How did this general question not get closed?

Question

This question seems to suffer from all the same pitfalls as questions I see closed regularly:

Dealing with management that does not see value in improvements that are not immediately visible to the user

Though I think the question and answers are interesting, this doesn't need to be programming specific - same can be true of other fields. Also, just what an "improvement" consists of is unclear - too general?

I have seen many questions on meta that refer to the validity of questions and this example is a good counterpoint to those who claim there is no problem on this SE. I really want to know how this can remain open based on other questions I have seen closed, as I am to the point where I am not really sure what can be asked on this site (and I have read the FAQ and followed meta). I think that I am not alone.

Edit: Here is an example of a very similar question that I just pulled off the newest questions page that was closed as not specific to software development:

https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/132878/how-to-sell-yourself-to-the-manager

This is perplexing to me. It seems the answer is that there is no rhyme or reason. You'll have a better shot of having your question accepted by the community if you include a reference to iOS.

Answer 1

I didn't vote to close because the issue of code quality not being easily visible, and most people not being aware it's not easily visible, is pretty specific to software and would not apply to other professions. Note that the answers, unlike most career type questions, are pretty much all about software development, including the two most up-voted, which talk about technical debt and the "iceberg secret", which are specific to programming.

I would consider it on-topic for either programmers or software development (whichever we are), but I'm quite sure everyone would not agree.

Answer 2

If you think a question doesn't belong then you should do the following:

1. Edit it into shape. Anyone can edit. If you have less than 2,000 reputation it has to be approved, but if it's a good edit it will probably go through.
2. Comment. Ask the OP to improve it themselves. This is for where there is something major wrong with the post and you might destroy all the goodness if you edit.
3. Down-vote. If the post is really bad this is a good way to get people's attention. Both the OP and other community members. If others see a down-vote on the post it might spur them on to do step #1.
4. Vote to close. Obviously only available if you have more than 3,000 reputation.
5. Flag for moderator attention. The last resort. If the post is that bad that it needs to be removed straight away then flag it. If it spam flag it as spam, we see those flags as well. Users with 10,000 reputation can see flags as well and do some or all of the steps.

People don't see every post and people don't always agree on what's a good post or not so it's not surprising that some posts "slip through the net" (so to speak).

If you see a question that has already been closed, but you think is OK then it's still worth doing the following:

1. Up vote. Give it some positive reinforcement.
2. Edit it into shape. This will bump the question to the home page where more people will see it and if they also think it's on topic they can vote to reopen.
3. Vote to reopen. Again for those with more than 3,000 reputation.
4. Post a question here on meta to get others to see the question. This also has the benefit of getting a discussion going on the edge cases. Moderators get notified of all questions posted on meta so we will look at it.
5. Post a message in chat.
6. Flag the post for moderator attention. We'll consider the flag and any supporting evidence. If you've done some or all of the above then that's a good thing.

Questions do get closed by mistake. If someone reads the question wrong and flags it then as it only takes one moderator to close it might get closed incorrectly. That's why I usually wait for multiple flags and/or several existing close votes before adding mine.

Answer 3

I don't understand what you want us to do here: close this question? Reopen all questions that might possibly look like this one because one question stayed open?

People, not automatons, run this site. Regular people, such as yourself, determine—based on their understanding of the scope of the site—what is and isn't on-topic. There is never going to be 100% consistency as long as human error exists, and expecting any community—much less any site on Stack Exchange where human moderation is the core of how a site works—to always handle everything exactly the same way is untenable and unreasonable.

Generally, some community action has to happen on a question for it to get closed: close votes, flags for moderator review, or the attraction a ton of down-votes. Nearly every question that gets closed has this. This question—for whatever reason—has received no flags, no close votes (even after this post was created), and very little down-voting.

It's good to bring up a problematic question here on meta: it helps bring exposure to the question and lets people hash out whether it's on-topic or not. But people can and will disagree with your assessment of a situation, and using one question as the basis for an argument that the site is inscrutable doesn't make any sense.

Instead, I think if there's a way we can make the open question better and more on-topic, let's do it. If there's a way we can get the closed question back on-topic and reopened, let's do that too.