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I just got my question for a android web-server app marked as off topic. And I do see, that software recommendations are an offence to this clause. Ok, but why? I’m new to Android, and my ability to use, and utilize the OS is dependent on getting apps, which I can then use, and utilize to do things.

Since apps are a huge part of the Android experience, I’m not sure why asking for software recommendations is off topic. I am just now coming into the android community, and learning to use android. I do not know how to get everything I want to do done, but downloading apps is part of solving that problem. I feel the basis of software recommendations has a significant level of potential usefulness for new users, and can be objectively rated using the Stack-Exchange formatted website.

I would like to note, in other OS specific Stack-Exchange communities, "software-recommendation" is an acceptable topic.

I beseech thee, gods of Android Enthusiast SE MODS, can we consider software-recommendations, as an on topic discussion?

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1 Answer 1

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We wont, for multiple good reasons.

First, software recommendations are off-topic on many SE sites – with the definitive exception of one being dedicated to this, namely Software Recommendations (see: Where to ask for app recommendations?).

Second, take a look at What should our new off-topic close reasons be?:

Questions seeking application recommendations are off-topic as they become obsolete quickly.

Third, they very much tend to attract spam, link-only answers, and the like.

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  • android is such a different ecosystem compared to 'general software' which could be Linux, Mac, Windows, iOS, etc...
    – paIncrease
    Commented Sep 26, 2015 at 20:21
  • “software recommendations are off-topic on all but one SE site” Where did you get this blatantly incorrect statement? For example Ask Different, Unix & Linux and Ask Ubuntu allow software recommendation questions and have no wish to stop doing so.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented Mar 16, 2016 at 15:30
  • @Gilles wasn't aware of those exceptions. Answer fixed up accordingly, thanks for pointing out so boldly ;)
    – Izzy
    Commented Mar 16, 2016 at 15:38
  • @Izzy Is it really the case that software recommendations are off-topic on most sites? Or rather, yes, software recommendations are off-topic on most sites, because those sites aren't about software. But among the sites where software is on-topic, I'm not sure that a majority rejects software recommendation questions. Unless you count by traffic, then because SO doesn't like them and the other sites are negligible quantities.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented Mar 16, 2016 at 16:00
  • @Gilles feel free to post your own answer. I wrote mine according to my experiences. And I frequently encountered this remark. I'll make another edit changing that to "many" (as you're correct: I'm not familiar with enough SE sites to give such a "big statement" – though I gave it mainly because I was told so in many cases, that there are only few exceptions).
    – Izzy
    Commented Mar 16, 2016 at 18:06

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