I dunno... I know I'm in the minority, but I kind of enjoy the poll style Community Wiki questions, as a break from the standard style. Over on Stack Overflow, some of the polls made for interesting questions, and bred interesting responses. I can understand why they aren't acceptable here, but.... shrug

@Aaronut: If there's an appropriate place to post it, I'd be happy to expand the latest revision ("revise, revise, revise") of the 7-hour botulism-steak post into a more comprehensive FAQ on food safety. Goodness knows, I'd like to dive into more detail and give an answer with more depth than my culinary arts text delivers, but more concise than On Food and Cooking.

@BobMcGee With few exceptions, they're not accepted anywhere on the network anymore... most of those polls on SO are closed or locked.

It's not that I don't like them, they're obviously popular for a reason; it's just that they really can't coexist with "proper" Q&A, they create competing incentives.

And really that type of discussion is what the chat is supposed to be for, although neither the chat nor the main site is really well-adapted to that type of discussion. I'd rather see some officially-sanctioned sister forum for those discussions to take place.

Or unofficially; doesn't really matter.

There's always the SomethingAwful cooking forum (Goons with Spoons) and the Chow.com lists for subjective questions, I guess

@Sobachatina I've been waiting to ask you more about the ice cream maker, but haven't noticed you online, so I'm asking async now. How big is it? I mean, it doesn't look too bad, but I am afraid that it won't fit into my freezer. Plus, it costs 100 Eur, and compressor machines start at 130 Eur. Do you think it is worth it?

@hobodave Excuse me?

About the poll. I'm sorry I didn't use the 'educational' word when I said 'recommendable'. At any rate, a poll is a poll and it's justly closed.