Question: I like looking at old questions where I got a new upvote, and today happened across this one:

<https://stackoverflow.com/questions/902003/functional-and-non-functional-requirments/902032#902032>

closed as being off topic.

Now look, folks, I've been a programmer and software engineer for more than 40 years. I can't *think* of a topic that's a lot more on-topic -- or important -- for a professional programmer than understanding the difference between functional and nonfunctional requirements.

Answer: 
This is not just about whether your question is on topic for software engineers. It is also - and more importantly - about whether it is on-topic for Stack Overflow. The site's [FAQ](https://stackoverflow.com/faq#questions) states that the following topics are considered on-topic for Stack Overflow:

> 
> * a specific programming problem
> * a software algorithm
> * software tools commonly used by programmers
> * practical, answerable problems that are unique to software development
> 
> 
> 

None of these apply to the question in question. So your question may be on-topic for software engineering, but is clearly off-topic for Stack Overflow.
[FAQ](https://stackoverflow.com/faq) mentions:

> 
> You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual
>  problems that you face. **Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the
>  usefulness of our site** and push other questions off the front page.
> 
> 
> Your questions should be reasonably scoped. **If you can imagine an
>  entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.**
> 
> 
> 

Though it was a software engineering question but **not inline with FAQ**, so it was correctly closed.