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Crazy idea -- I was just wondering, maybe it is good if we include some very few broad questions (like "What is the best Linux distro"), so that each noteworthy distro gets a wiki answer for people to write advantages and disadvantages of the particular piece of Software.

Also, people could just upvote the suggestions and we would get a nice list of programs of a certain type, sorted by popularity, and hopefully also quality.

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    That is exactly what we don't want here.
    – juergen d
    Feb 5, 2014 at 18:41
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    I'm with @juergend, we don't want this - especially the "What is the best Linux distro" question, as that particular example is sooooo subjective.
    – dotVezz
    Feb 5, 2014 at 18:43
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    "What is the best Linux distro" <-- If anyone asks that I will feel obligated throw them into /dev/null. Okay, just kidding, but please DON'T ASK THAT!
    – Seth
    Feb 5, 2014 at 18:44
  • My idea is that we have a few questions like that, so we have lists for some software types. (I did say it was a crazy idea :))
    – MadTux
    Feb 5, 2014 at 18:45
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    @MadTux Sooner or later there will be a question that can be promoted this way. I think it is too early to design them.
    – Bernhard
    Feb 5, 2014 at 19:05
  • @Bernhard Agreed. This might be a good idea in the future, but I think implementing this in private beta is a bit premature.
    – ApproachingDarknessFish
    Feb 5, 2014 at 19:05
  • @Bernhard Me too. I guess I'm just impatient ;)
    – MadTux
    Feb 5, 2014 at 19:06
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    Let's start posting these as answers. This shouldn't turn into a comment-discussion.
    – Robert Cartaino
    Feb 5, 2014 at 19:54
  • This kind of broad questions should rather be asked here: slant.co
    – Nicolas Raoul Mod
    Jul 11, 2016 at 4:19

1 Answer 1

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No.

What you're proposing is to have crap questions, as in a crappy collection of crappy answers. That doesn't help anyone.

Stack Overflow tried this. And finally came to its senses and decided that crap was crap, community wiki or not.

The reason experienced people around here are against those broad, open, pollsy questions is not because they're set in their ways, or because they hate fun. (No, really.) It's because they were tried, and they didn't work.

we would get a nice list of programs of a certain type, sorted by popularity, and hopefully also quality.

If only that was what happened! But no. This hardly ever happens. What you end up with is:

  • Answers primarily rated by age. Whoever posts first gets the upvotes.
  • Answers secondarily rated by popularity. But secondarily only, and popularity isn't that important. A good recommendation is one that suits a purpose, and you're proposing a question without a purpose.
  • Forget about rating for quality. That just doesn't happen on overly broad questions.
  • Duplicate answers. Lots of them.

And none of the answers would be saying anything you can't find on a hundred sites out there — with no way to compare the answers, since there are no objectives to compare against.

If you want Slant, (now) you know where to find it. Slant is not a questions and answers site, it works differently. Different purposes, different workings.

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  • it would be great if there is a post asking about the difference between this site and Slant
    – Ooker
    Oct 24, 2021 at 17:18

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