45

It's 2023, almost nobody asks for books anymore, but they sure do ask for tutorials. So can we please update this close reason to match?

The "and more" bit is vague and unhelpful, so while we're at it can we spruce that up too?

Suggestion:

Seeking recommendations for tutorials, software libraries, tools, or other off-site resources

(yes I checked, yes it fits the dialog).

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  • 19
    The last question asking for book recs was asked three days ago.
    – Laurel
    Commented Sep 28, 2023 at 22:12
  • 9
    I agree with @Laurel, if we did change it, we should just add "tutorials" and leave it as is other than that.
    – zurgeg
    Commented Sep 28, 2023 at 22:31
  • 1
    The text in the help center's What topics can I ask about here? says: "Questions asking us to recommend or find a book, tool, software library, tutorial or other off-site resource are off-topic for Stack Overflow as they tend to attract opinionated answers and spam. Instead, describe the problem and what has been done so far to solve it." Note that it says "recommend or find", an important addition, I feel, because some people have tried to skate around the prohibition by explicitly not asking for recommendations...
    – Heretic Monkey
    Commented Sep 29, 2023 at 14:39
  • 3
    @HereticMonkey it's interesting to me that the only reason listed is spam/opinion... for me, such questions are antithetical to SE entirely, regardless of other reasons. SE itself is the primary source of the information because it's the library and pointing to other resources without including the answer on site is detrimental to the long term value of the site. It's the question equivalent of link-only answers and would essentially encourage, if not require them to be allowed.
    – Catija
    Commented Sep 30, 2023 at 14:56
  • 2
    I would recommend that any discussion about rewriting close reasons be broad enough to review all aspects of the customizable text. Right now you're focusing on the list of resources but I would recommend reviewing the entire text in the close modal and post notices. I'd say the guidance of when to use the close reason and the post notices have a lot of room for improvement and any CM tasked with making this change is unlikely to do so without that being discussed first.
    – Catija
    Commented Sep 30, 2023 at 15:01
  • @Catija Indeed, that's always been my feeling on it. Using SE as a substitute for a search engine, really. If they want to know how to do something, they should ask how to do something.
    – Heretic Monkey
    Commented Oct 2, 2023 at 13:46
  • The "and more" grammatical facepalm has been reported before here and here and likely in many other places too. This will clearly never be fixed.
    – Lundin
    Commented Jan 5 at 12:46

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
17

The language of this close reason has been updated. It now reads, "seeking recommendations for software libraries, tutorials, tools, books, or other off-site resources."

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  • 5
    Thank you. However, is there any chance the process could be streamlined a little bit? It's pretty sad when the company pops out pointless blog posts like on a production line, but it takes 5 months for a single sentence to be adjusted in the UI of the largest site :(
    – Dan Mašek
    Commented Mar 11 at 17:43
39

How about something like:

seeking recommendations for software libraries, links to tutorials, blog posts, tools, books, or other similar third-party resources

  • Add "links to tutorials" to emphasize that this reason is not for questions asking how to do something (which are on-topic, if clear and focused).
  • "third-party" to emphasize that asking for a method within a specified framework or library is perfectly on-topic.
  • Add "blog posts" as an example to help define the category.
  • Sort in roughly descending order of frequency, as judged by my vague and unscientific recollection of how often I see them.

Input is welcome on any of those choices or the phrasing more generally.

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    TBH, I don't see a reason to update the text. Not that it can't be clearer but from experience it seems that the users who disagree with it do so via selective reading. Therefore, I doubt there is any collection of words that would make all people read and understand it properly. There would always be a users who claims "It doesn't apply to my question because it does not explicitly say to not ask about YouTube videos" or whatever.
    – VLAZ
    Commented Sep 29, 2023 at 5:41
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    @VLAZ I'm not aiming for something that will cover all possible cases, just something that will hopefully be a bit more relevant to today's users.
    – Ian Kemp
    Commented Sep 29, 2023 at 10:01
11

Making changes that take into account a person living in 2023. I am in favour of such changes even if it would not make any difference, it is a good trend to set.

My offering would be another variant:

Asking for recommendations of any kind. Examples being tutorials, blog posts, sample code, libraries, tools or books.

Because any kind of recommendation request is asking for opinions and/or a spam lure.

It is also my opinion that the text should be as basic English as it can be. Which is why I expressly avoid the use of words such as "resource" or concepts such as "third parties". Let's not assume all people have the same definition there.

I put tutorials at the very front of the list, just in case someone is in a hurry and just can't afford the precious seconds to read to the end.

3
  • it is not my understanding that any recommendation request is off topic. Ex. meta.stackoverflow.com/a/386006/11107541
    – starball
    Commented Sep 29, 2023 at 20:44
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    In the broadest sense, all questions are asking for recommendations - recommendations for how to fix a problem. The intention here is resource recommendations and removing that term without replacing it with something similar would make everything eligible for closure.
    – Catija
    Commented Sep 30, 2023 at 14:48
  • @starball that would be the mission, to find some common description in which it is not left up to a personal understanding / interpretation / convenience. Agreed that the current version is throwing the net a little too wide. Boy, writing help texts is a skill of its own.
    – Gimby
    Commented Oct 3, 2023 at 11:54
7

My suggestion includes text for each of the fields that needs to be filled in:

Brief description

Asking for external recommendations

Usage guidance

Questions asking for recommendations for external websites, tools, resources, and software are off-topic as they tend to attract opinionated answers and spam.

Close description

This question is [closed](/help/closed-questions) because it is asking for recommended external websites, tools, resources, and software. It is not currently accepting answers because many would likely be opinions or spam.

Post owner guidance

You may edit your question to remove requests for external resources. When you do so, check the box indicating that the close reason for the question has been addressed, then the question will be reevaluated for reopening.

Public guidance

You can suggest edits to this question that remove recommendation requests or leave comments suggesting how the author might improve their question. Please respond to the author if they have any questions about the process to get the question reopened, and nominate this question for reopening if it has been edited to be on-topic.

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