Timeline for Since when were command-line tools off-topic?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
26 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 10, 2020 at 15:02 | comment | added | fixer1234 | @Hashim, the objective is to build a knowledge base of questions that are a good fit for the site. "What tool" questions are not a good fit. As a practical matter, one can often get to that by asking how to solve a problem (an on-topic question), and that could potentially prompt an answer suggesting a tool. But that "loophole" isn't intended as a "cheat" to circumvent the guidelines and ask questions that aren't a good fit. The idea is not to jump through silly hoops to slip in poor-fit questions by using a loophole when you know that the only solution is a product recommendation. | |
| Mar 6, 2020 at 10:31 | comment | added | Mokubai Mod | Also bear in mind that moderators may see a lot of what goes on, we do not see absolutely everything. Things slip through, or are borderline and may need a judgement call. meta.superuser.com/questions/12401/… | |
| Mar 6, 2020 at 10:26 | comment | added | Mokubai Mod | @Hashim Moderators are here to enforce policy that was decided long before you joined. While you have a voice among the community, same as the moderators, it is not up to you to unilaterally decide that every one else is wrong and we should change to suit you. If you want to change policy then raise a meta question, make an argument for it, be constructive about it. Be prepared to accept whichever way the community decides, just as others have had to accept policies they didn't 100% agree with (myself included) but accept that it may be for the greater good. This site isn't just about you. | |
| Mar 6, 2020 at 5:25 | answer | added | Journeyman GeekMod | timeline score: 3 | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 20:24 | comment | added | Kamil Maciorowski | About "unnecessarily anal": I think if we allow "what tool?" for questions that can easily be changed to "how?", other (unfixable) "what tool?" questions will provoke "this one was allowed, why not mine?". It's just my opinion though. If it's about "mere few words" then just change few words. Sometimes I do this for new contributors to fix their questions before they get closed. You're a reputable user and I believe you don't need a babysitter, you can handle your questions by yourself. | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 20:24 | comment | added | Kamil Maciorowski | Oh, the confusion. It's not obvious which question you consider "main" here. I thought because this one has already been discussed on Meta, now it's about this other one. I apologize. Still my point stands: following the rule will bring you help more effectively than revolting. | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 20:04 | comment | added | Hashim Aziz | Because that was the one being discussed as the topic of this meta question and the one it was created in response to. the question from a week ago is a mere aside that I never bothered to create a meta q for. Maybe the first question (before I edited it) was clearly off topic, but the current question was on the margin - and all of this is glossing over the fact that in both these instances, what makes the questions off topic is a mere few words like "tool" left in to have them treated the same as the worst off topic questions. You don't see how unnecessarily anal that is? | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 19:59 | comment | added | Kamil Maciorowski | I'm not following. Why should I have commented on the main question? | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 19:48 | comment | added | Hashim Aziz | Hence why I did not bother querying that question. Why haven't you commented on the main question actually being queried here? | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 19:46 | comment | added | Kamil Maciorowski |
The "closed" note contains a sentence "Here are a few suggestions on how to properly ask …". It links to this meta question and the accepted answer explicitly reads you should not ask "Give me a list of pieces of software that do <x-action>!". Your original "What tools are available on Cygwin that can I use to remove a drive's HPA and DCO?" is exactly this. Frankly, I'm surprised anyone chooses going on a crusade instead of just following the suggestion and changing "what tool?" to "how do I do this?". As if they wanted revolution more than help.
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| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:59 | comment | added | DavidPostill Mod | That was totally uncalled for. Please read the code of conduct - "No bigotry. We don’t tolerate any language likely to offend or alienate people based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion — and those are just a few examples." | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:51 | comment | added | DavidPostill Mod | I'm done trying to educate you. | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:49 | comment | added | Hashim Aziz | I'm not talking about the entire rule, I'm talking about the enforcement of it from moderators like yourself that include questions like mine in it, just because I happened to explicitly use the word "tool" in the question instead of implicitly ask for one and wait for the answers to inevitably include those tools. Can you not see how much playing around with semantics there is there? | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:47 | comment | added | DavidPostill Mod | "it's a pointless rule that needs to be done away with. " No it's not. Without such rules the site would flooded with software requests and give me a script requests etc etc. Note also there is a site where asking for software is allowed (but that site also has very strict rules about what kinds of question are allowed (Software Recommendations, but please first read What is required for a question to contain "enough information".) | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:41 | comment | added | Hashim Aziz | Enforcing the specific asking of "how" to do something when it is known that a) the only way to do it will be with a particular software, and b) that the answer to both questions will ultimately be the same, in that they will consist of recommendations of software or command line tools, is indulging in childish (and slightly Orwellian) games of semantics, and it's a pointless rule that needs to be done away with. A question shouldn't have to explictly say "how" instead of "tool" for what it's asking to be clear. Thanks anyway for re-opening my question. | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:38 | comment | added | DavidPostill Mod | See Why are some questions marked as duplicate? - Help Center - Super User | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:37 | comment | added | DavidPostill Mod | The question may have been mistakenly closed as a duplicate (nobody is perfect), but there is already a procedure to follow to get them reopened. It is mentioned in help "If you see a question and do not agree that it truly is a duplicate, edit it to highlight the differences, then try to get it reopened by casting a reopen vote." | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:31 | comment | added | DavidPostill Mod | 1/ In this case the standards are consistent as neither of those questions were explicitly asking for software, they were asking how to solve a problem 2/ don't expect 10 year old questions to always follow today.s standards. The questions allowed or not has changed over the last 10 years and this has been discussed on meta before. | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:26 | comment | added | Hashim Aziz | @DavidPostill Then why are you applying the rules inconsistently? I have linked to several established, high-traffic questions in this post - if what you say is true, why are they still open? None of them come to the question with the tools known beforehand. The tools are "recommended" in the answers, as has always been the case in 5 years. Once again, the rules are being applied inconsistently, at the whims of whichever moderator is doing the interpreting. | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:26 | comment | added | Hashim Aziz | @DavidPostill The Cygwin question is from a week ago, which is not the one I'm querying here. You haven't addressed why you initially marked the most recent question as a duplicate without reading either the "duplicate" or the "original". Why does it take my querying two different close votes and posting two different meta questions just to keep my question open if the edit was as simple as removing the word "tool" from the question, which is apparently what moves a question across the line into "tool recommendation question". | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:25 | comment | added | DavidPostill Mod | Asking us to find tools for you is off topic. Asking us how to use a particular tool to solve a well specified problem is on topic. | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:22 | comment | added | DavidPostill Mod | The question still needs an edit from you though, as you have not specified your operating system .... which is an essential piece of information that is missing if your want an answer. | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:19 | history | edited | Hashim Aziz | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:19 | comment | added | DavidPostill Mod | Sigh. Your other question explicitly asks "What tools are available on Cygwin". Asking for tools is off-topic and has been for a long time. I've already asked you to edit your latest question to make it on topic. It's really very simple. So simple that I've taken the time to do it for you and reopened the question. Next time please do what you have been asked to do ... | |
| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:12 | history | edited | Hashim Aziz | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 5, 2020 at 18:06 | history | asked | Hashim Aziz | CC BY-SA 4.0 |