The problem with these questions, which are really just polls, is outlined perfectly on the StackOverflow blog in this famous article: Real Questions have Answers

In summary though, the take away from that article is:

real questions have answers, not items or ideas or opinions.

That is the problem with 'What app is the best for...' type questions. There is no answer, only opinions. And they're only valid for a short period of time. If another app comes along next week then whatever was posted in the question will become outdated.

As a repository for UX questions and their solutions, we don't really benefit from questions that expire. We're here to be useful to future users, not just the question asker.

For example, a question such as How to expose the keyboard shortcuts of a web application to the user? is an example of a question that is still subjective, but that can be answered with something that will solve the users problem. And that solution will still be correct in 1,5,10 years time. OK, better answers may come along to that, but it doesn't make any current answers wrong. That's not the case with app recommendations. Apps can become out of date, no longer supported, abandoned, or just replaced with newer versions or alternatives by other companies. So such question are not of any use 1,5,10 years later.

There is further information in the help centre 'What not to ask' page:

To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where …

 

• every answer is equally valid: “What’s your favorite ______?”
• your answer is provided along with the question, and you expect more answers: “I use ______ for ______, what do you use?”
• there is no actual problem to be solved: “I’m curious if other people feel like I do.”
• you are asking an open-ended, hypothetical question: “What if ______ happened?”
• your question is just a rant in disguise: “______ sucks, am I right?”

Wikipedia doesn't have pages about "who make the best sunglasses" because that is subjective, and would change over time. The same is true for StackExchange.

As for where can you ask such a question. Well I don't know. The internet is a very large place. Just because I know what is / isn't suitable for this particular site, that doesn't mean I know all possible recommendation sites that exist, nor what is / isn't a suitable question for such sites.

You could try the Software Recommendations Stack Exchange site. But you'll notice that over 40% of the questions there are officially 'unanswered' (i.e. don't have any answers with any votes), which suggests that such questions don't really work on sites dedicated to software recommendations.

The problem with these questions, which are really just polls, is outlined perfectly on the StackOverflow blog in this famous article: Real Questions have Answers

In summary though, the take away from that article is:

real questions have answers, not items or ideas or opinions.

That is the problem with 'What app is the best for...' type questions. There is no answer, only opinions. And they're only valid for a short period of time. If another app comes along next week then whatever was posted in the question will become outdated.

As a repository for UX questions and their solutions, we don't really benefit from questions that expire. We're here to be useful to future users, not just the question asker.

For example, a question such as How to expose the keyboard shortcuts of a web application to the user? is an example of a question that is still subjective, but that can be answered with something that will solve the users problem. And that solution will still be correct in 1,5,10 years time. OK, better answers may come along to that, but it doesn't make any current answers wrong. That's not the case with app recommendations. Apps can become out of date, no longer supported, abandoned, or just replaced with newer versions or alternatives by other companies. So such question are not of any use 1,5,10 years later.

There is further information in the help centre 'What not to ask' page:

To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where …

• every answer is equally valid: “What’s your favorite ______?”
• your answer is provided along with the question, and you expect more answers: “I use ______ for ______, what do you use?”
• there is no actual problem to be solved: “I’m curious if other people feel like I do.”
• you are asking an open-ended, hypothetical question: “What if ______ happened?”
• your question is just a rant in disguise: “______ sucks, am I right?”

Wikipedia doesn't have pages about "who make the best sunglasses" because that is subjective, and would change over time. The same is true for StackExchange.

As for where can you ask such a question. Well I don't know. The internet is a very large place. Just because I know what is / isn't suitable for this particular site, that doesn't mean I know all possible recommendation sites that exist, nor what is / isn't a suitable question for such sites.

You could try the Software Recommendations Stack Exchange site. But you'll notice that over 40% of the questions there are officially 'unanswered' (i.e. don't have any answers with any votes), which suggests that such questions don't really work on sites dedicated to software recommendations.

The problem with these questions, which are really just polls, is outlined perfectly on the StackOverflow blog in this famous article: Real Questions have Answers

In summary though, the take away from that article is:

real questions have answers, not items or ideas or opinions.

That is the problem with 'What app is the best for...' type questions. There is no answer, only opinions. And they're only valid for a short period of time. If another app comes along next week then whatever was posted in the question will become outdated.

As a repository for UX questions and their solutions, we don't really benefit from questions that expire. We're here to be useful to future users, not just the question asker.

For example, a question such as How to expose the keyboard shortcuts of a web application to the user? is an example of a question that is still subjective, but that can be answered with something that will solve the users problem. And that solution will still be correct in 1,5,10 years time. OK, better answers may come along to that, but it doesn't make any current answers wrong. That's not the case with app recommendations. Apps can become out of date, no longer supported, abandoned, or just replaced with newer versions or alternatives by other companies. So such question are not of any use 1,5,10 years later.

There is further information in the help centre 'What not to ask' page:

To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where …

• every answer is equally valid: “What’s your favorite ______?”
• your answer is provided along with the question, and you expect more answers: “I use ______ for ______, what do you use?”
• there is no actual problem to be solved: “I’m curious if other people feel like I do.”
• you are asking an open-ended, hypothetical question: “What if ______ happened?”
• your question is just a rant in disguise: “______ sucks, am I right?”

Wikipedia doesn't have pages about "who make the best sunglasses" because that is subjective, and would change over time. The same is true for StackExchange.

As for where can you ask such a question. Well I don't know. The internet is a very large place. Just because I know what is / isn't suitable for this particular site, that doesn't mean I know all possible recommendation sites that exist, nor what is / isn't a suitable question for such sites.

You could try the Software Recommendations Stack Exchange site. But you'll notice that over 40% of the questions there are officially 'unanswered' (i.e. don't have any answers with any votes), which suggests that such questions don't really work on sites dedicated to software recommendations.

The problem with these questions, which are really just polls, is outlined perfectly on the StackOverflow blog in this famous article: Real Questions have Answers

In summary though, the take away from that article is:

real questions have answers, not items or ideas or opinions.

That is the problem with 'What app is the best for...' type questions. There is no answer, only opinions. And they're only valid for a short period of time. If another app comes along next week then whatever was posted in the question will become outdated.

As a repository for UX questions and their solutions, we don't really benefit from questions that expire. We're here to be useful to future users, not just the question asker.

For example, a question such as How to expose the keyboard shortcuts of a web application to the user? is an example of a question that is still subjective, but that can be answered with something that will solve the users problem. And that solution will still be correct in 1,5,10 years time. OK, better answers may come along to that, but it doesn't make any current answers wrong. That's not the case with app recommendations. Apps can become out of date, no longer supported, abandoned, or just replaced with newer versions or alternatives by other companies. So such question are not of any use 1,5,10 years later.

There is further information in the help centre 'What not to ask' page:

To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective questions where …

• every answer is equally valid: “What’s your favorite ______?”
• your answer is provided along with the question, and you expect more answers: “I use ______ for ______, what do you use?”
• there is no actual problem to be solved: “I’m curious if other people feel like I do.”
• you are asking an open-ended, hypothetical question: “What if ______ happened?”
• your question is just a rant in disguise: “______ sucks, am I right?”

Wikipedia doesn't have pages about "who make the best sunglasses" because that is subjective, and would change over time. The same is true for StackExchange.

As for where can you ask such a question. Well I don't know. The internet is a very large place. Just because I know what is / isn't suitable for this particular site, that doesn't mean I know all possible recommendation sites that exist, nor what is / isn't a suitable question for such sites.

You could try the Software Recommendations Stack Exchange site. But you'll notice that over 40% of the questions there are officially 'unanswered' (i.e. don't have any answers with any votes), which suggests that such questions don't really work on sites dedicated to software recommendations.