[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"sanity-Yn2BNoXKmSSJeAqBhYNHPuwH0u7r4A4GLqoV3RwPXzg":3,"sanity-DG3WN60CCwt1dP32yRUV_KNkdaVoludoGT5I1MrQXJo":671},{"data":4,"sourceMap":-1},{"latestPodcast":5,"latestReleases":14,"post":39,"recent":646},[6],{"_id":7,"publishedAt":8,"slug":9,"sponsored":12,"title":13},"50f4509c-4f55-4f11-8adc-5556e821ea77","2026-06-30T07:40:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":11},"slug","why-intent-prediction-needs-more-than-an-llm",null,"Why intent prediction needs more than an LLM",[15,21,27,33],{"_id":16,"publishedAt":17,"slug":18,"title":20},"eb5b66eb-9410-4329-83bb-22bbff39402a","2026-04-28T13:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":19},"turn-scattered-knowledge-into-trusted-intelligence","Turning scattered knowledge into trusted intelligence: Stack Internal 2026.3",{"_id":22,"publishedAt":23,"slug":24,"title":26},"369c2401-b62e-4a37-8ff8-bf603023ecad","2026-03-02T15:03:00.988Z",{"_type":10,"current":25},"what-s-new-at-stack-overflow-march-2026","What’s new at Stack Overflow: March 2026",{"_id":28,"publishedAt":29,"slug":30,"title":32},"5e9053a4-07ea-447c-91ea-29e0b6228537","2026-02-02T15:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":31},"what-s-new-at-stack-overflow-february-2026","What’s new at Stack Overflow: February 2026",{"_id":34,"publishedAt":35,"slug":36,"title":38},"a1b538eb-a8a6-46d0-80a1-ac70ec9bb935","2026-01-05T10:00:00.000-05:00",{"_type":10,"current":37},"what-s-new-at-stack-overflow-january-2026","What’s new at Stack Overflow: January 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",{"_key":70,"_type":66,"marks":71,"text":73},"7c4a7216cfdd1",[72],"ea91705804e7","Good Subjective, Bad Subjective",{"_key":75,"_type":66,"marks":76,"text":77},"7c4a7216cfdd2",[],", we made a pretty solid first stab at ",{"_key":79,"_type":66,"marks":80,"text":82},"7c4a7216cfdd3",[81],"strong","defining a ",{"_key":84,"_type":66,"marks":85,"text":87},"7c4a7216cfdd4",[81,86],"em","constructive",{"_key":89,"_type":66,"marks":90,"text":91},"7c4a7216cfdd5",[81]," subjective question",{"_key":93,"_type":66,"marks":94,"text":95},"7c4a7216cfdd6",[],", one that I've been happy with so far.",[97],{"_key":72,"_type":98,"href":99,"reference":12},"link","http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/good-subjective-bad-subjective/","normal",{"_key":102,"_type":62,"children":103,"markDefs":108,"style":109},"6b294e8628b8",[104],{"_key":105,"_type":66,"marks":106,"text":107},"6b294e8628b80",[],"Constructive subjective questions:\n\n   ",[],"blockquote",{"_key":111,"_type":62,"children":112,"level":117,"listItem":118,"markDefs":119,"style":100},"a3bc82831726",[113],{"_key":114,"_type":66,"marks":115,"text":116},"a3bc828317260",[],"inspire answers that explain “why” and “how”.",1,"number",[],{"_key":121,"_type":62,"children":122,"level":117,"listItem":118,"markDefs":127,"style":100},"65efc9678c3f",[123],{"_key":124,"_type":66,"marks":125,"text":126},"65efc9678c3f0",[],"tend to have long, not short, answers.",[],{"_key":129,"_type":62,"children":130,"level":117,"listItem":118,"markDefs":135,"style":100},"90e5701ae08a",[131],{"_key":132,"_type":66,"marks":133,"text":134},"90e5701ae08a0",[],"have a constructive, fair, and impartial tone.",[],{"_key":137,"_type":62,"children":138,"level":117,"listItem":118,"markDefs":143,"style":100},"635c51ffe618",[139],{"_key":140,"_type":66,"marks":141,"text":142},"635c51ffe6180",[],"invite sharing experiences over opinions.",[],{"_key":145,"_type":62,"children":146,"level":117,"listItem":118,"markDefs":151,"style":100},"c41c6f3bbb89",[147],{"_key":148,"_type":66,"marks":149,"text":150},"c41c6f3bbb890",[],"insist that opinion be backed up with facts and references.",[],{"_key":153,"_type":62,"children":154,"level":117,"listItem":118,"markDefs":159,"style":100},"37670dd49f49",[155],{"_key":156,"_type":66,"marks":157,"text":158},"37670dd49f490",[],"are more than just mindless social fun.",[],{"_key":161,"_type":62,"children":162,"markDefs":183,"style":100},"a68da9887b64",[163,167,171,175,179],{"_key":164,"_type":66,"marks":165,"text":166},"a68da9887b640",[],"But the six guidelines above depend partly on the questions, and partly on the answers. They're a fine starting point for determining what a ",{"_key":168,"_type":66,"marks":169,"text":170},"a68da9887b641",[86],"good",{"_key":172,"_type":66,"marks":173,"text":174},"a68da9887b642",[]," subjective question generally looks like -- but I couldn't fully explain what makes a ",{"_key":176,"_type":66,"marks":177,"text":178},"a68da9887b643",[86],"bad",{"_key":180,"_type":66,"marks":181,"text":182},"a68da9887b644",[]," subjective question.",[],{"_key":185,"_type":62,"children":186,"markDefs":200,"style":100},"9bc2ab04aa1c",[187,191,196],{"_key":188,"_type":66,"marks":189,"text":190},"9bc2ab04aa1c0",[],"That was before I saw ",{"_key":192,"_type":66,"marks":193,"text":195},"9bc2ab04aa1c1",[194],"282fb7656c67","Aarobot's epic meta answer on poll questions",{"_key":197,"_type":66,"marks":198,"text":199},"9bc2ab04aa1c2",[],":",[201],{"_key":194,"_type":98,"href":202,"reference":12},"http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/75168/should-polls-be-maintained-as-community-wiki-questions-or-should-they-be-closed/75179#75179",{"_key":204,"_type":62,"children":205,"markDefs":340,"style":109},"c44b0c1aef3a",[206,210,214,218,222,226,230,234,238,243,247,251,255,259,263,268,272,277,281,286,290,294,298,302,306,310,314,318,322,327,331,336],{"_key":207,"_type":66,"marks":208,"text":209},"c44b0c1aef3a0",[81],"Should all poll questions be closed?",{"_key":211,"_type":66,"marks":212,"text":213},"c44b0c1aef3a1",[]," That is where it starts to get dicey. For you see, the term \"poll\" is itself subjective, and whether or not a given question is in fact a poll is often open to debate.\n\n\n\nFor me, and I think I speak for many others, the only time you really ",{"_key":215,"_type":66,"marks":216,"text":217},"c44b0c1aef3a2",[86],"know",{"_key":219,"_type":66,"marks":220,"text":221},"c44b0c1aef3a3",[]," you're looking at a poll is when you see those one-line ",{"_key":223,"_type":66,"marks":224,"text":225},"c44b0c1aef3a4",[86],"answers",{"_key":227,"_type":66,"marks":228,"text":229},"c44b0c1aef3a5",[],". But we can only close ",{"_key":231,"_type":66,"marks":232,"text":233},"c44b0c1aef3a6",[86],"questions",{"_key":235,"_type":66,"marks":236,"text":237},"c44b0c1aef3a7",[],". Is it always the fault of the questioner that the answers suck? Do they deserve all the blame for the fact that people with nothing useful to say want to participate anyway and bring their reddit-style \"tweets\" into the answers?\n\n\n\nSometimes the questions really are bad. When someone asks, ",{"_key":239,"_type":66,"marks":240,"text":242},"c44b0c1aef3a8",[241],"0f2bd934a706","Which programming language do you really hate?",{"_key":244,"_type":66,"marks":245,"text":246},"c44b0c1aef3a9",[],", and doesn't bother to elaborate at all, that is just screaming for crap answers. It's hard for me to begrudge any of those participants their answers (okay, maybe I begrudge them a ",{"_key":248,"_type":66,"marks":249,"text":250},"c44b0c1aef3a10",[86],"little",{"_key":252,"_type":66,"marks":253,"text":254},"c44b0c1aef3a11",[],") because the question itself was so ridiculously open-ended that ",{"_key":256,"_type":66,"marks":257,"text":258},"c44b0c1aef3a12",[86],"any",{"_key":260,"_type":66,"marks":261,"text":262},"c44b0c1aef3a13",[]," answer would technically be a \"correct\" one.\n\n\n\nThen again, some questions that are worded as very obvious polls actually get reasonably good, well-written answers. See ",{"_key":264,"_type":66,"marks":265,"text":267},"c44b0c1aef3a14",[266],"0705d54e0e27","Best practices that you disagree with",{"_key":269,"_type":66,"marks":270,"text":271},"c44b0c1aef3a15",[]," for an example. On Seasoned Advice (Cooking.SE), I can point to several examples of ",{"_key":273,"_type":66,"marks":274,"text":276},"c44b0c1aef3a16",[275],"fe6776f09208","weak questions",{"_key":278,"_type":66,"marks":279,"text":280},"c44b0c1aef3a17",[]," or even ",{"_key":282,"_type":66,"marks":283,"text":285},"c44b0c1aef3a18",[284],"7dd5180c5985","joke questions",{"_key":287,"_type":66,"marks":288,"text":289},"c44b0c1aef3a19",[]," that, given an ",{"_key":291,"_type":66,"marks":292,"text":293},"c44b0c1aef3a20",[81],"early",{"_key":295,"_type":66,"marks":296,"text":297},"c44b0c1aef3a21",[],", ",{"_key":299,"_type":66,"marks":300,"text":301},"c44b0c1aef3a22",[86],"comprehensive",{"_key":303,"_type":66,"marks":304,"text":305},"c44b0c1aef3a23",[]," answer, did not devolve into pointless blathering. On the flip side, I've seen questions that were definitively ",{"_key":307,"_type":66,"marks":308,"text":309},"c44b0c1aef3a24",[81],"not",{"_key":311,"_type":66,"marks":312,"text":313},"c44b0c1aef3a25",[]," phrased as polls that were ",{"_key":315,"_type":66,"marks":316,"text":317},"c44b0c1aef3a26",[86],"still",{"_key":319,"_type":66,"marks":320,"text":321},"c44b0c1aef3a27",[]," greeted by dozens of poor-quality answers; take, for example, one of Stack Overflow's oldest: ",{"_key":323,"_type":66,"marks":324,"text":326},"c44b0c1aef3a28",[325],"25f2c6f846ab","Practical non-image based CAPTCHA approaches?",{"_key":328,"_type":66,"marks":329,"text":330},"c44b0c1aef3a29",[],"\n\n\n\nRecently I've actually taken to using ",{"_key":332,"_type":66,"marks":333,"text":335},"c44b0c1aef3a30",[334],"306da3276855","Metafilter's guidelines",{"_key":337,"_type":66,"marks":338,"text":339},"c44b0c1aef3a31",[]," as a rule of thumb.",[341,343,345,347,349,351],{"_key":241,"_type":98,"href":342,"reference":12},"http://programmers.stackexchange.com/q/2846/3249",{"_key":266,"_type":98,"href":344,"reference":12},"http://programmers.stackexchange.com/q/14856/3249",{"_key":275,"_type":98,"href":346,"reference":12},"http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/9562/41",{"_key":284,"_type":98,"href":348,"reference":12},"http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/9533/41",{"_key":325,"_type":98,"href":350,"reference":12},"http://stackoverflow.com/q/8472/38360",{"_key":334,"_type":98,"href":352,"reference":12},"http://faq.metafilter.com/tags/chatfilter",{"_key":354,"_type":62,"children":355,"markDefs":378,"style":100},"2bc322f58255",[356,360,365,369,374],{"_key":357,"_type":66,"marks":358,"text":359},"2bc322f582550",[],"Yes, yes, it's a long post, almost TL;DR, but it's gold. ",{"_key":361,"_type":66,"marks":362,"text":364},"2bc322f582551",[363],"6db143eee9d1","Read it anyway",{"_key":366,"_type":66,"marks":367,"text":368},"2bc322f582552",[],". You may remember Aarobot from his ",{"_key":370,"_type":66,"marks":371,"text":373},"2bc322f582553",[372],"e60ecce60188","previous discovery about meta-tags",{"_key":375,"_type":66,"marks":376,"text":377},"2bc322f582554",[],".",[379,380],{"_key":363,"_type":98,"href":202,"reference":12},{"_key":372,"_type":98,"href":381,"reference":12},"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/08/the-death-of-meta-tags/",{"_key":383,"_type":62,"children":384,"markDefs":414,"style":100},"fe587dead6c5",[385,389,394,398,402,406,411],{"_key":386,"_type":66,"marks":387,"text":388},"fe587dead6c50",[],"It should come as no surprise that ",{"_key":390,"_type":66,"marks":391,"text":393},"fe587dead6c51",[392],"7466479ae276","MetaFilter",{"_key":395,"_type":66,"marks":396,"text":397},"fe587dead6c52",[],", which has been doing high quality Q&A; since 2004, figured this stuff out ",{"_key":399,"_type":66,"marks":400,"text":401},"fe587dead6c53",[86],"years",{"_key":403,"_type":66,"marks":404,"text":405},"fe587dead6c54",[]," ago. They're a huge influence -- up there with Wikipedia in my estimation. That's why we had Josh Millard, a MetaFilter admin, ",{"_key":407,"_type":66,"marks":408,"text":410},"fe587dead6c55",[409],"2ffb0dedc25a","on an early podcast",{"_key":412,"_type":66,"marks":413,"text":377},"fe587dead6c56",[],[415,417],{"_key":392,"_type":98,"href":416,"reference":12},"http://www.metafilter.com/",{"_key":409,"_type":98,"href":418,"reference":12},"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/09/podcast-22/",{"_key":420,"_type":62,"children":421,"markDefs":433,"style":100},"594c1b9673b2",[422,426,430],{"_key":423,"_type":66,"marks":424,"text":425},"594c1b9673b20",[],"I'm just kicking myself for not discovering the particular page Aarobot referenced until now. Effective immediately, the FAQ for all sites now includes ",{"_key":427,"_type":66,"marks":428,"text":429},"594c1b9673b21",[81],"specific guidance on what a bad subjective question looks like",{"_key":431,"_type":66,"marks":432,"text":377},"594c1b9673b22",[],[],{"_key":435,"_type":62,"children":436,"markDefs":471,"style":109},"21fa1c379a3f",[437,441,444,448,452,456,460,464,467],{"_key":438,"_type":66,"marks":439,"text":440},"21fa1c379a3f0",[],"What kind of questions should I ",{"_key":442,"_type":66,"marks":443,"text":309},"21fa1c379a3f1",[86],{"_key":445,"_type":66,"marks":446,"text":447},"21fa1c379a3f2",[]," ask here?\n\n\n\nYou should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page. To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, ",{"_key":449,"_type":66,"marks":450,"text":451},"21fa1c379a3f3",[81],"avoid",{"_key":453,"_type":66,"marks":454,"text":455},"21fa1c379a3f4",[]," asking subjective questions where …\n\n  \n\nIf your motivation for asking the question is \"I would like to participate in a discussion about ",{"_key":457,"_type":66,"marks":458,"text":459},"21fa1c379a3f5",[81],"__",{"_key":461,"_type":66,"marks":462,"text":463},"21fa1c379a3f6",[],"\", then you should not be asking here. If your motivation is \"I would like others to explain ",{"_key":465,"_type":66,"marks":466,"text":459},"21fa1c379a3f7",[81],{"_key":468,"_type":66,"marks":469,"text":470},"21fa1c379a3f8",[]," to me\", then you are probably OK.",[],{"_key":473,"_type":62,"children":474,"level":117,"listItem":486,"markDefs":487,"style":100},"ebab9aec92b4",[475,479,482],{"_key":476,"_type":66,"marks":477,"text":478},"ebab9aec92b40",[],"every answer is equally valid: \"What's your favorite ",{"_key":480,"_type":66,"marks":481,"text":459},"ebab9aec92b41",[81],{"_key":483,"_type":66,"marks":484,"text":485},"ebab9aec92b42",[],"?\"","bullet",[],{"_key":489,"_type":62,"children":490,"level":117,"listItem":486,"markDefs":509,"style":100},"cca2e9f07380",[491,495,498,502,505],{"_key":492,"_type":66,"marks":493,"text":494},"cca2e9f073800",[],"your answer is provided along with the question, and you expect more answers: \"I use ",{"_key":496,"_type":66,"marks":497,"text":459},"cca2e9f073801",[81],{"_key":499,"_type":66,"marks":500,"text":501},"cca2e9f073802",[]," for ",{"_key":503,"_type":66,"marks":504,"text":459},"cca2e9f073803",[81],{"_key":506,"_type":66,"marks":507,"text":508},"cca2e9f073804",[],", what do you use?\"",[],{"_key":511,"_type":62,"children":512,"level":117,"listItem":486,"markDefs":517,"style":100},"5d9143a953e6",[513],{"_key":514,"_type":66,"marks":515,"text":516},"5d9143a953e60",[],"there is no actual problem to be solved: \"I'm curious if other people feel like I do.\"",[],{"_key":519,"_type":62,"children":520,"level":117,"listItem":486,"markDefs":532,"style":100},"a3cc8ad57bcc",[521,525,528],{"_key":522,"_type":66,"marks":523,"text":524},"a3cc8ad57bcc0",[],"we are being asked an open-ended, hypothetical question: \"What if ",{"_key":526,"_type":66,"marks":527,"text":459},"a3cc8ad57bcc1",[81],{"_key":529,"_type":66,"marks":530,"text":531},"a3cc8ad57bcc2",[]," happened?\"",[],{"_key":534,"_type":62,"children":535,"level":117,"listItem":486,"markDefs":547,"style":100},"b7c4129a4a7d",[536,540,543],{"_key":537,"_type":66,"marks":538,"text":539},"b7c4129a4a7d0",[],"it is a rant disguised as a question: \"",{"_key":541,"_type":66,"marks":542,"text":459},"b7c4129a4a7d1",[81],{"_key":544,"_type":66,"marks":545,"text":546},"b7c4129a4a7d2",[]," sucks, am I right?\"",[],{"_key":549,"_type":62,"children":550,"markDefs":564,"style":100},"3be9999f3ac1",[551,555,560],{"_key":552,"_type":66,"marks":553,"text":554},"3be9999f3ac10",[],"All based on the MetaFilter FAQ entry ",{"_key":556,"_type":66,"marks":557,"text":559},"3be9999f3ac11",[558],"5e853770a248","My Ask Metafilter question was removed as chatfilter. What does that mean?",{"_key":561,"_type":66,"marks":562,"text":563},"3be9999f3ac12",[],", with their explicit permission and proper attribution.",[565],{"_key":558,"_type":98,"href":352,"reference":12},{"_key":567,"_type":62,"children":568,"markDefs":606,"style":100},"8300202583bd",[569,573,577,580,584,588,592,596,599,603],{"_key":570,"_type":66,"marks":571,"text":572},"8300202583bd0",[],"I realize this is a lot of rules, a lot of guidelines, a lot of thinking. But it's simpler than it looks. As Aarobot said in his post: ",{"_key":574,"_type":66,"marks":575,"text":576},"8300202583bd1",[81],"real questions have ",{"_key":578,"_type":66,"marks":579,"text":225},"8300202583bd2",[81,86],{"_key":581,"_type":66,"marks":582,"text":583},"8300202583bd3",[81],", not ",{"_key":585,"_type":66,"marks":586,"text":587},"8300202583bd4",[81,86],"items",{"_key":589,"_type":66,"marks":590,"text":591},"8300202583bd5",[81]," or ",{"_key":593,"_type":66,"marks":594,"text":595},"8300202583bd6",[81,86],"ideas",{"_key":597,"_type":66,"marks":598,"text":591},"8300202583bd7",[81],{"_key":600,"_type":66,"marks":601,"text":602},"8300202583bd8",[81,86],"opinions",{"_key":604,"_type":66,"marks":605,"text":377},"8300202583bd9",[81],[],true,"2011/01/17","",{"code":611,"language":612},"\u003Cp>In \u003Ca href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/good-subjective-bad-subjective/\">Good Subjective, Bad Subjective\u003C/a>, we made a pretty solid first stab at \u003Cstrong>defining a \u003Cem>constructive\u003C/em> subjective question\u003C/strong>, one that I've been happy with so far. \u003C/p>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>Constructive subjective questions:\u003C/p>\n\u003Col>\u003Cli>\n\u003Cp>inspire answers that explain “why” and “how”.\u003C/p>\n\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\n\u003Cp>tend to have long, not short, answers.\u003C/p>\n\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\n\u003Cp>have a constructive, fair, and impartial tone.\u003C/p>\n\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\n\u003Cp>invite sharing experiences over opinions.\u003C/p>\n\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\n\u003Cp>insist that opinion be backed up with facts and references.\u003C/p>\n\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>are more than just mindless social fun.\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ol>\u003C/blockquote>\n\u003Cp>But the six guidelines above depend partly on the questions, and partly on the answers. They're a fine starting point for determining what a \u003Cem>good\u003C/em> subjective question generally looks like -- but I couldn't fully explain what makes a \u003Cem>bad\u003C/em> subjective question.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>That was before I saw \u003Ca href=\"http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/75168/should-polls-be-maintained-as-community-wiki-questions-or-should-they-be-closed/75179#75179\">Aarobot's epic meta answer on poll questions\u003C/a>:\u003C/p>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Should all poll questions be closed?\u003C/strong> That is where it starts to get dicey.  For you see, the term \"poll\" is itself subjective, and whether or not a given question is in fact a poll is often open to debate.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>For me, and I think I speak for many others, the only time you really \u003Cem>know\u003C/em> you're looking at a poll is when you see those one-line \u003Cem>answers\u003C/em>.  But we can only close \u003Cem>questions\u003C/em>.  Is it always the fault of the questioner that the answers suck?  Do they deserve all the blame for the fact that people with nothing useful to say want to participate anyway and bring their reddit-style \"tweets\" into the answers?\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Sometimes the questions really are bad.  When someone asks, \u003Ca href=\"http://programmers.stackexchange.com/q/2846/3249\">Which programming language do you really hate?\u003C/a>, and doesn't bother to elaborate at all, that is just screaming for crap answers.  It's hard for me to begrudge any of those participants their answers (okay, maybe I begrudge them a \u003Cem>little\u003C/em>) because the question itself was so ridiculously open-ended that \u003Cem>any\u003C/em> answer would technically be a \"correct\" one.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Then again, some questions that are worded as very obvious polls actually get reasonably good, well-written answers.  See \u003Ca href=\"http://programmers.stackexchange.com/q/14856/3249\">Best practices that you disagree with\u003C/a> for an example.  On Seasoned Advice (Cooking.SE), I can point to several examples of \u003Ca href=\"http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/9562/41\">weak questions\u003C/a> or even \u003Ca href=\"http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/9533/41\">joke questions\u003C/a> that, given an \u003Cstrong>early\u003C/strong>, \u003Cem>comprehensive\u003C/em> answer, did not devolve into pointless blathering.  On the flip side, I've seen questions that were definitively \u003Cstrong>not\u003C/strong> phrased as polls that were \u003Cem>still\u003C/em> greeted by dozens of poor-quality answers; take, for example, one of Stack Overflow's oldest: \u003Ca href=\"http://stackoverflow.com/q/8472/38360\">Practical non-image based CAPTCHA approaches?\u003C/a>\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>Recently I've actually taken to using \u003Ca href=\"http://faq.metafilter.com/tags/chatfilter\">Metafilter's guidelines\u003C/a> as a rule of thumb.\u003C/p>\n\u003C/blockquote>\n\u003Cp>Yes, yes, it's a long post, almost TL;DR, but it's gold. \u003Ca href=\"http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/75168/should-polls-be-maintained-as-community-wiki-questions-or-should-they-be-closed/75179#75179\">Read it anyway\u003C/a>. You may remember Aarobot from his \u003Ca href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/08/the-death-of-meta-tags/\">previous discovery about meta-tags\u003C/a>. \u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>It should come as no surprise that \u003Ca href=\"http://www.metafilter.com/\">MetaFilter\u003C/a>, which has been doing high quality Q&A; since 2004, figured this stuff out \u003Cem>years\u003C/em> ago. They're a huge influence -- up there with Wikipedia in my estimation. That's why we had Josh Millard, a MetaFilter admin, \u003Ca href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/09/podcast-22/\">on an early podcast\u003C/a>.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>I'm just kicking myself for not discovering the particular page Aarobot referenced until now. Effective immediately, the FAQ for all sites now includes \u003Cstrong>specific guidance on what a bad subjective question looks like\u003C/strong>.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Ch2>What kind of questions should I \u003Cem>not\u003C/em> ask here?\u003C/h2>\n\u003Cp>You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page. To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, \u003Cstrong>avoid\u003C/strong> asking subjective questions where …\u003C/p>\n\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\n\u003Cp>every answer is equally valid: \"What's your favorite \u003Cstrong>__\u003C/strong>?\"\u003C/p>\n\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\n\u003Cp>your answer is provided along with the question, and you expect more answers: \"I use \u003Cstrong>__\u003C/strong> for \u003Cstrong>__\u003C/strong>, what do you use?\"\u003C/p>\n\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\n\u003Cp>there is no actual problem to be solved: \"I'm curious if other people feel like I do.\"\u003C/p>\n\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>\n\u003Cp>we are being asked an open-ended, hypothetical question: \"What if \u003Cstrong>__\u003C/strong> happened?\"\u003C/p>\n\u003C/li>\n\u003Cli>it is a rant disguised as a question: \"\u003Cstrong>__\u003C/strong> sucks, am I right?\"\u003C/li>\n\u003C/ul>\u003Cp>If your motivation for asking the question is \"I would like to participate in a discussion about \u003Cstrong>__\u003C/strong>\", then you should not be asking here. If your motivation is \"I would like others to explain \u003Cstrong>__\u003C/strong> to me\", then you are probably OK. \u003C/p>\n\u003C/blockquote>\n\u003Cp>All based on the MetaFilter FAQ entry \u003Ca href=\"http://faq.metafilter.com/tags/chatfilter\">My Ask Metafilter question was removed as chatfilter. What does that mean?\u003C/a>, with their explicit permission and proper attribution.\u003C/p>\n\u003Cp>I realize this is a lot of rules, a lot of guidelines, a lot of thinking. But it's simpler than it looks. As Aarobot said in his post: \u003Cstrong>real questions have \u003Cem>answers\u003C/em>, not \u003Cem>items\u003C/em> or \u003Cem>ideas\u003C/em> or \u003Cem>opinions\u003C/em>.\u003C/strong>\u003C/p>","html","2011-01-17T12:00:00.000Z",{"current":615},"real-questions-have-answers",[617,625,630,635,640],{"_createdAt":618,"_id":619,"_rev":620,"_type":621,"_updatedAt":618,"slug":622,"title":624},"2023-05-23T16:43:21Z","wp-tagcat-community","9HpbCsT2tq0xwozQfkc4ih","blogTag",{"current":623},"community","Community",{"_createdAt":618,"_id":626,"_rev":620,"_type":621,"_updatedAt":618,"slug":627,"title":629},"wp-tagcat-company",{"current":628},"company","Company",{"_createdAt":618,"_id":631,"_rev":620,"_type":621,"_updatedAt":618,"slug":632,"title":634},"wp-tagcat-design",{"current":633},"design","Design",{"_createdAt":618,"_id":636,"_rev":620,"_type":621,"_updatedAt":618,"slug":637,"title":639},"wp-tagcat-reference",{"current":638},"reference","Reference",{"_createdAt":618,"_id":641,"_rev":620,"_type":621,"_updatedAt":618,"slug":642,"title":644},"wp-tagcat-stackexchange",{"current":643},"stackexchange","Stackexchange","Real Questions Have Answers",[647,653,659,665],{"_id":648,"publishedAt":649,"slug":650,"sponsored":12,"title":652},"28e560af-f0aa-4d46-bd90-f435ad604aa7","2026-06-26T14:00:27.102Z",{"_type":10,"current":651},"paging-charity-how-can-engineering-leaders-avoid-becoming-bond-villains","Paging Charity! How can engineering leaders avoid becoming Bond villains?",{"_id":654,"publishedAt":655,"slug":656,"sponsored":12,"title":658},"4b22c2a3-3779-4966-93eb-5230391dbdce","2026-06-23T14:08:58.595Z",{"_type":10,"current":657},"your-ai-shipped-a-backend-that-boots-that-is-the-whole-problem","Your AI shipped a backend that boots. That is the whole problem.",{"_id":660,"publishedAt":661,"slug":662,"sponsored":12,"title":664},"5cf362e1-fe7b-45af-b69c-914731c6a052","2026-06-23T14:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":663},"the-2026-developer-survey-is-now-open-for-human-developers-only","The 2026 Developer Survey is now open (for human developers only)!",{"_id":666,"publishedAt":667,"slug":668,"sponsored":12,"title":670},"30b995f7-7cb9-4dd8-bf71-d0685940a32b","2026-06-19T14:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":669},"dispatches-from-o-reilly-from-capabilities-to-responsibilities","Dispatches from O'Reilly: From capabilities to responsibilities",{"data":672,"sourceMap":-1},{"count":673,"lastTimestamp":674},6,"2024-05-16T15:58:41Z"]