user9829: I'd like to pose a question to the biological community here about data analysis tools for flow cytometry. Initially, I was thinking of posting something like this:

 Alternatives to commercially available flow cytometric analysis software?
I know that many labs use either FlowJo or FCS Express to plot and analyze their flow data. These seem like the two standards for most labs (and I have used FlowJo before). However, my current funding does not cover software licenses and I'm not keen to pay $500-2000 out-of-pocket for a license. Are there alternatives that approach the quality of FlowJo/FCS Express but are open-source/free with an academic license? Tools including cell cycle analysis would be particularly helpful.

Looking at the on-topic page, my question doesn't seem to fall into either of these categories:

Which questions are off-topic?

personal medical questions and health advice
philosophical or ethical questions related to biology


However, the don't-ask page warns against some subjective questions and says that only "constructive" subjective questions are allowed.
Is my question appropriate? If not, how can I improve it so that it is?
Edit: Thanks for the feedback! I improved and posted the question.

user6: Recommendation questions are generally problematic on SE sites, but we haven't actually ruled them off-topic on this site.
I would recommend to formulate it a bit differently, and not simply ask for a tool but for a way to solve your problem. Questions that are written as tool recommendations encourage very short answers that are not much more than a link to a tool that might solve your problem. A question that presents your problem and asks for a solution can often encourage longer answers that provide more background and an explanation on how to use the proper tool.
We don't want to end up with a bunch of answers that all simply link to some tool that might solve this problem, without any further explanation. But if we get an answer that would describe a proper workflow for analysis with free tools that would be rather useful. 

9829: <p>I'd like to pose a question to the biological community here about data analysis tools for flow cytometry. Initially, I was thinking of posting something like this:</p>
<blockquote>
<h1> Alternatives to commercially available flow cytometric analysis software?</h1>
<p>I know that many labs use either <a href="http://www.flowjo.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">FlowJo</a> or <a href="http://www.denovosoftware.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">FCS Express</a> to plot and analyze their flow data. These seem like the two standards for most labs (and I have used FlowJo before). However, my current funding does not cover software licenses and I'm not keen to pay $500-2000 out-of-pocket for a license. Are there alternatives that approach the quality of FlowJo/FCS Express but are open-source/free with an academic license? Tools including cell cycle analysis would be particularly helpful.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Looking at the <a href="https://biology.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic">on-topic</a> page, my question doesn't seem to fall into either of these categories:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Which questions are off-topic?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>personal medical questions and health advice</li>
<li>philosophical or ethical questions related to biology</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>However, the <a href="https://biology.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask">don't-ask page</a> warns against some subjective questions and says that only &quot;constructive&quot; subjective questions are allowed.</p>
<p>Is my question appropriate? If not, how can I improve it so that it is?</p>
<p><strong>Edit:</strong> Thanks for the feedback! I improved and <a href="https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/24167/alternatives-to-commercially-available-flow-cytometric-analysis-software-for-use">posted the question</a>.</p>
 6: <p>Recommendation questions are generally problematic on SE sites, but we haven't actually ruled them off-topic on this site.</p>

<p>I would recommend to formulate it a bit differently, and not simply ask for a tool but for a way to solve your problem. Questions that are written as tool recommendations encourage very short answers that are not much more than a link to a tool that might solve your problem. A question that presents your problem and asks for a solution can often encourage longer answers that provide more background and an explanation on how to use the proper tool.</p>

<p>We don't want to end up with a bunch of answers that all simply link to some tool that might solve this problem, without any further explanation. But if we get an answer that would describe a proper workflow for analysis with free tools that would be rather useful. </p>
