3
$\begingroup$

Inspired by this question, which presents a user's idea for an air scrubber and asks for suggestions.

My first reaction was to vote to close it as a Naive Design Question, but that doesn't seem to apply, since the user seems to have put a non-trivial amount of time thinking about this. I lack the ability to judge how good the idea is, but it does have a +2/-0 score, so at least two people thought it's good enough.

My second reaction was to simply vote to close it as too broad. After all, this question isn't objectively and absolutely answerable: many different answers with different suggestions are possible and equally "correct". I don't think this sort of question is suitable to the StackExchange format.

However, StackExchange does have another site which is effectively a "check my implementation" site: CodeReview. This could be interpreted as an indication that such questions can be adequately answered in the StackExchange format (especially given that the site was popular and self-sustaining enough to graduate).

Evidently, it is up to the individual site to determine its scope, so the question remains: Do we want "check my idea/implementation" questions on our site?

$\endgroup$

1 Answer 1

5
$\begingroup$

Short answer - "No, we don't want those types of questions."

That particular example is a request for discussion. The tell-tale sign is the lack of a specific question and the ending prompt of What are your thoughts?

Discussions aren't a good fit for the StackExchange Q&A format

I have gone on record multiple times having said that, and truth be told, it's not just my observation. Many, many people familiar with StackExchange have said that statement.

Yes, it's an interesting question. And yes, the OP has put some thought into it. But not all questions are a good fit for StackExchange.

I would recommend the community VTC as Too Broad.

$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ Yeah, that's what I thought. Just wanted a second opinion since CodeReview is basically the software-development version of this. $\endgroup$
    – Wasabi Mod
    Jan 17, 2018 at 14:36

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .