What to do about edits that change a question from a question to a statement?

Question

I asked this question earlier, in which I described a problem I didn't have the answer to and finished off by asking whether there was an industry standard solution for this problem.

In essence the question could be reduced to "here is what I need to do, I don't know where to start, can someone give me a push in the right direction?". I was specific about the problem domain and wasn't asking for someone to do it for me, I was asking for help from someone who has knowledge and/or experience in the same problem domain.

What I wasn't asking for was "resources", unless that encompasses help with a problem, in which case there's a considerable amount of questions on this site that should be closed down.

What got me about the edit was that instead of being constructive, the editor removed the final line of the question which actually described what I hoped to gain from asking on SE, and added nothing constructive, turning my question into a description of a problem.

So if asking for help with a specific problem domain is frowned upon on here, then that leaves me confused about a) what this site is actually for (and don't tell me to take the tour or RTFM, because I have, and frankly very few edits I have had made to my questions have been to bring it in line with a specific point made in there, implying the larger community cannot agree on the purpose of this site), and b) what am I supposed to do? If I delete the question that counts negatively towards my ability to ask further questions on this site, but clearly asking where to start is "encouraging requests for resources".

It's almost as if the mechanics of SE reward nitpicking and games of "who can find any straws to clutch at first" over constructive criticism and useful editing.

Answer 1

Take a moment and breathe, please. You're unnecessarily confounding things.

First off, the edit was a good edit and brought your question in-line with site guidelines. Asking for "industry standards" is a) meaningless and b) effectively equivalent to asking for an off-site resource. Dan's edit did your question a favor. If an industry standard does exist, a good answer will point that out so you don't need to ask for it.

Obligatory xkcd reference:

Next up, you added:

What got me about the edit was that instead of being constructive, the editor removed the final line of the question which actually described what I hoped to gain from asking on SE, and added nothing constructive, turning my question into a description of a problem.

Which isn't true. There is still a question in the title of your post, namely "How can I represent a flowchart, complete with conditional logic using JSON or XML?" And while it's discouraged to rely upon the title to ask the question, it's still there.

And if you're looking for a "standard" to solve the problem, then this probably isn't right site. But if you're looking for a good solution(s) that may or may not be "industry standard" then your odds of getting what you want have gone up.

It may sound like I'm splitting hairs, but there is a difference. This site is not a reference library service. We're not here to find things for you. We're here because we enjoy solving problems and educating others while we do so.

As to:

b) what am I supposed to do?

Sit back and be patient. Monitor the comments, and add any clarifying information that may be requested. Programmers isn't like StackOverflow where you'll see a flurry of answers in the first few nanoseconds and then crickets afterwards. Programmers is much more like a slow burn. Solid answers may take a day or longer to show up based upon the available experts and their available time.

You are obviously free to delete your question if you so choose. But I don't see much point in doing so. It's a reasonable enough question and ought to attract an answer. As to up / down votes, meh, that's hard to say and I wouldn't worry about that anyway.