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Why are some questions "too localized" while some aren't?

First question,

Programmer's salary in UK

Second question,

Computer jobs in Singapore?

One gets closed and the other doesn't. Both are country specific questions. Do people from different countries deserve different treatment?

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  • 5
    I voted to close the first one. You're welcome.
    – user8
    Commented Dec 14, 2010 at 9:06
  • Why the down vote to this question? I mean, really!
    – Jungle Hunter
    Commented Dec 14, 2010 at 9:14
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    This is a good point. I have repeatedly seen US/UK related questions staying open, and identical counterparts referring to other countries get closed as "too localized" on SO. That is perfectly understandable because the audience mostly is from the US and the UK and bound to feel that way, but it's far from fair
    – Pekka
    Commented Dec 14, 2010 at 12:34
  • I voted to close the first one as well. Sometimes we just miss questions.
    – Walter
    Commented Dec 14, 2010 at 13:30
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    @Jungle - down votes on metas often mean "I disagree" rather than indicating the question isn't useful. Don't take it personally and as there's no separate rep here it doesn't really matter.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Dec 14, 2010 at 13:56
  • Third vote to close on first one
    – John Straka
    Commented Dec 14, 2010 at 14:34
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    they're both closed now. the system works!
    – Steven A. Lowe
    Commented Dec 14, 2010 at 19:23
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    Some questions slips :-) Now it's ok.
    – Maniero Mod
    Commented Dec 14, 2010 at 19:45
  • Thanks for all the response. Both are closed now (although I imagined the other way around - both open). But now it seems fair.
    – Jungle Hunter
    Commented Dec 15, 2010 at 4:27
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    But shouldn't we want to be able to post questions that are, for example, UK-specific? After all there are loads of questions tagged GIT, but there are, I suggest, many more UK-programmers than there are GIT users.
    – WinstonChurchill
    Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 9:58
  • @WinstonChurchill: I would agree.
    – Jungle Hunter
    Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 11:49
  • @WinstonChurchill Joel actually talks to this directly in this post and makes the identical point but with Montreal and oCaml. I think in the cases described above where problematic because of the time factor, since the answer becomes less and less useful as time goes on.
    – Conrad Frix
    Commented May 6, 2011 at 14:30

1 Answer 1

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When questions are moderated, generally people use their best judgement to determine the merits of the question by itself. Does it meet our site's standards? Does the question make sense? Is it answerable? I don't want to say it's completely non-existant, but it's exceedingly rare that community moderation takes into account the country of origin for a question.

That is, community moderation is governed by humans who occasionally make mistakes or overlook certain things. One question might get the benefit of community moderation, while another slips through the cracks.

In the cases where a question slips through the cracks and you notice it, it's important to do something about it:

  • Edit the question to bring it in line with our site's standards
  • Comment on the question to provide feedback as to why the question doesn't fit
  • Use voting to down-vote bad things, up-vote good things, and close off-topic things.
  • If it's something that really needs attention right away, flag it for moderator review.

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