@blunders I know you got a notification for this, but for anyone else reading along, I just posted an answer about what I feel to be the big part I'd like to see us work on. I don't know how attainable my goal is, and we aren't in such a bad spot independently of that, but that's been my view.

@MatthewHaugen: Deleted the "List of" question on meta since in going back to get the URL that I noticed the OP had added text in an attempt to make it not a "list of" question, though to me, still felt that the update did not go far enough; meaning to me it now reads as a "list of" question that's requesting an explanation of why the tool referenced worked.

To me, as is, it's still a "list of" question, unless it is phrase something like, "What factors that lead to new tools being needed for remote teams and how to judge a given tool on its ability to respond to these needs?" -- which might be answered without referencing a single tool.

@blunders Asking about particular questions ("Does the community feel like this question is still a list question, even after its latest edit?") is, while not necessarily as all-encompassing as a canonical source, still an important part of meta. If you're concerned or curious about a particular question, you're certainly free to ask about it.

But in general, as a plain-ol' user of the site, I do think there are some questions (I don't have any examples) that I probably would have voted to close that never got there. Of course, as a moderator with a binding vote, I have to be more careful with those cases. My point here is, if you feel like something should be closed and other users aren't doing it, voting for it isn't a bad option.

I don't know whether you in particular tend to avoid that or not, but speaking to a bigger audience, be careful with close votes, but not too careful. If something deserves to be closed, it should be. That's how we keep our site's quality high. It sometimes feels icky, especially if we feel like we can help the person, but that's when I like to point them here to chat.

@MatthewHaugen: Not following you, I did vote to close the question. Also, undeleted the question, given the OP selected what was in my opinion a link only answer; which to me part of the smell of a list of question is the answers a question receives.

@blunders That's why I said I was speaking more broadly than you--there are a lot of times when I see users write comments about "I'm not sure if this is on-topic here" or when there are questions that are very blatantly out of our scope, with no votes or flags on them. I work on the (questionably correct) assumption that maybe other people read these chats, so I like to put that in from time to time.

Wait, just kidding. I just saw your comment.

I think we just really need to work out our view on tool requests. I've already expressed on multiple occasions what I feel on the matter, but it's very clear (unsurprisingly, I'll add) that that doesn't cover every case.