The Zombie Stack Exchanges That Just Won't Die
Stack Exchange is meant to be a question and answer site. Questions that are asked should have a definite answer and should avoid being too discussion based. There was one posted recently asking for "unique adult programs". Are questions asking for programming ideas be on topic?
KatieR
I'm not certain that the event programming ideas question is valid from a Stack Exchange perspective, since SE comes out of the computer programming world where 1 question really doesn't have more than 5 right answers. That said, I've come to SE from Unshelved Answers where this question would have been perfectly appropriate because it is soliciting information from engaged professionals that will allow the questioner to do a better job/be a better professional.
There is more of a problem here with this particular question than it just being about library programming.
First and foremost, StackExchange is not a forum - question posts are expected to be solving some sort of problem. This particular question, such as it is, isn't really a question at all - there is nothing to be solved. The only answers that this question is going to receive are lists of what other libraries did, and everyone is going to have a different idea on what makes their programming choices "unique".
There is no real effort in solving a problem, here - because there is no problem here to solve. There is also no way to determine which answer is the most correct.
From the site FAQ:
To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where... every answer is equally valid: “What’s your favorite __?”
Also, this SE blog post also points out another useful tip that can be applied:
Real questions have answers, not items or ideas or opinions.
Since this question is only ever going to get ideas and opinions, and not answers, it is not a very good fit for the site.
This is not to say that any question about library programming is automatically off-topic here, but it does mean that there needs to be a concrete focus on making sure that we ask questions that are indeed actual questions that have concrete answers. Stack Exchange is not a forum - it is intended to help you solve problems that you face.
I realize that a lot of the content on this site will be of the more subjective sorts of questions than, say, Stack Overflow, but that does not mean that it is a place where anything goes. If a question about library programming can be asked in such a way that it becomes more of a Good Subjective question than a Bad Subjective question (see this blog post for more information), then I don't see why they couldn't be considered on topic here.