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In response to an earlier version of How can I impress upon a manager the value of a respectful management style? I've been told that questions asking for a resource are off-topic.

When I check the on-topic and off-topic pages in the help center, this is not mentioned at all. If this is one of the standards of this site, it should be clearly stated so that posters have an easier time asking on-topic questions.

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  • The Help center is pretty clear that you should be asking about real actionable problems that actually effect you... unless it has been changed recently
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Jun 29, 2014 at 23:29
  • That said if you ask for a reference in the question (to a resource) it is not off topic so long as the actual question is asking for how to deal with a problem you are having navigating the workplace. So when a specific individual continually decides to close questions with that reason it just looks like it is off topic when it is not.
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Jun 29, 2014 at 23:34
  • @ReallyTiredOfThisGame the question linked does reference a real actionable problem that affects me. I thought asking for a resource to share with the manager would be the most on-topic way of asking the question since that question was specific and answerable.
    – PurpleVermont
    Jun 30, 2014 at 1:15
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    Links on the internet rot fairly quickly. But an answer that helps you deal with a problem is always there to reference. That is the problem with requests for resources more than anything else.
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Jun 30, 2014 at 1:32
  • I resource doesn't have to be a link on the internet. It could be the name of a book or a bibliographic reference to an article
    – PurpleVermont
    Jun 30, 2014 at 1:40
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    I don't think we've ever clearly stated that they are off-topic here, and I'm not sure that they are. I can't find any meta posts discussing this so far, so you may want to actually have the discussion to determine if it actually should be off-topic here. I know that there are many members of our community who feel strongly that all users should do the legwork to find resources themselves and ask about a specific resource, but I'm not sure if I fully agree with that stance either. Great catch on bringing it up though!
    – jmac
    Jun 30, 2014 at 1:41
  • Anyhow, I'm not actually asking for discussion about whether requests for resources should be allowed. That seems to have been discussed fairly thoroughly on meta already. What I am asking for is that if that is indeed a rule, it should be clearly stated in the help center pages on what is on and off topic. @jmac I was just posting this when your post appears. I thought it had been discussed here - I'll look for it.
    – PurpleVermont
    Jun 30, 2014 at 1:42
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    @jmac see meta.workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/203/… for prior discussion on this topic. Also the fact that one of the custom close reasons is (apparently) something along the lines of "off-topic because it requests a resource" it certainly seems like the decision has been made that they are or should be off topic.
    – PurpleVermont
    Jun 30, 2014 at 1:43
  • Hey Purple, I didn't think your question was asking for a list of resources even in the first revision, and I think it's an entirely different discussion. This is closer, in my mind, to this meta discussion about asking for empirical data about a topic. I also don't think any of the custom close reasons involves asking for a resource here (though one does exist on SO).
    – jmac
    Jun 30, 2014 at 1:55
  • They've cleaned up comments on my question, but someone said something to that effect (that asking for a resource was one of the custom close reasons) unless I misunderstood and they were referring to SO and not here.
    – PurpleVermont
    Jun 30, 2014 at 2:23
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    The current version is exactly what I was saying was the right way to ask the question.
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Jun 30, 2014 at 13:29

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