Why is it such a big deal that questions have a very specific nature to them as stated in the FAQ's? What real problems/harm does it pose when questions are more discussion like or not very specific? Or are more abstract in nature and require more debate like responses? (BTW, I do realize that you have to keep things on the straight and narrow BUT just like the law you have to make intelligent decisions and not apply rules blindly.)
It's very hard to wrap my head around the very narrow minded mentality (the way I see it) of Stack Exchange's question/answer format. Maybe I am too used to the traditional forum like structure and tend to want either an very specific answer (for which I generally ask very specific question) or more general questions (for which I want general answers... and which usually get me into trouble).
For example, suppose I post an irrelevant question to TeX SE that is rather off topic but still vaguely related and a few people might find it interesting. What harm does it pose to let the question stand and not close it or delete it or whatever? If no one is interested in the question it will just die on it's own, and if some people find it useful then isn't that a good thing? Why would it bother someone to allow it when it has no real negative effect (as far as it effecting people that come to the forum)?
The layout/UI for Stack Exchange is like nothing else. Even in Microsoft's forums they have bugs they never fix with code quoting (well, probably designed only to work with IE) and it doesn't look appealing. I like Stack Exchange because of that but I tend to like more of a discussion/debate based approach to questions/answers. I am not the type of person just to accept on answer on faith or authority (it has to make sense to me or I have to "see it with my own eyes").
Anyway, I guess this is bad for Stack Exchange but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any thing out there like SE for more discussion like and less strict (although within reason) interaction?
Maybe it would be possible to get SE to add a "Discussion" part (next to questions) that is more open? I see a lot of forums that have the ability to tag posts as questions or discussions nowadays.