What to do with shopping advice questions?

Question

The 8th question in the "7 Essential Questions of Every Meta" is about shopping advice.

It seems like there's been a rash of shopping questions here lately. Is this good or bad?

Software

• https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/9395/professional-electrical-and-electronic-diagram-drawing-software
  • Somewhat vague
• Software to create timing diagrams
  • Vague, but seems open-enough to be useful long-term

Hardware

• https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/9368/multimeter-shootout-reviews-for-pricemark-50-200-available-in-2011
  • Subjective, and I'm surprised that the "in 2011" hasn't put it on the fast track to be met with the Cudgel of Closing^TM.
• https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/9388/what-multimeter-should-i-get
  • Has very specific requirements to meet, but meters that are available change all the time
  • How many other users will have those same criteria?
• Can anyone suggest a voltmeter that can do the job?

Questions of the form "What should I look for in a X?" seem more useful and timeless compared to Q&As that will be pointless next year, but on the other hand there doesn't seem to be a good reason not to answer a question with reasonable detail

Answer 1

The official statement is here:

http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/11/qa-is-hard-lets-go-shopping/

Questions of the form "What should I look for in a X?" seem more useful and timeless compared to Q&As that will be pointless next year, but on the other hand there doesn't seem to be a good reason not to answer a question with reasonable detail.

Correct! So long as the questions teach you why and how, they are fine. So if the question can be edited and whipped into shape to fit this mold, they are fine. And if they can't, they probably don't belong here.

Answer 2

As an architect, not an electronics professional, here is my viewpoint:

• Often in life, questions reveal indirect, more interesting and hidden truths. A shopping question could reveal an entirely strange, bad or interesting take into a project. (would you say thats a bad question?)

• Often in life, answers will be processed in different ways resulting in unexpected and interesting communication between members of discussion, in which a seemingly stupid shopping cart can reveal either a treasure of inventiveness or just a very stupid take into the project. (would you say community should bad the questions and not answer them?)

• Imagine the beautifull & magical powers of an open source community steering economics by sorting out bad makes fake brands and good makes or good brands not by their marketing success, but by the advice that the honest real worls users have to give. (would you like to stop that?)

• Those real world users to my surprise, sometimes give better instructions and better advise about a particular use, than manuals or cold corporate websites of those brands. (would you prefer if the users refer to manual and stop the thriving subjective instructions by experienced community folkd here?)

• Stackoverflow says: shoppong questions are more useful and more timeless than uninteresting questions that nobody actually learns anything from next year. (would you prefer to neglect this statement and wander on other websites with possibly better questions and ansers)