to this point :
"[and is not about...] what language you should learn next, including which technology is better"
But people seems to miss the point that "part of a language" is about the same as a language itself, and will mostly end up with a generic answer that looks like "You should learn everything about this language". For example those questions :
- What do I need to learn of C# for ASP.NET?
- What do you need to learn to become professional ASP.NET programmer?
- Should I be a professional in C# programming in order to build good web applications using ASP.NET?
ends up with the same generic answer : "Be the best as you can in C#".