I understand why questions seeking pastoral advice are off topic, and on the whole I support the position. But I'm not satisfied by the way that some people who have come with questions that are out of scope for this reason get answered the way they do. Personally, I'd be much more comfortable if we had a question on the site in the class, "Where can I go for pastoral help with my problem?" and an answer which could be amended, which would provide links to pastoral advice resources, in a general form, "If you're Catholic...", followed by a list of resources, and similar constructs for other flavors of Christians--Lutherans, Calvinists, Orthodox, &c. People who raise pastoral advice questions, then, could be directed to this question and perhaps find a place for answers and support consistent with their current beliefs.
OK I'll admit it, a very small part of proposing this is to ease my own sense of guilt; but I do worry about that some of the people who are in need of this kind of help are being uncharitably turned away. Even if they should have a better source of assistance than some anonymous people on the internet, couldn't we do a better job of directing them to that help?