Asking & answering your own tech support related questions

Question

I understand tech support questions are not allowed on GD.SE but I am wondering if it is acceptable to post a question with an answer.

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Example:

How come scrolling through fonts on the character panel stops in Illustrator?

Answer:

In Illustrator choose Edit > Preferences > Type. Remove the check-mark for Enable Missing Glyph Protection.

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On one hand I think this question shouldn't be allowed since it goes against the guidelines but I think the question could be beneficial for someone. The question above is very circumstantial and I wouldn't think to post a question like "I got error..."

What do you think?

Answer 1

I would expect that question to quickly gather close votes under the "tech support" reason, regardless of being self-answered or not. I totally agree that it could be beneficial for others, but I think it's better suited for Super User.

Answer 2

My argument has never been that tech support answers aren't helpful. They almost always are.

The issue, as I've seen it, is what is GraphicDesign.StackExchange to be? A software support stack or a design stack. The more software support that is allowed, the further away from design the site will move. It makes no difference if you answer the question yourself. If other users see tech support questions, then will automatically assume it's okay to ask that type of question. There's already somewhat of a struggle to keep the site from being overwhelmed with basic software support questions.

My general thought is.... if the question is asking about some specific software functionality or how basic features work, it's basically off-topic. If a question how to create something, then it's more on topic.

Admittedly it's a fuzzy line and not every question clearly falls to one side or another. But stacking the deck with clear tech support questions seems like a bad move to me.

Now, general design tech support topics which do not focus on specific software should always be allowed. i.e. -- ppi vs dpi, rgb vs cmyk, PDF vs EPS, etc....