Can I answer with website/webapp?

Question

When someone asks a valid question, and I know there's website/webapp that fulfills all or at least majority of the requirements, should I answer with that? On the other words, is it forbidden to answer with website that answers the question?

This meta question is remotely related. For questions, it might be important to define difference between website and webapp, as we probably don't want to have endless stream of questions like

What is good source for this type of news?
Are there blogs similar to X?

However, in my opinion, we should define the scope of this site primarily through questions, and not through answers. There's always implicit statement: "I'm asking for software recommendations", so Stack Overflow style answers ("take a look at this library, and write your own program this way") are not a valid (but it could be a good comment, if no answer is found). If the scope is defined primarily through questions, almost everything that answers the question should be acceptable.

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Case in point: this question and my answer. Some notes: so far that is the only answer. In my opinion, it is better to have a functional - even if not perfect - solution than nothing. On the question, it is already noted that

most likely it will be a webapp

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Another example, created as a better example for this question: this question and this answer. Notes: question does not specify why digits are required, but that those should be calculated. So it's clearly software recommendation question, instead of just "give me resource for...". Also, no operating system is specified.

Answer 1

I think the most important aspect of any solution is how well it gets the job done according to the specifications that the asker has. If the person requires that this be something they can download onto their device and use off-line, then naturally a website wouldn't be useful. But if they do not have this requirement, and if an online service gets the job done better than what else we have suggested, then I think we'd be doing a disservice to the asker if we do not recommend it.

Let's look not at "What do we call a web app versus a web site", which I acknowledge I used those terms in my comments on the answer in the other question, but let me refortify my position on the matter. What is important is that we as a site offer solutions in doing things. The problems we solve are those that involve getting some task accomplished. Sometimes there are tools that exist solely online to get those done - for example I do most of my unit conversion work using Google, even though I even have an app on my phone to do it. That's a pretty basic need but the feel of what I mean should be there.

What skips the line into unacceptable is when the request itself doesn't mesh with how our site works. And that I feel is less a matter of whether something is an online resource rather than installed resource, but it is based on what the resource is. We don't want to be a directory of websites telling people where to go to find information on things because we deal in doing, not finding. We're not really designed to be a library card catalog that tells you out of all the sites out there, where you can find out about different things, so that's what we want to avoid getting into. But that, again, draws us to it being based on what the asker is seeking, not on the fact it exists online.

Answer 2

I would say that it's certainly okay to answer a question with a webapp, as long as

• They don't say it needs to work offline (yeah, some do, but you still have to load them)
• The question doesn't explicitly ask for native software

Then a webapp is fair game.

Answer 3

Increasingly software applications will be packaged in online presentations. I don't have an objection to answers recommending software that runs on cloud servers more so than on desktops.

That said, I think it's misguided to try and "game" Questions simply so that a webapp has more acceptability than a desktop app. Presumably there are enough actually lines of inquiry to explore that even in Beta we can restrict ourselves to Questions we really want answered.

Added: The distinction between a WebApp and Web content is related to whether there is some functionality (application to a variety of tasks) involved as opposed to some narrowly specified content (produced, perhaps once and for all time, by a single task).

The sample Question posed by Angelo Neuschitzer broaches the distinction when it says "It needs to be as simple as possible." While I interpreted this as a request to have the software perform the given task easily (i.e. without elaborate preparation or directions), others seem to focus on how "simple" the software implementation is. In the extreme, one Commenter pointed out, the task can be accomplished by downloading a list, so that no software recommendation is involved.

The canned nature of such results signals that we've crossed from asking about software applications to content, taking us away from the scope of this new site.