software-recommendation seems like a highly questionable tag to me, yet it’s collecting questions.
On other Stack Exchange sites, most notably Stack Overflow, software recommendations are explicitly banned, since they age badly, admit more than one right answer (opinion based), etc.
I can see the appeal of such questions but I think we should decide as a community how we deal with them.
As mentioned in the question, I do see the appeal. And just because Stack Overflow banned them doesn’t mean we have to follow the same hard line. There are certainly both pros and cons to allowing them, and maybe Stack Overflow actually got it wrong, and the pros outweigh the cons?
Something in between: allow the tag and the questions but set some guidelines. I propose the following:
Be specific. You need to clearly state your needs and the specific features this program should have. There's a great post on Software Requests Meta with their guidelines which is worth a read. Basically, they boil down to:
Explain what you want the application for. What will you be using it for and in what context. If it is to be a replacement for something you're already using, tell us what that program is and which of its features are essential to you.
Specify what operating system the tool you are looking for should work on.
State whether you are willing to pay for it and, if so, what your budget it.
Give a clear list of specific features the application must have.
Ask for one tool, not many. Questions like "What tools are available that can do foo" are off topic since by definition, their answers will be long and unmaintainable lists. The only exception is cases where foo is something very specific as listed in point 1. above.
Ask for a specific tool and not for people's favorite. So, instead of "What's the best tool for foo?", you should ask something like "I need to do foo (where foo is specific as described in 1.), is there any program available that can do it?".
So, as long as the questions are specific, not too broad (lists) and not opinion based, I think we should allow them.
One course of action would be to proceed like Stack Overflow, and to close such questions and ban the tag altogether. We might even be able to create an automated message along the lines “This type of questions is discouraged here” when somebody tries using the tag.
