Asking the community: is this question something we want here?

Question

A recent discussion cited this question as one that is very broad but has not been closed.

The "question" in its entirety is:

Suggested books to start on software testing

I'm trying to learn more about software testing, so I want to know what are the suggested books on this topic

How does the community feel about this question? The fact that it's community wiki should not factor in. (That is to say if we come across a question we feel is off topic, we can't just make it community wiki to make it okay.)

Using SO as an example, we can enter into evidence:

• This question is not closed. In fact, it is moderator protected. It is "The definitive C++ book guide and list" which seems to indicate that SO at least accepts this kind of question.
• This, This, This and This are all closed. The first one directly states that it attempts to do for C what the question above (the one not closed) does for C++.

Three of the four closed questions are Locked as "historically significant", and a number of them are protected.

What should we do, and why? The options appear to be:

• Leave it the heck alone
• Leave it open, but protect it
• Close it
• Close it and protect it
• Lock it

Protection seems unnecessary because the question isn't receiving a crazy amount of attention. So that really makes three options:

• Leave it
• Close it
• Lock it

Answer 1

I think we should leave it.

Here is an argument for closing it: the question has no definitive answer. Locking it sends the message that (1) the best answer is arguably already there, and (2) we want to cut off the "me too" answers. But there is no best answer for "what are some suggested books to start on testing".

That said, SQA has looser standards for questions than SO does (see this for example). The question is relevant to testing, and as you said, it doesn't get a crazy amount of attention now. I don't think it does any harm to leave it.

Answer 2

My vote would be to edit the question to something more like "the definitive software testing introductory book guide and list", and perhaps seed the question with an answer or two from the moderators listing their preferred introductory books on software testing.