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Is questioning the claims of not uncommon software like Spinrite, off topic? If so, Why?

It's not uncommon, and proof of that is that immediately on asking it, a commenter that uses it replied. And the website grc.com shields up is quote a popular online port scanner so it is far from an unknown website

https://superuser.com/questions/894089/does-steve-gibsons-spinrite-remove-the-need-for-backups/894091#894091

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    Your answer is kinda horrid ;p
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 4:04
  • @JourneymanGeek well it's good I didn't waste my time writing more in that answer, if it was going to get closed etc
    – barlop
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 4:13
  • It's primarily opinion-based.
    – bwDraco
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 4:15
  • @DragonLord you say it is opinion based, but suppose it said "hard drives will never crash with this software because this software prevents hard drive crashes" do you not think that is a factual claim? And thus asking about whether a factual claim is true or false, is still factual?
    – barlop
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 4:59
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    It's a disputable claim of a nature which would not be constructive for Stack Exchange.
    – bwDraco
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 5:01
  • @DragonLord To see what you mean, I gave a hypothetical example in comment. Do you seriously think that my hypothetical example "hard drives will never crash with this software because this software prevents hard drive crashes" <-- is a disputable claim - do you really think that an informed person that isn't lying, would ever agree to that claim? I don't think there would be any dispute. An informed person that is not lying, would claim that it is not true that "hard drives will never crash with this software because this software prevents hard drive crashes"
    – barlop
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 5:24
  • If you had written a stellar answer to a neutral question the chance of it being closed would've been lower.
    – slhck Mod
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 7:47
  • @slhck I don't think a question should or would be closed because of an answer. So the question i'd ask you, is how do you think the Question could be made more neutral?
    – barlop
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 7:58
  • The entire rationale for closing questions is to prevent bad answers from accumulating. See this. You could probably describe what Spinrite does and critically ask whether the claim that it prevents mechanical failure is valid. But right now this just reads like "should I trust this marketing line?", and you're already going away from the technical issues by asking a very subjective "should I do backups?".
    – slhck Mod
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 8:18
  • The question wasn't closed because you published an answer that was based in opinion, I forget if you claim it was an outright lie, but if you did there is no way for you to know that. The question was closed because the question was going to lead to discussion, and any answer to what you asked was going to be primarily based in opinion. It would be like asking if a opinionated review for a product on Amazon, was true, its just simply not on topic.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 11:09
  • AT Ramhound. You wrote "The question wasn't closed because you published an answer that was based in opinion" <---- I never said it was. Look what I replied to.
    – barlop
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 13:55
  • @slhck I can see how asking "Should I do backups" is subjective. But what about asking if this or any software make backups no longer necessary to anybody / make backups absolutely pointless / mean there is no longer any advantage at all to backing up? is that still subjective? If it's true that crashes are prevented, then it could follow that backups are completely pointless.
    – barlop
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 13:58
  • If you can write the question in such a way where it won't generated answers based on an opinion to take another stab at it and revise the question and request its removal be reversed. But if your just going to ask if a review of a product is valid, that was written at least 20 years ago, then its likely just going to end in the same fate.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 16:51

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Your question is basically, "Should I believe the marketing hype?" which fails two points:

  • primarily opinion based
  • out of scope
  • off topic

So out that two became three.

Doesn't matter how common or uncommon the software is, if your question is asking us about its marketing, it's not for this site.

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  • I'd note that the question doesn't assume that it's hype, and it is possible for a statement making a claim about what is possible about software, to be used in marketing but also be a description of what the software can do.
    – barlop
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 13:54

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