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I can see some questions like 'where can i get the cheapest X' and other members might have X and want to sell.

I have mixed feelings as to whether or not that should be allowed, but it would be interesting to see some opinions on it.

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I don't like the idea of SuperUser being your personal Amazon or eBay. The questions asking "where I can get the cheapest X" are already annoying as it is.

Edit: I should probably revise this some now that I am actually a moderator of the website.

So far there have been lots and lots of questions looking for product recommendations when it comes to specific issues ("I need a free/cheap video editing software"). These questions I have no real problem with (as long as they are not duplicates of something already posted). This will allow for people to post their recommendations and there can actually be a correct answer (what the OP decides to end up going with).

I find these type of questions are much better than "Where can I find the cheapest router" or "I need to find a place where I can buy [X] for less than $50". There are plenty of websites out there already which allow you to do specific product searches and compare prices among other websites, we don't need SuperUser to devolve into that. I do think that SuperUser's community can be a helpful source of product recommendations, however.

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  • I'd upvote this +10 if I could. Well said.
    – Dillie-O
    Commented Jul 15, 2009 at 16:01
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    Another question is : How does the question "I need a free/cheap video editing software" ages ?
    – Steve Schnepp
    Commented Jul 29, 2009 at 5:39
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    yeah, we need to start enforcing those last 2 paragraphs or codifying them into the FAQ.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Aug 13, 2009 at 8:27
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Ugh, let's not become Craigslist without the "adult services" section. I can't imagine anything worse.

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    I agree. We definitely need adult services.
    – Kyle Cronin
    Commented Jul 15, 2009 at 16:12
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    @Kyle I just chuckled imagining how such questions and especially answers would shape up.
    – Camilo Martin
    Commented Feb 12, 2012 at 13:28
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There was a question where someone was asking if he could still get data off of some old 5 1/4 disks. All I did was append to my answer that I had some spare parts, and it got down-voted immediately. I have since removed that from my answer.

I wasn't really trying to sell him, or anybody, anything. I was just trying to be helpful.

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  • Did you mention "I could sell these spare parts I have if you wanted" or something? I'd downvote such beahavior, but since you look like you're in the clear, +1.
    – Camilo Martin
    Commented Feb 12, 2012 at 13:31
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All I saw today was somebody asking where they can buy hardware for cheap...I suggested newegg, and that was it :)

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If someone's asked for the cheapest X then I can't see there being a serious problem if a vendor of X comes along and says get it here. There could be issues around the wording etc, but it would have to be on a case-by-case basis.

The problem might be that the question's been posted in the first place.

Where there would be a problem is if the vendor posted the advert (for want of a better word) as a question.

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Don't forget you can flag as Spam. The worse case is "How do I solve X?" with an answer "Use product Y" (where Y is a referral link, and doesn't actually solve the problem).

It would be neat if the system could automagically either de-referrer them (or potentially better for the site as a whole) automagically substitute for a StackOverflow referral tag. For things like books,

I also like Wikipedia's approach if sending you to a landing page, with referral links for all the major online bookstores (based on ISBN)

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