I've got a pretty simple question: Is a question asking why people dislike/like something appropriate for discussion on Stack Exchange websites? For instance, if somebody asked, "Why do some people dislike HTML?" would that be okay for Stack Overflow, and if not would there be a different way to word it, in a way which might not sound as aggressive or angry?
70666
I would like to ask a question about Java that doesn't have a specific answer. It's a question to see what people think and to share their opinion.    Will Stack Overflow tolerate this, or is there another Stack Exchange resource where I may ask a question like this?
54596
Why do I get downvoted when I try to learn something about programming on Stack Overflow? Out of all the Stack Exchange sites, this one is the most unwelcoming to people trying to learn.  There was a post where a guy asked an innocent question and one of the comments was let the voting war start.  He just wanted to learn and people were downvoting his questions but others would upvote for being genuine. The downvotes make it feel like the community may not welcome beginner and novice programmers(?). Here are a few examples from me:   I did my research, provided the code, and made the plot.  I simply want to know why it isn't turning out correct.  Downvote. Edit: tom 10 responded and said it will be helpful to show the actual equation than just the code.  If that was the reason for the downvote, why not just say &quot;Hey, from the code we aren't sure what the true equation is&quot;?  Again I provided code and explained that the issue was due to  (e) not having enough in the array, but I wanted to figure out how to plot still.  Downvote.  I wanted to learn what the best method and format to save images is for publication quality. Downvote.  The environment feels so unwelcoming. I am sorry to state that again.
31849
If I have a specific question I want to ask about, but I don't know which Stack Exchange site would be on topic for asking that question, where can I ask where to ask that question?  Is there any generic place where we can ask for advice? Is it here?  This is not about a specific question but in general.  For example: "Where should I ask for advice about fishing?", or if I need to know where I should ask "What would be the best fishing rod to fish for salmon?" (regardless of how good/bad these examples are)
43140
I've written a few questions on Stack Overflow before that have been closed due to being "not constructive" or "not a real question".  Now, after scanning the FAQ for the site a few times, I understand that my questions were indeed closed for good reason.  However, even after reading the FAQ, I still don't understand why a question of "what's the best practice here?" is a bad thing.  I feel as though if you properly explain your situation as thoroughly as possible, then it shouldn't be a bad question at all.  Questions like "what's the best language?" or "which framework should I use?" are indeed bad questions initially, but I feel if you specify in the post (or preferably in the title itself) what the context is, shouldn't that be deserving of some kind of an answer?  In  I asked what would be "best practice", and naturally my question was closed.  So I read the FAQ and learned how to make a more constructive question, of which I've now re-edited in an attempt to be less vague.  I understand the desire to avoid debate and lengthy discussion over a question, but I also feel as though sometimes there are certain questions which should be asked if proper context is given.  Why is a question over "best practice" always a bad question to ask?
118781
Is humour permitted in questions?  I have tried to have some fun with serious questions, like  (10k only).  I understand that "help" is not allowed in titles because of my other MSO post,   I'm not complaining about blacklisted words here. I do want to know if it's okay to make fun questions with humour.
29451
Stack Overflow doesn't really support questions that do not have a specific answer, such as "What are the features you would want in a programming language that are lacked by most programming languages?". Is there a Stack Exchange site or other external site specifically made for this?
28075
Another &quot;miséricorde&quot;:  Consider  (emphasis added):  I think its okay, please dont take any efforts for me. I personally do not feel the system helps ask good questions. I dont know why asking for a software in this case is bad. Basically I needed a command that would give me this data. There is no other way I could have asked the question. I could have changed the question just for the sake of changing. I feel I am better off elsewhere. Thanks for your very very prompt responses. Regards. Bye. – user1744649  We just lost another user due to inadequate guidance on what questions are allowed.  The  by the time they are banned has been proven incorrect. Given that , we need a better way to make sure that users can understand how to ask good questions and what types of questions are allowed. I suggest that we warn newcomers, in a clear but positive tone, when one of their questions has been closed, downvoted (to a score of -2 or lower), or deleted, so that they don't repeat the same mistake.  This is probably best done the next time the user asks a question, and should appear as an &quot;interstitial&quot; page prior to reaching the actual Ask Question form.  The page should not appear to users:  with at least 50 (or perhaps 75 or 100) reputation that have asked a good question since the last downvoted/closed/deleted question that have fixed a bad question and had it reopened/undeleted/upvoted.  The content of the page should be adapted based on the specific problem with the previous question.  I would imagine something similar to the following (example for a question closed as off topic on Super User):  Before you ask another question... One or more of your previous questions have been closed as off topic. The scope of on-topic questions is defined in the , as follows:  What kind of questions can I ask here? Super User is for computer enthusiasts and power users. If you have a question about …  computer hardware, computer software, or personal and home computer networking  and it is not about …  programming and software development, video games or consoles, websites or web services like Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress, electronic devices, media players, cell phones or smart phones, except insofar as they interface with your computer, issues specific to corporate IT support and networks, asking for a shopping or product recommendation,  … then you’re in the right place to ask your question!  Please make sure that the question you are about to ask is on topic as described above. If you need help determining whether your question can be asked on this site, you can ask for advice on  or . You may also want to edit your previous question to address any problems associated with it. To ensure a high standard of content quality and prevent disruption to the community, users who repeatedly post low-quality questions  Continue  The  doesn't address this issue as it is shown only to users with 10 reputation or less (rather than up to 50 and possibly higher) and does not address the specific problem with previous low-quality questions.  The point of this feature request is to provide a easily understood targeted message that actually teaches the user about what happened with the previous question he or she asked.  The EULA is generic and may not have conveyed the intended message clearly if the user still asked a low-quality or off-topic question. For reference,  currently has 143 reputation and the proposed message would probably have been shown after the first closed or deleted question. I know this can be a complex feature to implement, since it needs to be adaptive, but this should help eliminate confusion on what the rules are and minimize the incidence of good-faith users getting post-banned.
49118
I want to be able to ask a question by sending an email to some special email address for Stack Overflow. I have found this convenient in other situations like Google Groups, blogging, and Facebook walls, and it seems that technically it shouldn't be too hard to do.  Does this feature exist already? I'm kind of afraid to ask for features as some of them get downvoted simply since users think they are not neccessary (and not because the post is bad).
4106
Is there a specific area for new users that are new to coding where they can go and ask questions without being blocked for asking a question they may not have the answer to or isn't sure how to correctly ask a question. I know that there is a section for FAQ to try to explain how to ask a good question but for people who are learning and want to get the opinions of experienced coders, it can be hard to come here and ask a question. So again, is there a community that is open to helping new coders that may not always know how to ask the question they are trying to get an answer to?
116135
I am just wondering about whether there are any rules about chat topics on Stack Overflow?   When I first entered the PHP chat room, people were talking about music.   Does Stack Exchange monitor this?
107672
Somebody asked the following :    Clearly this is just a troll post so I (and other users) flagged it as spam. The spam flag was subsequently disputed (which I think simply means that a moderator rejected it):    Huh? Puzzled, I took another look at the list of possible flagging reasons:     I am flagging this question because         it is spam   This question is effectively an advertisement with no disclosure. It is not useful or relevant, but promotional.   it is offensive, abusive, or hate speech   This question contains content that a reasonable person would deem inappropriate for   respectful discourse.   it is a duplicate...   This question has been asked before and already has an answer.   it should be closed for another reason...   This question does not meet this site's standards and should be closed.   it is very low quality   This question has severe formatting or content problems. This question is unlikely to be salvageable through editing, and might need to be removed.   other (needs ♦ moderator attention)   This question needs a moderator's attention. Please describe exactly what's wrong.      Of these, only a few are applicable at all: “spam”, “should be closed for another reason”, “low quality” and “requires moderator attention”.  But:   it shouldn’t be closed (it has no value – it should be deleted), it’s not “low quality” (the description seems to fit actual, albeit bad, questions), and it doesn’t require moderator attention (I certainly didn’t want to bother a mod with this worthless post).   So I still think “spam” is the most fitting reason. Maybe it would help to have a more apt reason “troll post”, or maybe we could explicitly subsume this under one of the other points?
10338
"What library can I use to do X?" type of questions are not welcome on Stack Overflow, right?  Even if they are not welcome on SO proper, is there any other SE board where I could ask such questions?
92699
Instead of asking a question I would love to share the one or other code snippet I have created that is too small to make a full article on e.g. CodeProject.com or CodePlex.com.  Question: Would it be a good idea to post it as a Stack Overflow question? Or are there any other suggestions how to share it?  (Of course I could post it on my own weblog and then twitter about it, but I would love to put it in more of a programming context)
6459
Historically this site, , has been the place to ask questions about not just Stack Overflow, but the functioning of the entire Stack Exchange (2.0) network, including Area 51 and stackexchange.com and careers.  (Yes, there was a , but that dealt with the old legacy Stack Exchange 1.0 sites. It was deprecated a while ago, and currently redirects here.)  Now that we've gotten many, many months under our belt from the SE 1.0 days, I think it's time that we gave Stack Overflow its own, true per-site meta, and moved the higher level network meta discussions to meta.stackexchange.com.  Over time, it's begun to bug me more and more that requests for Stack Overflow, the site, kind of get buried here on meta.stackoverflow under the avalanche of network issues. Retag requests, synonym requests, things truly specific to Stack Overflow, the site, not the network. This is unfair to our vastly largest and flagship Q&amp;A site, and it's unfair to the Stack Overflow users to mix their requests in with network level concerns.  It's also odd that Stack Overflow is the only network site without a proper, dedicated per-site meta, where its meta has its own reputation system not tied to the parent site in any way.  This is mostly a quirk of history more than anything else, and I believe it is now an appropriate time to split into two sites:   , a proper per-site meta for Stack Overflow with integrated rep , a global network meta with its own reputation system   Yes, this will be painful. But I believe it is a good, necessary, and healthy step both for the future of the network and the future of Stack Overflow.  Some things to discuss:   which questions should be migrated from here to meta.so? Obviously site-specific things like the retag-requests, and perhaps questions with the  tag. Anything that is 100% wholly specific to Stack Overflow and not generalizable to the rest of the network should be moved over. This may be a pretty small, narrow list of questions, and that's OK. Should we do some meta spring cleaning in our transition? Which questions / tags should be blown away as no longer relevant, referring to ancient versions of Stack Overflow or issues that have long since ceased to exist and aren't instructive for any future visitors? Your meta reps will generally be unaffected, except insofar as we delete for spring cleaning, or move site-specific things to meta.so. We still plan to have a distinct reputation system for the new meta.se site, just like here.   I do not have a timeline for this change, that is up to Jarrod and David to decide. It may be months away. However, we feel pretty strongly that this is something that we need to do to clean things up and pave the way for the future -- so I expect it will happen in the next few months, giving us lots of time to decide how we want to do it, per the above.  Update  .
95800
Prompted by , where a user (who happens to have edit permissions on the tag wiki) posted an FAQ as a question in hopes that people would use it to redirect common questions.  Is this an acceptable question for Stack Overflow? Or would it be more helpful if this were in the tag wiki, and we could mark questions as duplicates of the tag wiki?   Thoughts?
116136
Isn't StackExchange a network to build a knowledge base for Google? Or to help people?  Yes, it is. So why is there the Programming Puzzles &amp; Code Golf website? What problems are solved there? What questions are asked there?  None.  Therefore, I think Programming Puzzles &amp; Code Golf doesn't fit into the philosophy of StackExchange. It should or   get it's own domain be removed (though I wouldn't do that)   I would love to hear your thoughts on this!
27465
I am a little confused about what do with questions that are just asking      "I want this and that (...) and I want it to look exactly like that   (...) please help"   without showning ANY own effort?  According to  those kind of answers are not welcome  also the  says those questions should not be asked:     Don't ask about...   Questions you haven't tried to find an answer for (show your work!)   But does this mean that I should flag those kind of "helpdesk" questions or not? And if yes as what? low quality ? flag for moderator attention ? Or is just adding a kind comment asking for the asker's own attempts enough?