@Tyberius Thanks for pinging me, I'm here.

@NikeDattani There were a couple of flags on your answer. I think some users found it dismissive of the question. I'm fine with frame challenge answers, but...

I think the answer would benefit from addressing the specifics of the user's question (e.g how to model "dipole moments and optical absorption spectra in an organic crystal" with the command line).

Since it is a frame challenge, I think it would also be worth mentioning your research area and why GUI's aren't worthwhile there. There does seem to be a market for GUI's in scientific computing, most notably for materials and biological studies, and some users of our site are even GUI developers. I just don't want people thinking the intent of the answer is "GUIs are useless, nobody should bother with them" because that would rub some users the wrong way and would be a mainly opinion based ans

@TristanMaxson As I mentioned in the comments to Nike above, I'm of the opinion that frame challenges are a valid type of answer. I want to have a very high bar for deciding as a mod that something is not an answer and to me this answer doesn't qualify.

@TristanMaxson Since this is a question seeking recommendations, I'd rather see a competing answer promoting the value of particular GUIs rather than trying to remove an answer with a differing viewpoint.

@TristanMaxson there were also flags on your comment. In the same way that I think an answer should carefully weigh the merit of a question before dismissing it, I think one also needs to carefully examine an answer before dismissing it.

@NikeDattani @TristanMaxson I removed the comment from the question. If you guys want to (calmly) discuss your viewpoints on the merits of the question/answer, I'd rather you do it here than the comments (and I would really prefer seeing an additional answer and effectively let the community decide).

@NikeDattani @Tyberius I don't think frame challenging this question makes sense due to the user's inexperience and the fact they are a new user. Making the first answer a frame challenge will provide a negative experience. The answer also quotes a job description to imply everyone shares that opinion. My opinion is that frame challenging is a non-answer without a real answer to contrast with.

However, i also don't care enough to get into moderating things here so as mods you guys can decide as you see fit.

If we consider this a valid approach, I will keep it in mind and avoid flagging, but this answer also suffers in quality.

@TristanMaxson I think beginner questions are more prone to receiving (and potentially benefitting from) these type of frame challenges, as they often have questions that are predicated on some misconception owing to their inexperience. The general case looks something like Q: "How do I use X to do Y?" A: "X might not be the best way, try Z instead".