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Hi everyone, I just saw this post over in the Answers forum, and it seems there is a bit of a disagreement as to whether or not it is repair-related (there are currently a total of 4 votes to remove/keep it, 2 for each option). So, I was wondering, what do all of you think, and why? Do you think it should be removed? Is it a useful question? Should we encourage or discourage these kinds of questions?

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Hi @shingle

Recommendations can be too subjective. They can lead to spam being posted as others may suggest better (in their view) alternatives, which to me is getting away from the point of the ifixit Answers forum.

To me it is not directly repair related, but if limited directly to the question asked, I can see the other point of view as well i.e. it may help to make it easier and quicker to fix things so in a way it is repair related

Let democracy rule.

If the community thinks that it should stay or go, the votes will reflect that. This may depend on how many different users actually participate in moderating questions/answers etc. of course. Too many of the "regular voters" could skew the result as well, but unless more users take an interest, this will always be the case i.e. active minority can overrule silent majority.

Cheers

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I've always been in the middle; it depends. If it's something like this I have no reservations about giving a recommendation on a replacement unit that's similar, plus providing the P/N and SM for the old one if the OP asked; likewise if they were worried about parts availability on the old one and opting out of repair, I'd just tell them which one comes the *closest*. That being said, the OP was asking about repair vs replacement; not just a recommendation.

The lines blur even worse for software based recommendations as well. Like say for example you were setting up a secondary system to run as a server if someone asks about say, which OS is BEST suited that's a nuclear missile waiting to go wrong because I may recommend a Mac and a good 3rd party utility, while someone else may recommend a old USFF PC with Linux or Windows 10/11. Too dangerous, nope.

For general hardware if there's a clear reason why they ask, I see no issue but we need to know what the OP is looking for.

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@shingle I agree with my esteemed colleague @jayeff. Recommendations are never objective. What works for me may not work for the OP, or anybody else.

I really think we are getting to much into the weeds with this. I have noticed that we are again having a lot of questions regarding recommendations for tools, hardware and even software. I don't believe that any of those are repair related. Software should only be coming up in Answers as it relates to keeping a device working. Questions about Windows, Linux, MacOS etc. should not be part of our scope. We should leave those to the "other" forums out there.

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Longer term may be something we can handle with time. Maybe as we go we can develop some sort of master list of good tools for each job with time and then if someone wants a vetted recommendation then we can send them there. Let them evaluate the tools.

Not saying we do this overnight but over time.

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Yeah, that sounds like it would be a good think to keep track of.

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shingle will be eternally grateful.