How do we feel about requests for learning materials?

Question

We recently had a brief discussion in chat about this question which asks for learning materials (specifically, online video courses). I feel that such questions are not a good fit for the site because:

1. They are not about a problem. The SE network specializes in giving specific solutions to specific problems, this type of question is either "too broad" or "opinion based".

2. Any answers given will become obsolete very quickly as the courses change, links die, the institutions or individuals giving the courses update or change them etc etc. Answering this kind of question seems to invite link rot.

Now, I may be influenced in this by Super User where one of the close reasons is:

Questions seeking product, service, or learning material recommendations are off-topic because they tend to become obsolete quickly. Instead, describe your situation and the specific problem you're trying to solve. Here are a few suggestions on how to properly ask this type of question.

I feel we should allow questions requesting books which, as physical objects, are likely to stick around longer than random links to online resources. Requests for online learning material, on the other hand, are more problematic. Forget books as well, the same basic issue applies, there is no single authoritative answer, asking for books can very easily degenerate into a long list of references, making it very hard to choose one answer as the 'correct' one.

So, what do we feel about this here? Should we add the above to our list of close reasons?

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UPDATE 23/11/2014: A new close reason has now been added the the list of off topic close reasons:

Requests for learning materials (tutorials, how-tos etc.) are off topic. The only exception is questions about where to find official documentation (e.g. POSIX specifications). See the Help Center and our Community Meta for more information.

Answer 1

Questions asking for lists of resources tend to degenerate into lists of items, as opposed to answers. They tend to become a poll rather than a question with its answers.

Stack Exchange does not work well for polls, where each answer is a separate items. Voting on the answers results in a score that does not at all reflect the quality of the item mentioned in the answer, but primarily who posted first and secondarily how well-known the item is.

Asking for tutorials or other resources has its place somewhere on the web, but Stack Exchange is not that place.

Answer 2

My major problem with recommendations for outside material is they are by nature inevitably very weak questions. As terdon says, there is no real problem: it is not as if such material is hidden in some secret place requiring some special knowledge to find. If you can log in to an S.E. site, you can use a search engine, and that's exactly what a search engine is for -- searching for material. There's also usually a plethora of opinions, reviews, and comments already available for stuff that is static and publicly distributed. If you have problems understanding the material you find, great, ask a specific question.

An exception I'd make to this is a request for primary sources. In context, that means the original documentation for foobar. Questions about that have a clear and objective answer, and, as opposed to secondary sources (such as "Online course that covers Unix/Linux Systems programming", or Stack Exchange itself), primary sources can sometimes be surprisingly hard to find, perhaps because they are singular, and perhaps because they tend not to be disseminated in the same way.

I'd really, really like to add that whoever at S.U. wrote "learning material recommendations are off-topic because they tend to become obsolete quickly" needs to become obsolete quickly. Besides the obvious, totally absurd circularity (what is an S.E. site besides "learning material"?) this obliterates any possible distinction between "good answer" and "bad answer", if we waived the other, more valid objections to recommending (other) secondary material: because it is opinion based, and because it shows little or no research effort. People who can't find books in a library don't need coddling, they need a quick head check, and hopefully that's part of what closing a question provides.

Answer 3

As the sole person to answer the original question I'm now in the position of really regretting that I ever answer that original question. This is not me being sour grapes or anything like that. I really could care less, I was attempt to help the OP when I answered that question, 1/2 expecting that it would get closed, but to my surprise it never did. I'd seen the OP ask several newbie related questions and so in a moment of weakness was attempting to help someone out by offering "some" guidance as to gaining more knowledge about this particular domain.

I've since voted to close that question today, given it is not a good fit for the Q&A style on the SE sites, and I do think we should continue with honoring that guideline here as well on U&L. I realize the temptation to offer someone new to the knowledge space some guidance but the level of free materials is just not up to the quality that one would get by actually attending classes and getting a 2 or 4 year degree in the space.

So in my mind, we're actually doing this persons a disservice in portraying that if they go through this material they're be on an equal footing with someone who went through a more formal and rigorous process in being educated. In stating that I'm sure I'll be run out of town on a rail but it's just how I perceive things in 2014, as both a producer and consumer of such content on the internet.

I full realize that there are tremendous resources available but the key ingredient that is missing is any kind of blueprint as to how to consume these resources. Getting a formal education is what gives one that blueprint, so that you're now equipped to continue ones journey in getting educated in this, or any, knowledge domain.

So, in the wisdom that others have had before us, I must concur and say that we should not allow these types of broadly asked questions here either. Their perceived value is actually low, and we're misrepresenting the situation to people that are new to the technology field.

Answer 4

I disagree. The lack of substantial online (or for that matter classroom) material on the referenced original question is in fact a very real tangible problem and IS definitely worth a question. I have taken a course on the topic but am still looking for more resources. This is a VERY relevant question for me, not just the OP.

If the material in the answers becomes obsolete then the solution is to edit the answer not close the question!

Answer 5

The problem with this kind of question is that needs high maintenance. They are too volatile to be authoritatives. Too broad to assess the asker specific issues.

To put it in contrast:

• How do I add a ethernet module to the Linux kernel?
• What's all I need to know about the Linux kernel modules?

First is specific. To the point. It's relevant for the rest of us (might someone have the same question, they can find answers here) and someone might have an answer that meets the asker needs. Both answerer and asker have what they need and share the knowledge.

With the second... I could write a book. And those kind of answers are summary prohibited by this section of the FAQ:

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you're asking too much.

Same with the questions in the example. I could write a big list of (my favorites) resources, referencing all the (my favorites) existent and relevant resource. But I could have forgotten (their favorite) some, someone might write a resource that becomes (my favorite) a best-seller tomorrow. We are not shopping lists of anyone (even if such resources are free). Such volatility is not good for the Q&A model of Stack Exchange and Unix & Linux.

Answer 6

I'm sorry this thread is stale, because I'd like to join the losing team and say that requests for information should be just as relevant as requests for specific answers. What is useful is up to the asker to decide. There are often many answers to be found to some question, and they go out of date too and it can be a matter of opinion which of several methods is best. But a well recommended document can be a godsend. Googling will give you sometimes a million posibilities and knowing which ones are recommened can be a huge help even if it is only 'opinion'.

Answer 7

I think we should allow such questions.

1. They are about a specific problem. The difference between Where do I find the configuration of PostgreSQL and Where do I find a course for PostreSQL is only in one thing: The second question has more valid answers than the first one.

2. The topic of obsolescence has been throughly answered by goldilocks.

3. Books are no different. If books are valid, so are online materials.

   • While to most of us who live in places where "go to the library" is a useful approach that is not true to everyone, because many places on this planet don't have libraries like we do. I'm biased as I know people to whom "getting a book" is a difficult approach, but their internet connection is relative stable.

   • Not all people learn equally well from books. I myself only use books as reference collections, but I nowadays I usually learn from online courses tutorials etc. as I found them more suited to my approach on learning.

If the question is too broad Where do I find the course that teaches all about Linux then it should be closed for being to broad.

If the question is too opinion based Where do I find the best course for nfs it should be modified to remove the best and therefore be no longer opinion based.

In short, if my situation is: I {want|have} to learn about $topic but have no idea where to start. Then my problem is: Where do I find a place that teaches me stuff about $topic. which is an answerable question.

We do have a lot of Q&A here that could be solved by searching online but are still considered on topic (Where do I find configuration of PostgreSQL) up to the point that searching online brings people here because we answer such questions, the same should apply to learning material.

Answer 8

I also strongly disagree that requests for resources should be treated as off-topic. To address the points made in the OP:

1. Not being able to find a resource or reference for a particular topic is most definitely a specific problem, which can usually be answered concisely. This argument simply holds no water.

2. I think the implied rate at which external links would go 'stale' is exaggerated. Besides, how quickly do some of the more technical questions about Unix & Linux go obsolete, given the pace of developing technology? I would also like to point out that Physics SE has a tag explicitly for resource recommendations, which seems to work well and provides concise and helpful answers to many users. Tbh, many of the concerns raised here about such questions seem to be poorly-founded.