Questions tagged [close-reasons]
The close-reasons tag has no usage guidance.
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How do I explain ${something} to ${someone}?
One of the not infrequently asked questions that shows up on Software Engineering.SE is along the lines of:
I am trying to explain the differences between a NoSQL database and a relational database ...
user40980
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Where to start?
Often the question shows up of something along the lines of:
I'm trying to learn language XYZ. Where should I start?
or
I'm trying to do ${very large project}. Where should I start?
Why are ...
user40980
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Why was my question closed or down voted?
Help! My question was closed (or down voted). Why? And what can I do about it?
Downvoted
Duplicate
Off topic
What technology to take up next
Recommend a software library, tool, book, research paper,...
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On discussions and why they don't make good questions
I'll start off with the irony of this question being tagged with a discussion and point out that meta is different.
Why don't discussion questions work in Stack Exchange? What is it about the ...
user40980
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Why are there so many closed, on hold, and down voted questions here?
Compared to Stack Overflow, the number of questions which are down-voted, put on hold, or closed is astounding. I think it's a sign that the criteria (and possibly usefulness) of this site is poorly ...
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The real borderline for "Opinion based" in Software Engineering
In Software Engineering.SE (formerly known as "Programmers.SE") most of the questions are correctly related to design, patterns, metodologies and architectures. Now, my question is: when does a ...
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What is the problem with "Pros and Cons"?
<Some question about design or product>
What are the pros and cons?
Sometimes, these questions get closed as 'too broad' or 'primarily opinion'. Why is that?
user40980
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Why do interview questions make poor Software Engineering.SE questions?
Occasionally a question that is asked at an interview comes up - "how would you design Amazon Web Services" or "how would you write Google" or some such question.
These questions find their way to ...
user40980
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Discuss this ${blog}
Occasionally there are questions asked that seek to explain some soundbite of thing someone said or wrote.
These questions take a few sentences from a larger piece and ask what it means, or disprove ...
user40980
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Can we get a "Belongs on StackOverflow" as a closing reason?
Once in a while someone pops up with an objective "help me with my code" question like this one. I think it'd be nice to have a mechanism to migrate these to StackOverflow. Thoughts?
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Great Expectations... or, at least, user expectations
Well I just saw a second Meta question expressing strong ill-will for this site after first witnessing this, seemingly well-trodden, battlefield. Given that I am already weary of it, I can only assume ...
user174739
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What are the rules around moderators closing questions outright?
I'm not a fan of seeing questions closed without the usual 5 closing votes, but I understand that sometimes that's necessary. Still, what are the rules around moderators closing questions outright?
...
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Moderators Taking Community Function
Hi All,
I have come across quite a few questions now that have been closed a single Moderator (and a couple with 1 Moderator, and 1 Community Member).
Shouldn't this not happen? Half the point of ...
- 416
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Why do 'some examples' and 'list of things' questions get closed?
A common form of question that is often asked is the "what are some examples of..." While this is hinted at in the help center
Please make sure that your question is not too broad, or strongly ...
user40980
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Why is this terminology question considered as “opinion based”?
I recently asked What is the name of the functional argument in fold which is now marked off-topic because it might be opinion based. I do not understand what makes this opinion based. This question ...
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Can the number of custom close reasons on Programmers be expanded?
Right now, we are limited to three custom "off-topic" close reasons. I wrote a fourth this morning to address a number of recent closures, but it's not possible to even turn it on without turning off ...
Thomas OwensMod
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close reason (and associated expand the close reason count) request
I really don't like migrating crappy questions to SO. This is really the only place where its an issue because of the migration path (no, taking away the migration path would mean more suggestions to ...
user40980
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Question marked as opinion-based—I'm seeking facts and references
I'm a little confused as to the nature of the 'opinion-based' categorization. I asked this question: Is there a design rationale behind the PHP-Style Nested Webform pattern?. I pointed out that this ...
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Are we too strict? Where should off-topic questions go?
This question on networking at conferences was not closed, but this one I just posted was closed.
First, what is a better forum for that closed question?
Second, I'm assuming that the first one ...
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What is “not constructive”?
Jul 20 update: question has been unlocked per discussion in chat and reworded as follows:
Looking for a definitive answer from a primary or secondary source for why did (notably) Java and C# decide ...
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What should our predefined off-topic reasons be?
There are some fairly major changes coming soon to how posts are closed, you may want to read up on the details:
Closing changes: [on hold], unclear, too broad, opinion-based, off-topic reasons, bye-...
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Should I answer a question which belongs on Stack Overflow?
I always believed that there is an important distinction between off-topic questions which are... well, “plain off-topic”, and the ones which are off-topic because they simply belong on a different SE ...
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Why are we getting so many off topic 'debug this for me' questions? what can we do about it?
Yes, this is a duplicate of Using Programmers as "learning and training area" for Stack Overflow kind questions intended to re-ask the question more clearly and without the tangents of ...
user40980
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Should the 'good question' criteria be revised, or, has flagging become over-zealous?
First off, let me say I love the community moderation system. I think it's tops.
But I feel like too many questions that could elicit interesting answers (specifically, interesting as a programmer) ...
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Multiple indirection in closed duplicates and transitivity of duplicates
I find it hilarious that this question was closed as a duplicate of a question which is in turn a duplicate of a question closed as off-topic!
I realize questions may be closed at any time, not only ...
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Revisiting our close procedure and close reasons [duplicate]
In a comment in one of our Meta discussions Aarthi announced a set of changes to the closing procedure:
This is currently in spec-stage so I don't have lots of details available, but suffice it to ...
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Should the "primarily opinion-based" close-reason ever be used on Programmers, except on extreme occasions?
If one reads the description of this site, one finds that it's purpose is:
Programmers Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professionals and students in software development and ...
- 39.1k
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Off-topic Migration Paths
Now that the site is out of beta, presumably we're going to get migration paths set up to the other sites. It would stand to reason adding Stack Overflow would be a no-brainer, but are there any other ...
user8
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Is this question specific to programmers, or has everyone forgotten/relaxed about that requirement?
https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/74116/how-often-is-too-often-to-change-workplaces
The FAQ says:
If your question can also be applied to other jobs then it's not really ...
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Custom Close Reason Updates
First: We have a fourth custom close reason added.
One of the most common close reasons that isn't accounted for by one of the current custom close reasons is for questions seeking legal advice or ...
Thomas OwensMod
- 80.4k
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Should we clarify the wording of our "Not Constructive" close reason?
Our "not constructive" close reasons is as follows:
This question does not meet enough of our six guidelines for constructive subjective questions. All questions should be practical, answerable, ...
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Merge and replace custom close reason
We've been fairly consistently getting poor quality implementation and debugging questions. A previous suggestion (related: 1 2) to increase the count hasn't been acted upon and the suggestion for us ...
user40980
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3
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Are we using "Unclear what you are asking" correctly?
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 ...
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Is quality of a question determined solely by the question itself or the content it generates?
This question is prompted by some of the discussion in How can we avoid turning off potential participants who see the wall of Closed questions? Specifically, what MichaelT wrote to JensG and the ...
- 20k
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Why does Meta have a close reason 'primarily opinion based'?
I was very surprised to see that Meta questions can be closed as 'primarily opinion based'.
IMHO, that doesn't make much sense :-)
Can the close reasons on Meta be different from the ones on ...
- 13.8k
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What are questions where "every answer is equally valid"?
Short version: Is this the same as a question "without a definitive answer"?
Long version: Personally, I understood "subjective" to mean, "without a definitive answer", yet I keep seeing ...
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What is the difference between software licensing and copyright
Over the past months I see that questions regarding copyright on software are receiving close votes, with a custom close reason along the lines of
This question appears to be off-topic because it ...
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Was this question closed for the right reason?
https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/223192/will-i-get-acceptable-performance-for-learning-c-python-if-i-use-a-vm-as-my-lear
I've always considered "opinion-based" questions as ...
- 20k
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First off-topic close reason text should be updated for new Stack Overflow phrasing
Recently, Stack Overflow changed the "mcve" (Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable Example) phrase to "mre" (Minimal Reproducible Example). While the old links still work, the new canonical link is to ...
- 1,529
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Add a new close reason for implementation and troubleshooting questions
Code troubleshooting and code implementation questions are not in Programmers' site scope. Although there is an option to migrate such questions to Stack Overflow, the vast majority of them are not ...
- 199k
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Would the "General Reference" close reason be useful here on Programmers?
This question on terminology was asked earlier.
Should the "General Reference" close reason as outlined in this blog post and this Meta Stack Overflow answer be enabled here on Programmers?
Are ...
ChrisFMod
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I clearly got the wrong idea about what this site is about.
I have just signed up to this site in order to ask a specific programming question I thought would be unsuitable to ask on Stackoverlflow.
My question was quickly closed down, here is a link to my ...
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Questions that are constructive but still tend to attract debate
According to the FAQ, non-constructive questions are those that "will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion." What happens when a good question is asked which is useful to ...
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Is the question about statements being terminated by semicolons appropriate for Programmers?
update
At Rev 5, there was a major edit to question text, based on discussion in comments made to this answer.
As of Rev 6, question has been reopened. Reference: question timeline.
Below applies to ...
Thomas OwensMod
- 80.4k
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This question about word meanings was closed as off topic, but does not seem to be off topic.
This question: AddIn, AddOn and Plugin has been closed.
When I first read it I thought it might be better suited to EL&U, but since the question is something specific to computer programmes, this ...
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What's the connection?
I am struggling to figure out why “Too object-oriented” was closed as a duplicate of How can I convince management to deal with technical debt?. I see that there's a relationship between the two, but ...
- 53.5k
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Voting to close - duplicate of a closed question
I recently marked a question (subsequently closed as not constructive) as an exact duplicate of another, closed question.
Another user questioned this as being nonsensical. While the question wasn't ...
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Closed question dispute
Should I try to persuade my manager that code tidying should take priority over meeting deadlines?
I do not agree that this question should have been closed. If it was truly a duplicate, than the ...
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Popular software recommendation question - acceptable?
The following question: What tools can be used to facilitate code reviews after commits?
It has quite a few upvotes, many answers, and over 2k views. I didn't think this'd be the kind of acceptable ...
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Argumentative users with borderline questions
We've had a few questions like https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/q/188657/3965 lately where the question is ranty, but not anything some editing couldn't fix, but in the comments the user ...
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