There are a number of opinion-based, discussion-oriented questions on this SE, some of which (like this one, the closure of which prompted this post) have attracted a significant number of upvotes and several quality answers. And yet, despite the community's evident interest in such questions, many of these questions are closed on the basis of the site's content guidelines.
There is a blurb on every SE two-minute tour page which reads:
This site is all about getting answers. It's not a discussion forum. There's no chit-chat.
Taken at face value, that would seem to settle the question.
So my question is twofold:
- Do you think that the content guidelines on this SE are just boilerplate, and why?
- Despite what the content guidelines actually say, would you personally prefer it if this SE allowed opinion-based discussion similar to that thread that was recently closed?