29
votes
Great Expectations... or, at least, user expectations
Frankly, I think that you are off base. Or at least your "change enforcement" is too thinly scoped.
No amount of name changing or scope massaging or helpful blurbs will fix the community.
As it ...
- 109k
10
votes
Accepted
Should I answer a question which belongs on Stack Overflow?
Ultimately, the goal is to get off-topic questions off the front page as quickly as possible, so that they don't provide encouragement for other people to ask their off-topic questions. Migration is ...
- 199k
10
votes
Question marked as opinion-based—I'm seeking facts and references
There are several reasons why this question is not a good fit.
First, we do not accept research or resource request questions. We are not a search engine. We are not librarians. We, as a community, ...
Thomas OwensMod
- 79.9k
6
votes
Accepted
How to get at least a couple of examples of a topic on which "whole books have been written"?
Questions here are best formulated in the context of a particular problem or issue. It's simply not possible to generate a list of methodologies that work. Most organizations have at least one ...
Thomas OwensMod
- 79.9k
6
votes
Can I ask whether coding patterns are good or bad? If so, how should I ask?
It is really difficult to ask a good question about best practices,
as also discussed on MSE: Why is asking a question on "best practice" a bad thing?
In a nutshell, asking about best ...
- 133k
6
votes
Why are we getting so many off topic 'debug this for me' questions? what can we do about it?
I am only barely a programmer, by the definitions summarized on this site. I possess a lot of experience in linear programming and process management but object-oriented programming is not yet within ...
- 23
6
votes
How do I explain ${something} to ${someone}?
These types of questions would likely be on topic for the newly created Computer Science Educators SE.
Computer Science Educators Stack Exchange is a question and answer
site for those involved ...
- 1,274
6
votes
Why are we getting so many off topic 'debug this for me' questions? what can we do about it?
I think the problem is ill-defined. A single misconception underlies most of the issues raised.
The overarching question is not Why can they not understand who we are? but How?
After having been ...
- 167
5
votes
Great Expectations... or, at least, user expectations
It's the unfortunate fate of software which interfaces with different facets of the collective human behavior. These reactions from the users are inevitable; but can be managed.
A tagline (or ...
- 136
5
votes
Accepted
Why is this question considered opinion based?
All it took was a few minor edits to make the question into something that could be reopened.
First, I changed the yes/no to an explicit how/why question. It may not seem like it's important, but it ...
Thomas OwensMod
- 79.9k
5
votes
Accepted
Is this question opinion based?
Personally, I'd close it as too broad. But I think that primarily opinion based works just as well. You're conducting a poll. We expect that questions meet our guidelines, and many of those guidelines ...
Thomas OwensMod
- 79.9k
5
votes
How is asking, "Is there formal terminology for storage of key value pairs?" an opinion based question?
Unfortunately, there is often no universally, or even widely accepted, term for many concepts in software engineering. Even with projects like the IEEE Computer Society and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC7 (the ISO'...
Thomas OwensMod
- 79.9k
4
votes
Why was a terminology question closed as "opinion based"?
I cannot speak for the other close voters, but tell you why I voted as I did. "slugify" looks like a colloquial term for me, not some specific software engineering term.
You wrote "...
- 201k
4
votes
Why was a terminology question closed as "opinion based"?
While I was not one of the down-voters, nor did I vote to close the question, I find it difficult to answer these types of questions from the perspective of the software development lifecycle or ...
- 34.3k
3
votes
How is asking, "Is there formal terminology for storage of key value pairs?" an opinion based question?
Why even have a "Terminology" or "Definition" tag if you can't even ask for "formal terminology" without it being considered "Opinion Based"?
Our community ...
- 201k
3
votes
Accepted
First off-topic close reason text should be updated for new Stack Overflow phrasing
Robert Harvey made the close reason and I've approved it, putting it in place of the other close reason. This should be resolved - thanks for the heads up.
Thomas OwensMod
- 79.9k
3
votes
Accepted
Why was this question directly closed as primarily opinion based and directly removed?
This site is about software engineering. Not about things that a programmer might find interesting.
Your question was about the English language, not about software engineering.
It was therefore ...
- 133k
3
votes
How to improve my question "Structure of enterprise application with interchangeable technology interface underlying in C# with DDD approach"
I think first thing you should try is avoiding to ask for "best practices" and "best design" (see link why). These are vague buzzwords which often trigger downvotes and close votes ...
- 201k
2
votes
What's not focused about my idiom-adoption question?
Your question's body was surely focussed enough to be answerable, but the original title made it look like a poll, and some of our members here apparently lack the instinct to distinguish between ...
- 201k
2
votes
The real borderline for "Opinion based" in Software Engineering
I acknowledge this is an old discussion and things might've changed, but this is a rampant issue especially on SO.
Allow them, because they are vital, but I think the borderline is decided by the ...
- 641
2
votes
Why are we getting so many off topic 'debug this for me' questions? what can we do about it?
Why are we getting so many off topic 'debug this for me' questions?
I believe that most of the questioners asking debugging questions here are indeed expecting to get an answer here, i.e. they think ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible