Post History

## Varying utility

I think you and I have tossed around ideas like this quite a bit already - if not between the two of us, then separately to the crowd. And I think my viewpoint hasn't changed.

Personally, my sense is that this idea only makes sense for the most technical sites, where there's pressure to produce a clear FAQ on fishing for reference purposes (and where newbies are likely to re-frame the same questions over and over, in the long run). Taking an outside view, I feel strongly that each site should retain sovereignty over the decision to use categories this way.

That said, I will continue to advocate for the Software site doing something like this, and I appreciate that this Meta post *draws attention to* the idea, so that individual communities may consider it.

## The dichotomy seems sound to me

Contra trichoplax, I don't feel that there are serious difficulties with classifying questions according to your dichotomy. To keep going with the analogy: a failure to recognize hunger is most likely a sign that OP is not actually ready to ask a question. "How can I stop being hungry?" may represent a valid question, and "here, have a fish" may represent a valid answer (among many)

But further questions about fishing don't, in my view, lie on a spectrum; they're all independently worthwhile questions that would all belong in the main Q&A and which should be held to high quality standards (on a site that adopted this approach). The thing that makes the basic questions still *Q&A-section-type* questions is the fact that they *strive to identify the archetype* of the problem: "how can I ensure that I don't go hungry again?", rather than "how can I stop being hungry right now?". The thing that makes pleading for a meal *not* suitable for main Q&A is the fact that it *doesn't* do that work: if you're hungry, you can feed yourself by fishing (and cleaning and cooking), but *not* by *watching someone else* get a fish.

If overfishing is a real risk, dealing with that is still fundamentally about avoiding future hunger - it's just a more advanced concern.

And in the long run, even if there are many interesting logistical questions to ask about setting up a fishing industry, I would *still* expect them to be *greatly* outnumbered by simple meal requests in a separate category - simply because of *how many people* are hungry.