I posted a question about the terminology for 3-byte integers (since we have terms for 4 bits, 1 byte, 2 bytes, and 4 bytes).
It was fine for a long time until it was finally closed as subjective. I flagged for a moderator's attention (since it was asking for a definitive answer and not "what should it be called?").
The moderator changed the reason to simply off-topic, stating:
This question appears to be off-topic because it is a "Name That Thing" request which is near universally off topic for StackExchange. For more information see Jeff Atwood's blog post: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2012/02/lets-play-the-guessing-game
This is most definitely not a guessing game post. As Jeff Atwood correctly states:
A half-remembered description of something you vaguely recall is not what I’d call a practical, answerable question.
I don't vaguely recall anything; I simply didn't know. I didn't know if there had historically been a term. I didn't know if there was a term that isn't common but still used.
The goal of Stack Exchange is not to construct un-findable single-serving questions that only help one person, but that’s exactly what guessing game questions tend to do.
Is there a term for 24-bit integers is not an un-findable or single-serving question. It is a very common integer width in audio/visual software, and as you can see in the answers there are many occurrences of 24-bit terms.
Also, an expert in the topic should be able to have at least some confidence that the answer he’s writing answers the question.
Not sure how this could be misconstrued. None of the answers given were subjective or opinion based; a few even linked out to proof.
. . . these questions aren’t educational in any way, because there’s no way to learn about the process of discovery. A particular community member, by virtue of their experience in the field, just happens to be able to take the limited information you remembered and fill in enough of the blanks to guess the correct answer.
Again, this isn't a "hey, I remember reading this book about stego algorithms written in visual basic and it mentioned the use of elephants in their research. What book is it?" question. It's a definitive, answerable question. It's not a request for recommendation. It's not asking for an opinion.
Further, the close reason states it is off topic given the help center guidelines.
My question is about:
software architecture and design
and
algorithm and data structure concepts
As well, my question doesn't even come remotely close to anything on the off-topic list.
I understand my question is a simple one, but it is no less qualified on the site than any other perfectly well-formed question. Why, then, has a moderator deemed it as such?