Why is this question closed?

Question

I thought I was asking a straight question for a straight answer, but I guess I wasn't.

I'm just curious to why my question was closed

https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/163566/what-makes-objective-c-such-a-popular-language

if this question is allowed

What makes C so popular in the age of OOP?

The only difference I see between the two is the latter is entitled specifically to OOP.

If this isn't the suitable place to ask such question, where else can I post it within Stack Exchange?

Edit: I just saw Yannis's comment on my post to why it was closed. I do think the question itself have merits (to prospective objective-C developers, for example), but I guess it's not really worded well and does lack technical details.

Answer 1

From the FAQ:

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.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ______ to me”, then you are probably OK. (Discussions are of course welcome in our real time web chat.)

That part of the FAQ is common for all Stack Exchange sites, unfortunately your question is too open ended to fit the Q&A philosophy and format. We can only guess when it comes to popularity alone, and that simply doesn't work for the site. It might be a great question to ask in The Whiteboard, our chat room. I know most of the times it looks abandoned, but usually not constructive questions are excellent conversation starters.

As for the C question, personally I'm on the fence, it does have somewhat of a technical core, and can be discussed on technical terms (and indeed it has, for the most part), but it's also very broad and has all the signs of a not constructive question:

1. Language comparison elements (and that rarely ends well),
2. Couple of pointless answers,
3. Couple of extremely pointless answers (since deleted).

But it has survived without a single close vote or flag, and I see little point in mod closing it now that it's run its circle. If it starts attracting pointless answers and / or close votes it might be a whole different story, but for now I'm letting it sleep.

Lastly I'd like to point out that it makes a lot more sense to concentrate on your own question's merits when contesting a closure than pointing us to other similar questions. It might just be the case that the similar questions escaped our attention, and the only thing you'll achieve is getting them closed as well. The community moderates itself vigorously, but some questions simply find their way in through the cracks. Two wrong posts don't make a right.

Answer 2

I wanted to make the following a comment but I exceeded the max character limit. And I am passionate about it, so I am posting it as an answer (and once I switched from "comment" to "answer" I went absolutely bananas):

I applaud the desire to improve SE's quality. But I think SE (and especially P.SE) should try to be discerningly tolerant of some "chatty open ended questions" when they concern the merits (and problems) of the available (and constantly changing) technologies. This, even, if they involve debate and subjective opinions.

Many of the antique (but closed) "ch-op-en-qu" SO posts have been crucial in helping me make informed decisions about the correct technology to use for my projects (and my career). There is simply nothing else like these posts out there to read; brilliant people discussing (and yes at times debating) the merits of the available technologies.

We need this information in this "chatty open ended" format. It really needs a place to happen, and SE is the place because that's where the People Who Know are all hanging out now.

Perhaps moderators could control that the questions focus on "fact mining", not technology bashing. And that there are no duplicates. And for goodness sake no "What's the difference between Java and Javascript".