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I'd like to get the opinions of members valued here on a specific topic and want to ask an opinionated question which cannot have a correct answer. This is usually not a good idea due to this site's format, there's a known issue with posts which are tauted as 'popularity-contests' where the most popular (not most correct) answer is voted to the top. The purpose of Space.SE is to ask various scientific questions about space exploration and get a well-qualified and correct answer. In terms of things that are popularity contests, there are no correct answers, so usually the site will ban/close/avoid such questions.

However, I've seen some pretty interesting opinionated SE's as well, and think a tag of or something could be implemented to allow users to ask such questions as:

  • In your opinion, what is the best reference materials for orbital mechanics?
  • In your opinion, what was the most influential space mission and why?
  • In your opinion, why did NASA respond to X with Y?
  • In your opinion, what could NASA have done to prevent X?

Things like these are still very relevant to space exploration even though they are opinionated. Half the reason I love this SE is that it opens new topics to me in a rapid-fire manner and I can learn an insane amount just by reading one of @uhoh's posts and clicking through his 10+ links. I feel like the users here are mature enough to write long, thought out answers with justifications for opinionated questions which could ultimately be great reads on a variety of topics.

What are your thoughts? Should opinionated questions still be off-topic?

Is the tag a good idea-- I've seen it work well on a few SE's!

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    $\begingroup$ I would really like this as well, as I think some fascinating discussions could occur with some of the regulars of this site. However, I cannot come up with a good way to make this work, at least with the current mechanisms of SE. $\endgroup$
    – DrSheldon
    Commented Jul 20, 2019 at 10:10

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I'll weigh in as well, I think this is not a good idea. The problem with opinions is that everybody has one and opening the door to letting people share them will wipe out any pretense of being authoritative.

I don't see why chat couldn't work for this. I'm not really a user - the few times I've looked it at, it's full of wooo Elon is cool, but can't rooms for specific topics be opened?

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    $\begingroup$ Chat can be used for this, it just wouldn't be the experience the OP is looking for. They want the SE voting model. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Jul 20, 2019 at 20:36
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    $\begingroup$ I agree with you though, I'd really rather not have this here, but in principle (aside from the massive overhead) the idea of a separate site for opinion-based stuff is not fundamentally flawed. I have no interest in it though, and I'd rather not have the extra moderation load. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Jul 20, 2019 at 20:37
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    $\begingroup$ Ill make my own StackExchange! With blackjack! Aannnnnd opinions! $\endgroup$
    – Magic Octopus Urn
    Commented Jul 21, 2019 at 20:36
  • $\begingroup$ @called2voyage are each of the SEs allowed more than one chatroom? Didnt even know they HAD rooms. Some kind of Q: xxxx RE: xxxxxx may work well. $\endgroup$
    – Magic Octopus Urn
    Commented Jul 21, 2019 at 20:38
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, multiple chatrooms are allowed $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Jul 21, 2019 at 20:39
  • $\begingroup$ Also, have you considered making a subreddit? $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Jul 21, 2019 at 20:41
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I don't think it fits well with the culture of our site. These types of discussions are welcome in chat, but obviously that's not quite the same experience. I don't think there's a good way we can do this here, but if there was another venue that could offer this experience we could consider pinning a link to it in chat and maybe even make a meta post about it.

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    $\begingroup$ I kinda wish there was a meta-like stack exchange for discussion quality posts. I think if it's isolated under a tag we can at least mitigate contamination of the original site purpose, but that's just my opinion :). $\endgroup$
    – Magic Octopus Urn
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 18:50
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    $\begingroup$ @MagicOctopusUrn I don't think that's a bad idea [your first sentence]. It would be a lot of additional overhead for SE, but it wouldn't hurt to make that a feature request on Meta SE. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 18:57
  • $\begingroup$ Something like opinionated-discussion OR social-discussion tag in meta-SE? Also, do we pay for overhead? Does that matter at all beyond moderators (such as yourself) having to provide more intervention (not to say that doesn't matter)? $\endgroup$
    – Magic Octopus Urn
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 18:59
  • $\begingroup$ @MagicOctopusUrn No, those I'm not comfortable with, but if the majority of people want it, then they could make another answer here. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 19:01
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    $\begingroup$ @MagicOctopusUrn I was just referring to the idea of a separate meta-like area for discussion. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 19:01
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    $\begingroup$ @MagicOctopusUrn And the overhead I was referring to would be to have a separate meta-like site. We wouldn't pay for that--it would be a decision SE would have to make. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 19:03
  • $\begingroup$ Ahh, gotcha, I like the idea of chat too, but that has no structure :(. Also I doubt I'll get enough traction to garner the attention of the actual meta.se hah. $\endgroup$
    – Magic Octopus Urn
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 19:03
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The internet is chock-full of places to post opinions.

Stack Exchange is a bastion of sanity; status-by-design.

Making an "opinion corner" full of retained posts about things other than how the site itself operates with lists of comments about those opinions is absolutely antithetical to Stack Exchange.

no no no no no no no no no no no no!!!

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