Opinion questions - Some should stand!

Question

The standard rules for this forum (and I think most stack exchange forums) is that questions that call for an opinion-based answer rather than a fact based answer should be removed. I would like to challenge this and ask for - you guessed it - the opinions of others, especially the forum leaders and moderators.

I would say that certain quesstions that may provide valuable input to or about the course even though asking for opinions should be allowed to stand. Case in point, someone just asked a question about when they should start using function calls in the psets, which problem set? Truly an opinion based answer, but still valuable advice to any new programmer or student (albeit simplistic advice). I would leave this question stand because it will be useful to others.

I think that before we vote to remove opinion based questions out of hand, we should seriously consider whether they benefit our community if left in place. Does anyone agree or disagree, and/or should there be additional or different criteria to judge whether a question should stand? Cast your votes below!

Answer 1

personally, I tend not to unnecessarily complicate things. in this particular case, I didn't think of it much of an opinion-based question. I don't wanna dive into technical details here, but the answer in terms of good practices and good design is kinda obvious.

but yes sometimes opinion-based questions are useful, yet this is not what this site is for. opinion-based questions tend to have many possible answers and arguments that don't fit for a Q&A site like this. maybe they fit more for other communities (e.g., facebook or slack) where you can have long discussions.

Answer 2

All the SE websites allow for opinion when those opinions are constructive and well formed and where the answers would not be PRIMARILY opinion based.

If someone asks, "what's the best programming language" that's a bad fit for all the communities. If someone says they cant seem to find the right construct to achieve x Goal, that inherently invites opinions but those opinions are focused on solving a problem and the solutions which are most elegant or best fit the answer can rise to the top.

This is less about opinions and more about bad questions that tend to get poor answers. (Whats better a for or while loop, should I write this in c or c++, what IDE do people like) If its impossible to actually answer the question definitely, its a bad question for a site focused on answers.