On questions about equipment comparison / shopping recommendations

Question

There have been some questions lately asking about particular features of particular pieces of equipment, or comparing specific features of two specific options. These questions seem to be drawing close votes from users who think they're shopping questions and must be closed solely because the asker doesn't yet own the equipment in question. I'd like the community to set some guidelines on just how strict we are or are not going to be on questions where the asker doesn't own the equipment being asked about. I will be providing my opinion as an answer, but remember that moderators enforce policy, we don't decide it, so if you have thoughts of your own, please do share them.

The two most recent examples that prompted this post

Chacos: Toe strap or no toe strap?
Maxpedition Condor 2 unresolved questions

Oddly, this question did not receive any close votes despite being much more of a shopping question than the above two, both of which were closed by the community.

Answer 1

I think people have been overzealous lately in closing as a shopping question any question one might ask while considering what to buy. Robert Cartaino, Director of Community Development here at Stack Exchange even expressed concern about this recently:

Oh goodness, folks. I'm not sure asking very specific questions about the capabilities of an outdoor product is anything like the "shopping recommendation" concerns discussed in this post: Q&A is hard. Let's go shopping. It's your call, but this seems like a very unfortunate turn for this site. This is exactly the type of question I might have asked about my gear, and the type of deeper gear discussions that would be the mainstay of any decent "Outdoors" site.

The reasons that shopping recommendations (note, recommendations, not everything to do with shopping) were barred on the Trilogy in the first place boil down to the following

• They are open-ended
• They invite spam
• They will be "utterly obsolete within a year."

A question about specific features on specific equipment is generally not (excessively) open-ended and certainly does not invite spam. And outdoors gear has a much, much longer useful life than the computer hardware this policy was aimed at, which will be halfway to obsolescence by the time it arrives at your door.

In fact, the blog post announcing shopping recommendations as off-topic goes on to explain that not all shopping questions are bad, and suggests instead of directly asking "what should I buy," one should ask more along the lines of "what features should I pay attention to." Asking this question gives enough objective information to make a decision oneself.

I think Kate Gregory sums it up nicely on a related MSE post:

The key to a shopping question is that it asks others "please make a subjective decision for me and explain it" or "please list all my possibilities with their strengths and weaknesses".

So unless someone is asking for us to make a decision for them, or are otherwise excessively list-eliciting or opinion based, "shopping questions" should not just be reflexively closed.

Suggested reading:

Why are shopping list questions bad?
Q&A is Hard, Let’s Go Shopping!

Answer 2

To pick on one of the above examples....

I don't understand how this question is not primarily opinion based?

Many good questions generate some degree of opinion based on expert experience, but answers to this question will tend to be almost entirely based on opinions, rather than facts, references, or specific expertise.

This is completely dependent on your preferences and foot size, no? You are likely to (and I think you do) end up with people saying, I like them, No, I don't, but I do, etc. I fail to understand how this helps as a resource on Chacos?

Thoughts welcome... :)