Why are software recommendations on topic?

Question

Background: this question originates from a flag I raised and that was recently denied. The question asked about an alternative to a Windows software.

This topic has been discussed previously but the answers there do not seem any reasonable to me. Maybe they were in the past, before the Software Recommendations SE website existed. Now it exists, and it is going very well.

One of the possible reasons for closing a question or migrating it specifically says:

This is not about Ubuntu. Questions about other Linux distributions can be asked on Unix & Linux, those about Windows on Super User, those about Apple products on Ask Different and generic programming questions on Stack Overflow.

The rationale is: if it belongs to a different website, it should be migrated there. I don't think I need to convince you that software recommendations questions are suitable to the Software Recommendations website and they are perfectly on topic there. ;)

Why is this website not listed among those where OT questions should be moved? Why are software recommendations questions still considered on topic?

This puzzles me because those questions are both:

• primarily opinion based (is GIMP a good alternative to Photoshop or not? And Krita? Wait, what about Cinepaint?)
• too broad as there can be many possible answers (What is a good text editor for Ubuntu? Go figure which one will get recommended...)

Answer 1

Software recommendations are on-topic here, but I think we're too lax with them. I think we should apply softwarerecs.se's requirements.

Their help/on-topic page:

Good software recommendation requests have two components:

• A purpose — a task to accomplish, a user story
• Some objective requirements — a minimum set of features

Please read our question quality guidelines before posting. Always state your requirements explicitly: even if you're asking for alternatives, we need to know which features you need.

We really should close questions that just go "I wan app like X." WTF is X? I might not use it, but I might know software that will fit your use, but I have no idea since I don't know what X's feature set is or which of those features you want.

Answer 2

Questions asking for software recommendations are on-topic both here and on the SE site specifically for them. As Ubuntu is both on U&L and here. In fact it can even be more useful to have Ubuntu-specific software recommendations here as people will know where to find them, there is no need to migrate them to the site specialising in all software recommendations.
As it is not the case for Ubuntu questions on U&L.

• primarily opinion based (is GIMP a good alternative to Photoshop or not? And Krita? Wait, what about Cinepaint?)

• too broad as there can be many possible answers (What is a good text editor for Ubuntu? Go figure which one will get recommended...)

Software recommendation questions will be closed with one of these reasons if they are not specific enough to what exact features are needed. Or at least they should be in my opinion

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An answer to the literal why question:

Because they are asking about software for Ubuntu and basically anything relating to Ubuntu especially the software that runs on it is on-topic here. That was just a thing decided in the rules. You are allowed to give specifications for Ubuntu software and have it recommended to you. Normally if you are specific too much then it's not 'too broad' and not just 'primarily opinion-based' (you should note that questions on software recommendations are closed with these reasons if they are not specific enough).

Answer 3

You have a basic misunderstanding here:

The rationale is: if it belongs to a different website, it should be migrated there.

That is just wrong. The rationale on all sites of the SE network is that if a question is on topic on the site it was posted, it stays there unless the OP asks for a migration. That it could also be on topic somewhere else is irrelevant:

• Don't migrate for the sake of migration. We only migrate questions because they are off-topic on the original site. It is perfectly possible for a question to be on-topic on multiple sites, but that is not a reason to migrate it elsewhere. As a general rule, if someone asks a question here, and it's on-topic here, it should stay here.

There are many sites whose scopes overlap. For example:

• Bash questions are on topic here, on Stack Overflow, on Unix & Linux, on Super User, even on Ask Different if you're using OSX or on Server Fault if it's about system administration.

• General Ubuntu questions are on topic here, on SU and on U&L.

• A question about, say the latest super hero film would be on topic on Science Fiction and Fantasy and on Movies & TV.

The fact that a question would be on topic elsewhere is completely irrelevant when it comes to whether it is also on topic here. The close reason you quoted is used for questions that are off topic here and should instead be posted on one of the other sites. Not for questions that would also be on topic elsewhere.

Now, you may well have a point that software requests shouldn't be on topic here. I would probably agree with that position. However, they currently are on topic and that's why your flag was rejected. As far as I know, the only site on the network that explicitly forbids software request questions is Super User.

So, if you want to argue that they shouldn't be on topic here either, please open a new thread and present your arguments. As I said, I'd probably support you myself. Just be aware that you would be asking for a change in the site's scope, not for enforcing an already existing limitation.