2

The question: Problem using python QPID and gevent together.

It doesn't really seem to fit the description of not a real question, and I think the only problem with it is the last two sentences:

Does anybody else have experience of getting gevent and QPID to work together? or Has anybody else seen the same issues?

But other than that the question seems to be very specific and well defined. Am I missing something here? Could a simple edit have saved the question?

BTW:

  • It's not my question, I just find it very interesting. Browsed over 50 questions today, this one was the highlight.
  • I'm not really familiar with the concepts involved in the question (which is probably why I find it so interesting), there could be a lot I'm missing here.
3
  • well for starters including problem in the title is generally a sign of a bad question
    – Ryathal
    Oct 12, 2012 at 12:19
  • 1
    @Ryathal Why is that?
    – Roc Martí
    Oct 12, 2012 at 12:25
  • 2
    its based on experience, SO actually banned it in titles. to highlight some of the reasons, every question asked is about a problem it adds nothing to a title to say that so its really just filler for a title because you don't understand your problem enough to make a better title. Also if all you can say is problem with X you probably haven't done your homework to give specifics that would help potential answerers. that isn't to say its always a sign of a bad question, there are tons of easy to find examples where problem would be appropriate, this is not one of them
    – Ryathal
    Oct 12, 2012 at 12:53

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
5

I gave it a second look and tried editing out the polling aspect of the question. I also tried focusing the question a bit more to other specific things that could be the problem.

I still am not happy about the fact that the OP openly admits that he did not even do the most basic of troubleshooting yet.

I have not done the work yet to produce a minimal example to demonstrate the problem.

That leaves the answer at a pretty blank starting point for trying to address potential issues. This is also one of these questions that could very easily turn into something more appropriate for StackOverflow, especially if he does start posting C++ code examples and the answers start including chunks of code.

Please evaluate my edit and if you feel it is good enough to be reopened then please vote for it to be reopened. Or if you have any additional suggestions to improve the question then please feel free.

4
  • I get what you're saying, and your edit was good. I browsed about 50 questions today, and most of them were extremely poor, this and a couple of others stood out but the OP should probably do a bit more before asking. It just seemed strange to see other questions open, some of which felt extremely trivial, and this one closed.
    – Roc Martí
    Oct 12, 2012 at 12:24
  • 1
    Oh and I can't vote to reopen, I'm a noob :-)
    – Roc Martí
    Oct 12, 2012 at 12:30
  • 1
    @RocMartí Well I believe even as a noob you have to ability to flag content that you find questionable :) If you see a question that is not right or an answer that doesn't answer the question then flag it for moderator attention and you will be well on your way to a Citizen Patrol badge ;-)
    – maple_shaft Mod
    Oct 12, 2012 at 12:39
  • Citizen Patrol? Pffft, bronze badges, who cares, I may be a noob but I'm already halfway through to Deputy :-P
    – Roc Martí
    Oct 12, 2012 at 12:48
5

From my perspective, there's not enough information. One of the pieces of asking a good question is to do your homework.

In this specific case, that means digging into the problem more: check the versions (acknowledged in the question, apparently not done) and produce a minimal sample that demonstrates the problem (acknowledges and not done yet). At this point in time, the person asking is just fishing for suggestions rather than getting to a roadblock, presenting all the specific information, and waiting for a specific answer.

However, this appears to be a programming problem. As soon as it gets into the implementation details, it's more suitable for Stack Overflow. So assuming that the asker has checked for version mismatches and posts some minimal code, it becomes clearly off-topic here.

5
  • Fair enough. But that How to Ask page you linked to is useless for the point you are trying to make, the title is "Do your homework" but the text is more about searching around for an answer before asking, not "digging into the problem more". Sometimes searching might be all it takes, but the way that paragraph is phrased is like it's saying that if you didn't found your answer by searching the site or Google, it's ok to ask your question.
    – Roc Martí
    Oct 12, 2012 at 12:28
  • @RocMartí Although the text references searching, the spirit of it is a lot more. "This demonstrates that you’ve taken the time to try to help yourself, it saves us from reiterating obvious answers, and most of all it helps you get a more specific and relevant answer!" If you acknowledge that there is still research to be done, you haven't taken the time to help yourself.
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    Oct 12, 2012 at 12:30
  • I'm not disagreeing with the spirit of it, just saying it's not that obvious what the spirit of it is. There's a search box there, it's a lot more easy to read it as "search, and if you don't find anything, feel free to ask" than "search, then write a minimal example to demonstrate your problem, and only then feel free to ask".
    – Roc Martí
    Oct 12, 2012 at 12:35
  • @RocMartí I don't disagree either, and I'm not sure if the idea is actually spelled out anywhere explicitly. However, there's nothing we can really do here on Programmers - that content appears to be static and the same on every SE site. Perhaps it's a concern that can be raised in Meta.SO.
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    Oct 12, 2012 at 12:38
  • 1
    the MSO post "what stack overflow is not" actually had a pretty good explanation for this, but it was deleted, if you have 10k rep on MSO you can still see it though
    – Ryathal
    Oct 12, 2012 at 13:01
4

Ryathal mentioned the ill fated What Stack Overflow is Not [MSO 10K+ link] post, and I agree that the top voted answer applies there, so I've decided to adapt it (well, just replaced Stack Overflow with Programmers, really).

The Programmers community is very forthcoming with their help, provided you have done a few things to help yourself. Have you:

  • Put some effort into researching the problem,
  • Attempted to write some code yourself
  • Attempted to debug your code when it has failed, and
  • Some basic, fundamental knowledge of your tools?

The Programmers community will not write a complete solution for you, develop a complete walk through of a problem, or do your background research for you, unless your question is specific and focused on a reasonably small scope.

3
  • I think we should come up with a better title. I think the whole reason that thread was deleted was because of the negative-sounding titles. :) Action words tend to inspire more than negative phrasing, so how about "Help Us Help You!" or something to that effect? The rest of that info is gold though! Hope this helps. :)
    – jmort253
    Oct 13, 2012 at 0:50
  • 1
    @jmort253 I'm not trying to resurrect WSOiN on Programmers (although I disagree with the deletion). The main reason that thread was deleted was that people used its titles in comments, without explaining anything. When I posted this here, there were other answers that explained the closure. That said I've removed the "Programmers is not a research assistant" title from it, just in case people got "inspired" and started using it as a dismissive one-liner in comments.
    – yannis
    Oct 13, 2012 at 4:51
  • 1
    Sure Yannis, you got my point exactly :) I was thinking that if someone gained inspiration to recreate, we could start with better titles and put our best foot forward. :)
    – jmort253
    Oct 13, 2012 at 4:56

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .