4

I think StackOverflow's stock off-topic close reason of:

Questions seeking debugging help ("why isn't this code working?") must include the desired behavior, a specific problem or error and the shortest code necessary to reproduce it in the question itself. Questions without a clear problem statement are not useful to other readers.

would be perfect for a lot of the stack dumps or "please advise me the code" questions we get. Is it possible to get that added as one of the stock close reasons under the "off-topic" category? It seems to me that it would be more specific and helpful than just "unclear what you're asking" and also make it clear that such questions are off-topic when asked in that way.

Also, our What topics can I ask about here? seems pretty lightweight compared to SO's version, which puts the debugging one as #1 in the off-topic list. Is it worth making ours more comprehensive?

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

We do get 3 custom close reasons.

We can make this one of them as we currently use 2.

We should reevaluate this when a 4th close reason becomes apparent.

Note that it needs another moderator approval before it goes live (enforced by the system.)

3
  • I completely agree. This will help a lot to encourage people to provide the details we need to be able to give a useful answer.
    – Kate Paulk Mod
    Commented Sep 26, 2017 at 11:44
  • Well this is awkward. I had edited the message to make it bold like Stack Overflow's... but the edit didn't take. I guess it isn't a big problem, still kind of a bummer tho.
    – corsiKa Mod
    Commented Sep 26, 2017 at 18:49
  • Maybe I am hijacking the original question (sorry for that)? But it seems often questions are also posted in SO. Wouldn't it be logical the have the option to give that as a reason to close as well? I get that is not technically duplicate in here but it seems that those questions are also often abondoned?
    – Ray Oei
    Commented Dec 1, 2017 at 14:42

You must log in to answer this question.

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