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While I would certainly enjoy such a community, I wonder if it fits the Stack Exchange idea. The goal is to find areas with specific questions that have specific answers -- and which can tap into a community of professional practitioners. Perhaps the idea can be refined into something more tactical -- running political organizations perhaps? – Matt Sherman♦ Jun 23 '10 at 4:30

If we select the right sample questions, both on and off topic, we should be able to make this group work. Matt, I agree with you -- we should focus on political organizing, effective lobbying, and the legislative process. We should not worry about philosophical debates -- those are just like C++ vs Java religious wars. So lets vote up practical nuts and bolts questions. – Andrew MacDonald Jun 24 '10 at 6:39

I think that it is useful to address the philosophical debates.I don't think that we should have them however this could a good place to address possible properly worded questions. For example "is vim better than emacs is clearly unanswerable and not a good kind of question for this site. However something like "How can I do emac's feature X in vim" could be useful. Alternately something like "does emacs or vim take more space in memory" is a good answerable question. In conclusion: I think philosophical questions should be allowed but only to the extent that they are answerable. – sixtyfootersdude Jun 24 '10 at 12:12

This proposal is now in the Commitment phase — example questions are locked!

44 Example Questions (6 closed)

active oldest votes

up vote 12 down vote

added by Jamin Jun 24 '10 at 5:28

csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2009/0514/… – Robert Harvey Jun 24 '10 at 17:25

up vote 11 down vote

added by Jherico Jun 22 '10 at 18:58

up vote 11 down vote

added by JDelage Jun 22 '10 at 20:28

up vote 11 down vote

added by StasM Dec 13 '10 at 5:01

up vote 10 down vote

added by Tadeusz A. Kadłubowski Jun 22 '10 at 18:53

up vote 10 down vote

added by Andrew MacDonald Jun 22 '10 at 19:02

up vote 10 down vote

added by sixtyfootersdude Jun 24 '10 at 12:05

up vote 10 down vote

added by sixtyfootersdude Jun 24 '10 at 12:05

up vote 10 down vote

added by StasM Dec 13 '10 at 5:03

up vote 10 down vote

added by StasM Dec 13 '10 at 5:12

While it does have a smell of a list question, questions like that have been known to be VERY good ones on StackOverflow. Ex: stackoverflow.com/questions/172266/… or stackoverflow.com/questions/1711/… . Especially in a small field like libertarianism, there is a fairly finite set of prominent writers and books to read (I'll give up 100 rep points on SO if Mises won't be the highest voted answer by 3:1) – DVK Oct 31 '11 at 15:14

Also, "prominent writers" can be objectively answered, e.g. by citation counts of publishing #s. – DVK Oct 31 '11 at 15:16

up vote 5 down vote

added by Robert Harvey Jun 22 '10 at 23:27

	This question is argumentative and poorly defined - what is "too simplistic" - as opposed to what? Why naive? Good question defines a topic and not just sticks a label. – StasM Dec 13 '10 at 4:55
	@StasM: People who know something about the modern Libertarian movement know exactly what I am talking about. – Robert Harvey Dec 14 '10 at 15:42
	I know what you are talking about too - but my personal opinion is that such site should aim to educate and maintain substantial discussion, and question asked in this form would stimulate flamebait rather than substance. Questions about specific FAQs (like - how you propose to deal with problem X or does [bad thing] follow from your proposals) is ok, but this question is dangerously close to "are you guys nuts or what?" - which is not exactly how we want to approach it, I think. – StasM Dec 14 '10 at 17:47

up vote 5 down vote

added by ericgorr Dec 4 '10 at 1:37

up vote 5 down vote

added by ericgorr Dec 5 '10 at 19:05

I'd say a better wording is “What are the differences between libertarianism and anarchism?” – Andrey Tarantsov Nov 15 '11 at 17:05

up vote 4 down vote

added by Ed.T Jul 29 '10 at 13:16

up vote 4 down vote

added by joeshmo Oct 25 '10 at 2:35

	Would too easily get into territory that is nonconstructive and inexact, such as philosophical or religious debates. – zanlok Feb 10 '11 at 22:32
	@zanlok - not necessarily. Non-aggression principle would probably be fairly non-controversial and likely even a correct answer. – DVK Oct 31 '11 at 15:19

up vote 3 down vote

added by sth Jun 22 '10 at 20:21

As stated, this question is leading. It could be restated as "What solutions do libertarians propose in the case of disabilities/injury/unemployment/etc?" – joeshmo Oct 25 '10 at 2:45

up vote 3 down vote

added by Doug Kilishek, edited by Robert Harvey Sep 7 '10 at 1:50

up vote 3 down vote

added by joeshmo Oct 25 '10 at 2:36

Good question but vague and subjective...invites too much debate. – tekiegreg Jun 23 '11 at 21:43

up vote 3 down vote

added by Calgary Libertarian Oct 25 '10 at 20:46

up vote 2 down vote

added by Robert Harvey Jun 22 '10 at 23:26

closed as off topic by Matthew Whited, Sinan Ünür, Edgar, mootinator, StasM Dec 13 '10 at 4:56

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

Flamebait is not desirable. – Sinan Ünür Jul 25 '10 at 19:42

up vote 2 down vote

added by Sinan Ünür Jul 25 '10 at 19:40

up vote 2 down vote

added by joeshmo Oct 25 '10 at 2:38

up vote 1 down vote

added by Jamin Jun 24 '10 at 5:36

up vote 1 down vote

added by joeshmo Oct 25 '10 at 2:41

Too vague - "crisis" is not defined. – DVK Oct 31 '11 at 15:22

up vote 1 down vote

added by StasM Dec 13 '10 at 5:10

closed as off topic by PaulRein, ericgorr, rsenna, CaseyB, Chad Jun 7 '11 at 14:16

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

	Isn't this also flamebait? – André Paramés Jan 18 '11 at 2:13
	That's why it's proposed as offtopic – StasM Feb 14 '11 at 17:26

up vote 1 down vote

added by André Paramés Jan 18 '11 at 2:22

up vote 0 down vote

added by Andrew MacDonald Jun 22 '10 at 19:03

up vote 0 down vote

added by Jamin Jun 24 '10 at 5:40

Think this would be better if it was: "What are the issues that <libertarian group A> and <libertarian group B> disagree on". – sixtyfootersdude Jun 24 '10 at 12:15

Or I think it could be: Are there different types of libertarians? Where can I find information about these sub-groupings. – sixtyfootersdude Jun 24 '10 at 12:16

up vote 0 down vote

added by Doug Kilishek Jun 24 '10 at 11:04

up vote 0 down vote

added by joeshmo Oct 25 '10 at 2:40

What is "empire"? Why "its recurrence" must be prevented by libertarians? – StasM Dec 13 '10 at 4:55

up vote 0 down vote

added by Calgary Libertarian Oct 25 '10 at 20:50

	define "natural" ? – zanlok Feb 10 '11 at 22:39
	zanok: monopolies created without government help – please delete me Sep 26 '11 at 0:36

up vote 0 down vote

added by PaulRein Feb 13 '11 at 6:00

This is intended as an example of a student posting an essay question to avoid his/her homework. – PaulRein Feb 13 '11 at 6:01

up vote 0 down vote

added by tekiegreg Jun 23 '11 at 21:39

"Fairness" needs to be defined very precisely for this question to become objective. As it is, my definition of what's fair is likely different from yours and yours from everyone else's – DVK Oct 31 '11 at 15:24