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The point is that SO is actually less about the person asking a question. That is only one person.

But people look for already asked questions by searching for them. And I don't think that there are many things that are more frustrating, then finding a questions that describes your problem X perfectly and it has only answers to Y.




Since SO exists for the readers and not just the asker, I think that makes it even more important to highlight all the reasons not to do X if it really is unlikely to be the best solution.

Maybe the asker really would be best suited with X due to some contrived circumstance, but is that true of everyone else who finds the thread too? Probably not.


I just don't see why it's a problem to add a caveat in the answer in that case.

I.e. "you can do X to achieve your goal, but you probably shouldn't because Y".

I just don't see how it's helpful or contributive to participate in the discussion if you don't actually know the answer.




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