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There's a question what is the meaning of manage c++? that is pretty clearly not a good fit for this site. There's a duplicate on SO, and the question was more or less answered in the comments.

I'm OK with closing this one (and was about to vote to close), when I saw it had 4 "your question is unclear" votes.

It appears to me that we're starting to use "unclear what you are asking" as a synonym for "we don't like your question" or "your question doesn't fit the site".

In a way, this is a duplicate of Is it really unclear what is being asked?, except I'd like to focus on the reason for closing, not the merits of a single question.

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Call me dumb if you wish but I really don't understand what is written in the question:

What is the meaning of manage c++? -- Just want to ask what is the meaning of manage c++?. Follow up question, how does it differ from c++?

As for comments referring to some place elsewhere which could help one understand the question, I think the problem with this approach has been best covered in a discussion at sister meta, Should a question that is meaningless without viewing an external link be closed?

Unclear what you are asking

would seem to be the most appropriate close reason here... questions (like answers) should really stand on their own merits and only have external links for references etc.

If someone understands what the question is about, they would better edit it into a shape allowing other readers to understand it too (if only to vote close for other reason, although protecting from getting senseless guesses as answers wouldn't hurt either).

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  • It seems pretty obvious that the question was about managed C++; that is, doing C++ in conjunction with the .NET framework. Given that your top tags are in the Java realm, I'm not surprised that you don't understand it. But why would you conclude that no one understands it?
    – Kyralessa
    Jul 8, 2015 at 22:26
  • @Kyralessa seems you read in my answer something that isn't there. It explicitly states expectation that there are people understanding the question (why would it be different, this very meta question is opened by user who apparently understood it). "If someone understands what the question is about, they would better edit it into a shape allowing other readers to understand it too..."
    – gnat
    Jul 8, 2015 at 22:32
  • @Kyralessa isn't it convenient to ignore that at least three of those who voted close and delete have solid presence in C++ / C / C# tags - both at Programmers and at SO
    – gnat
    Jul 9, 2015 at 14:20
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    @Kyralessa: It is pretty obvious to me that this question is about a the age of the language. Developed in 1985; 30 years is a good age for a man, so "manage C++" clearly refers to the age of the language, unlike "grandparentage C" and "retireeage COBOL".
    – gnasher729
    Aug 23, 2015 at 16:10
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I think a better answer is to use a custom close message and say something like "This question does not appear to be about software development within the scope defined in the help center."

That's a little more typing and not quite as quick/convenient as clicking a radio button, but it is kinder to the OP.

Marking an easy to understand question as unclear just makes us look bad.

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My feeling is that we usually should first add a comment asking the OP to edit his question to improve it (and give specific directions on how to improve it, e.g. ask about motivations, or context, or environment, or what kind of application, etc... in the comments). Then, if the question is not edited quickly (e.g. in 15 minutes), later vote to close it.

I try to avoid directly voting to close a question, unless it is blatantly off-topic.

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