4

A quick search shows roughly 80-90 questions asking about how or what to charge in some manner. (loosely filtering for not-so-relevant search results)

That's nearly 20% of all questions. 20%!

I don't see how any of these questions could definitively be answered ever. There are far, far too many variables which go into the rates someone can specifically change. In addition a community discussing what to charge for common services could easily be construed as "price fixing" by someone who wished to instigate something I realize it would be a stretch based on current questions. Nonetheless that line does exist.

So, since it's impossible to ever definitively, or even effectively, answer the "what do I charge for XXXX" why aren't these question closed more?

These are simply are bad questions. I understand the desire of users to have someone spoon-feed them what they should be pricing things at but A stack beta full of bad questions is just as unlikely to graduate as a beta missing questions.

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
3

Proposed close reason: (Editable community wiki):

Questions asking us to set a price for you is off-topic. We can't tell you what to set as a price; however, we can tell you how to set a price. See Is there a pattern we use to set our price? If this doesn't answer the question of how to set a price for your unique situation, please edit this post to add more details.

2
  • I created a proposed close reason to cover these cases. The question I linked to is one I randomly grabbed that seems to cover the question of how. There may be a better question to link to, if necessary. This is also a community wiki post to make it easier for others to contribute.
    – jmort253 Mod
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 1:46
  • I like that close reason as-is.
    – Chris Forrence
    Commented Nov 7, 2014 at 14:18
3

We can definitely take a more assertive role in closing these. I agree they're not the best questions, and their utility won't last long, since the market prices change over time.

Since this is a commonly asked question, we could also look around and see if we have a good canonical post that explains how to set one's price. we can include that in the close reason. Just because we can't tell a user exactly what to charge doesn't mean they can't leave with some helpful information that already exists on our site.

2

I agree. That's why I close a majority of the questions I do see asking how much to charge.

I have purposely left open some questions that I feel fit the se model of "teach a man to fish". Unless someone can give the community a reason to keep them open. I'd say we make it off topic, and close such questions.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .