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I just came up with a "feature request", but then spent ten minutes finding out what to do with it, because I was thinking of a statement "we should do X", not a question "should we do X?", and this site is for questions not statements.

I found the [feature-request] tag, and sure-enough several of the "questions" there are formulated as suggestions and not questions. So it seems that many people including myself think of feature requests as suggestions and not questions.

My explicit question is: "Do feature requests have to be formulated as questions?"

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4  
I don't mean to come across as a pain in the butt, but have you given a look to the other feature requests? It might help you to see what is the trend. :P –  Alenanno Sep 27 '12 at 18:01
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I think the question "what say you?" is implied with any feature request and answered with votes. As long as you make it clear what exactly you are requesting you can write it in any coherent form. –  Lix Sep 27 '12 at 18:04
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Feature requests should be formulated as ransom demands. –  Yannis Sep 27 '12 at 18:05
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The bombs will be detonated at 3PM EST if Chat's font isn't changed to Comic Sans MS –  Ben Brocka Sep 27 '12 at 18:08
    
Who is Chat? Chat Norris? ;) –  kiamlaluno Sep 28 '12 at 0:25

3 Answers 3

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Do feature requests have to be formulated as questions?

Nope. You can formulate your request as it comes to you naturally.

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What is No? Alex, I'll take free reputation for 200. –  user7116 Sep 27 '12 at 18:05
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GIMMEH ALL THE REPZ!!!!! –  Pëkka Sep 27 '12 at 18:13
    
That's not the answer I was expecting at all. I was thinking about the "not a real question" SO flag but I guess it doesn't exist on meta. –  Douglas B. Staple Sep 27 '12 at 18:15
    
@Douglas but why would one want to shoe-horn a feature request into a question when it isn't one? Look at the existing feature requests - most of them aren't in question form. Meta doesn't always follow the SO format 100% –  Pëkka Sep 27 '12 at 18:17
    
@Pekka Well... I'm new to StackExchange and I thought only questions were allowed. The button says "Ask Question" and the FAQ says "What kind of questions can I ask here?" –  Douglas B. Staple Sep 27 '12 at 18:26
    
@DouglasB.Staple: That might be a little confusing, but I guess there's no better term. Newcomers usually ask [support] questions on Meta, so renaming it might be even more confusing. –  Dennis Sep 27 '12 at 18:29
    
@Douglas feature requests and discussions are an exception from that rule. It's a very informal place in many ways. –  Pëkka Sep 27 '12 at 18:34
    
@Pekka Yeah that was the problem. Thanks for explaining. –  Douglas B. Staple Sep 27 '12 at 18:39
    
@DouglasB.Staple: So are bug reports. Adding CAN I HAZ FIX? might make it a question, but it's neither necessary nor encouraged. –  Dennis Sep 27 '12 at 18:40

I don't know what's the post you're referring to, but I just posted a question tagged . It is a question, not a request, but I tagged it as such because there is an implicit request in there.

So I guess the answer is, "it depends", as long as it makes sense.

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It is always nice to phrase your feature request as a question in order to solicit community feedback, although certainly not a requirement.

For example, the feature request;

We should rename our site to duck land.

Can be rephrased to garner opinion;

Should we rename our site to duck land?

However, if the feature request is obvious (such as a borderline bug report) then forget about the opinion part.

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