There's a new post on the Stack Overflow blog entitled Real Questions Have Answers, which serves to expand upon the six subjective guidelines we all know and love. I encourage you to read it and the original answer from Aarobot that sparked the post itself.
The main point that's now been added to our FAQ is the following:
What kind of questions should I not ask here?
You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page. To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where …
- every answer is equally valid: “What’s your favorite _____?”
- your answer is provided along with the question, and you expect more answers: “I use _____ for _____, what do you use?”
- there is no actual problem to be solved: “I’m curious if other people feel like I do.”
- we are being asked an open-ended, hypothetical question: “What if _____ happened?”
- it is a rant disguised as a question: “_____ sucks, am I right?”
If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about _____”, then you should not be asking here. If your motivation is “I would like others to explain _____ to me”, then you are probably OK.
What are your thoughts on the new guidelines? Is there a problem with these types of questions that needs addressing?
What can we do to encourage questions that don't fall into the trap of being poll questions?