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Can list-answerable questions (e.g., reader's advisory) be constructive?

Here's my example:

Can you name a book that portrays step-families in a positive light rather than the typical "wicked stepmother" and/or "abusive stepfather" tropes?

During the Definition phase for this proposal, this was the #3 question with 22 votes. (#2 had one more vote; #1 was only two ahead of that.)

Yes, it's slightly subjective and might need re-wording. Ignoring that for a moment, I feel like we have a lot of questions like that around here. I've certainly asked some, although I push concrete, at least semi-objective points to be addressed in the answers so that there's some way of judging them as "good" and "correct." In this case, the standard would be whether each book addresses the point in question in the manner indicated.

So, is this on-topic and constructive or not? I'll post two arguments below.

  1. Alan Thomas II

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Answer by M. Alan Thomas II

Not all list-answerable questions are good, but not all of them are bad, either. See the list of what might allow for a good such question at Good Subjective, Bad Subjective and the list of what might make for a bad such question at Real Questions Have Answers.

The above example asks a question of the professional community that is best answered by the professional community and that can produce a useful answer list for future reference. (Community wiki might be helpful here; there's a reason it automatically triggers on any question with 30 answers.) It was also overwhelmingly accepted as appropriate during the Definition phase of the proposal.

In this case, reader's advisory is a professional skill with acknowledged experts and a core library function that frequently requires conferring with other experts, whether directly (as when asking the question) or indirectly (by consultation of expert answers in the future). Furthermore, unlike general reference questions (where the answer is simply sourced from existing references), there may be questions for which there are no existing published answers and an answer needs to be sourced from the expert community.

This type of question may, but will not necessarily, produce bad answers. Experts trained in the relevant area—here, reader's advisory—are capable of producing good, santive, real answers to such questions. Poor answers may need prodding in the comments, incorporation into better answers, or flags for moderator attention, but questions like those referred to above should only be closed a posteriori, not a priori, given that the examples refer to questions requiring expert knowledge and/or objective points that need to be addressed by the answers, creating a reasonable possibility of producing a useful, long-term reference.

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Answer by M. Alan Thomas II

No, it's technically not about libraries (although it's very much a library question), the answer will necessarily be non-complete, and, being a list, there will in some sense not be a single answer.

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Answer by Robert Cartaino

No, this type of question is not appropriate at all.

This is an expert-to-expert forum — librarians and library professionals — and not for end users. It's an academic and "science of..." site not targeted at those who use libraries.

But in case I misunderstood the purpose of your "example," let me answer on another level —

These "big list" questions aren't really a good fit for this type of Q&A. Inevitably, all semblance of "expertise" get thrown away as it becomes difficult to begrudge any of the participants their one-line answers because the question itself is so ridiculously open-ended that any answer is just as "right" as any other.

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. That's a pretty big ask — We specifically forgo these types of "generalized populous questions" because chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of this site. It's a tough sell, but it's that practical, low-noise approach to Q&A that drives experts to these sites.

Don't throw that away so early in your development.

Closed as "not constructive"\ This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion.

Literature SE became a book-recommendation engine and is now among the sites that are no longer with us.

Yes, these questions may receive a lot of answers and become part of voting engine… but the relative popularity of these "poll" questions is a fallacy. It doesn't drive quality. What you are teaching your users is "Why should I ask hard, intriguing questions when the "What's your favorite book?" -mongers get all the 'reputation'?" Don't do it.

Real Questions Have Answers

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