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I had a question about how to do something in C++

How to pass arbitrary-sized array as template nontype argument?

when writing the quesiton I noticed a new field "Type" with options:

  • Troubleshooting/Debugging - didn't feel right as there is no bug I am hunting.
  • Tooling recommendation - that is not what I am doing
  • Best practices - I am not asking about a practice, just want to achieve a very concrete thing
  • General advice/Other - that is what I picked, since the previous ones didn't apply.

To my surprise the question ended up being in a completely different format, something that I didn't expect. Someone responded that I should ask a Question not make a Discussion. But I thought I am asking a Question!

Seeing many questions on meta asking how to change a Question type, I suspect I am not the only one being confused about this. I think these question types are making the site harder to comprehend.

Please roll back and reevalute. Maybe question type is the way to go, but not in this form.

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    New "Issue Type" doesn't have enough categories Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 15:00
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    The site is currently being destroyed by alpha testing taking place live on the main SO server. Please be patient for 6-8 months until they rollback the experiment. Opt-out is futile. Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 15:01
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    Ah, this explains why I've noticed several experienced site users asking "how-to" questions as "Advice" questions. I can hardly blame them, given the choices they're presented. The options are horrible, and clearly designed by people who don't use the site extensively. Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 15:05
  • Arguably, since you would have tried something and it didn't work, you should have selected Troubleshooting...no? Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 15:08
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    Why do we need to categorise our questions anyway? The site was fine before that! Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 15:10
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    @Paulie_D But what am I troubleshooting? C++ spec? I could imagine picking it when one compiler was giving me a headache. Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 16:36
  • I recently saw a user with >2k rep ask a standard Q&A question as an 'Advice' question. Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 18:05
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    Already reported here. Over the past few days I've been cross-linking meta posts related to this mess and also presented my own answer in hope of helping to organize the feedbacks, but it's starting to get tiresome. And @PresidentJamesK.Polk that's not new, I've seen 20k rep user picking the wrong type. See also here. Commented Nov 8, 2025 at 5:00
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    Actually I am a 20k rep user that picked the wrong type. Types are new. Rep means nothing in this context, everyone is human and everyone can get confused by new stuff. Commented Nov 8, 2025 at 8:41
  • Yikes. I completely sympathize. Is a "None of the above" so much to ask? Commented Nov 11, 2025 at 13:07
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    If only they had started a new site, forum.stackoverflow.com, instead of cramming this new stuff into the existing site. Commented Dec 3, 2025 at 15:39

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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I think asking people to pick a category for their questions is a trap. It feels like this will give us information to help us do things with it, but, just like forcing authors to add tags, it just causes problems that people familiar with the system have to clean up after the fact. We should be asking "What type of answer would you like?" not "What type of question are you asking?" Asking people with the least amount of knowledge about the system to funnel their questions down a path is not a good idea. There is no way to perfectly categorize free-form questions into neat useful categories without training the people writing them first.

We should be careful of over-categorizing things. Our company's IT support ticket system makes me drill down four submenus to completely classify my issue, and none of them ever fit so I stop using that system and just call the help desk, which is more costly productivity-wise for everyone involved.

Is there any reason why we don't allow the person asking to classify their question as objective (looking for one best answer) or subjective (looking for multiple opinions from experts)?

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    What good would classifying a question as "objective" (looking for one best answer) do? For most questions (at least for "how-to" questions) there's no objectively best answer, there's multiple possible solutions with their own pros and cons. "Best" is very subjective anyway, unless one specifies exactly what they mean by "best". Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 16:30
  • @cigien Because we have to figure out if the question authors want to be part of this experiment or not. Hiding that choice behind some arbitrary categories is hurting not helping. Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 16:32
  • Oh, you meant just for this experiment. I misunderstood, and thought you meant this should be a feature in general. Although if it's for the experiment, there should just be a checkbox for using the experiment or not, and when selecting not, the exact old behaviour should be maintained. Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 16:34
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    Oh, overcategorization.... I remember spending way too much time figuring out the ACM Computing Classification System to glue it to a small paper I was trying to publish... Anyone using it for anything!? Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 16:40
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    @cigien We should not expect someone just dropping by to ask a questions to understand what the experiment is - my suggestion there was just an off-the-top-of-my-head phrasing to capture what I believe the essence of the experiment is, not a proposal for exactly how it should be worded. Commented Nov 7, 2025 at 17:42
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    "I think asking people to pick a category for their questions is a trap" - that may well be the conclusion of the experiment. That's the thing with experiments... in the process of creating a new scent, you may go through a lot of bad smells first. Commented Nov 11, 2025 at 13:13
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    @Gimby These "experiments" (which look like alpha/beta tests to me, not like experiments with a testable hypothesis and controlled confounding factors) have too many things going on at once. If you're testing whether subjective questions can be supported, you don't also add things that could be obstacles to what you're testing, like forcing people through extra steps to choose from an untested set of categories. Test one thing and iterate. Commented Nov 13, 2025 at 14:27
  • Yeah well... I think there is a bit of a panic mode going on given how sharp the drop has been on site interaction. It's either now or never. Commented Nov 14, 2025 at 10:32
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Why is "Troubleshooting / Debugging" the only option to make an actual question, when those are typically the worst questions?

I'm neither new nor low-rep, and I assumed choosing that option would put me through some new structured MCVE wizard or something, and was completely baffled by what happened after choosing "Other". Now my question isn't a question and there's apparently nothing that can be done about it.

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I had the exact same experience and found that this is an "experiment" that one can (for now) opt out of.

When I go to https://stackoverflow.com/users/preferences and switch off Enable experiments I no longer get the question type dropdown for new questions.

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    Of course, the people most likely to have a problem with the "feature" are also the least likely to be aware that it's an experiment or that they can turn it off, nor are they likely to see this meta post, and if they're aware of how to disable it then they can probably figure out how to use it properly anyway. It really just needs to be fixed to have a more intuitive UI (or removed entirely, but I'm not holding my breath for that). Commented Dec 3, 2025 at 19:34
  • These experiments are also annoying for those who are reading and answering question. Most advice, tooling, and best practice posts seem to have been intended as a regular question. Many are low quality or duplicates, but one can't close them and downvotes aren't displayed. It's like an "ask any stupid question you want without consequences" category. So happy that I learn how to switch off experiments! +1 Commented Jan 8 at 12:09
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Actual picture of me trying to ask a question today:

WHAT THE HELL IS EVEN THAT??!

I later decided to Google and found your post in addition to this one: Opinion-based questions alpha experiment on Stack Overflow

Apparently I wanted Default: The experience remains Troubleshooting / Debugging for classic Q&A. but I cannot change the nature of my question after it's been posted.

Here's to hoping SO introduces filtering of this facet much like tag filtering 🍻

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