27

The 'product recommendation' question occurs here a lot. I propose we modify the existing FAQ language:

and it is not about …

  • Networking outside the professional workplace
  • Running servers at home for personal use
  • General personal computer troubleshooting

… then you’re in the right place to ask your question!

To add a single bullet item:

and it is not about …

  • Networking outside the professional workplace
  • Running servers at home for personal use
  • General personal computer troubleshooting
  • Product or service recommendations

… then you’re in the right place to ask your question!

While it is amply, amply, amply documented that shopping/recommendation questions are off topic, the decomposing bodies of shopping questions on the castle walls just aren't having the deterrent effect they really should.

When skimming, people read bullets.

By having it right there in the explicit not about section, we take this very common close reason and give it the deterrence it needs.

4
  • This is a great idea. I keep linking shopping questions to the FAQ, it should be explicitly stated that they're off topic.
    – user62491
    Commented Dec 10, 2011 at 3:42
  • So, there seems to be general consensus to this, so who can perform this edit? Only SE staff or you moderators as well?
    – Sven
    Commented Dec 11, 2011 at 14:44
  • @SvenW Only SE staff can edit that. The community process we're doing right now is the first step in getting it changed. When they come back to work Monday and Tuesday we'll probably see some action of some kind.
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Commented Dec 11, 2011 at 16:30
  • Great idea but seriously, whatever gave you the impression that more than a miniscule percentage of SF users read the FAQ? I often think the only ones who have read it or those of us who are forever telling others to do so.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Dec 14, 2011 at 1:51

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
9

If you can link the bullet point to Q&A is hard lets go shopping and or gorilla vs shark then all the better.

1

The FAQ change has been committed, and should go live at the next code-push.

Edit:

A side-note on administering this. I've been closing shopping questions as "Off Topic" rather than "Too Localized" or "NARQ" because we now have a specific FAQ exclusion for shopping. TL or NARQ suggests that if the asker just rephrased the question the right way it will be a good question, OT tells them that it can't be done.

5
  • That was quick. But why exactly did it need to be posted to meta if it was just about asking the SE staff?
    – the-wabbit
    Commented Dec 14, 2011 at 18:23
  • @syneticon-dj FAQ changes require community feedback before going in, simply because they're such an important document. They won't do it without proof that there is support behind the change beyond "a mod says so". Thus, the meta-post.
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Commented Dec 14, 2011 at 18:56
  • But how is such support expressed? Informally by just issuing 20 votes on the post? I welcome the change but I see nothing but "because a mod says so" as the justification so far.
    – the-wabbit
    Commented Dec 14, 2011 at 19:12
  • @syneticon-dj If Iain had posted it instead and got 20-odd votes, it would have gone through (once the SE staff got poked to notice the question), I just kicked the ball down the hill first. I think the threshold is "it looks like a lot" which is not terribly quantifiable, but definitely "double digits worth".
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Commented Dec 14, 2011 at 19:19
  • Thanks for clarifications.
    – the-wabbit
    Commented Dec 16, 2011 at 15:01

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