Sometimes a question needs to be closed as off-topic
but none of the canned reasons are a good fit. This leaves us with Other.
Other demands a comment. Typing is hard. What are some good canned comments?
Sometimes a question needs to be closed as off-topic
but none of the canned reasons are a good fit. This leaves us with Other.
Other demands a comment. Typing is hard. What are some good canned comments?
Done @J.R.'s way:
The help/on-topic page discourages things we don't have a canned close reason for. Here are some canned comments in a copy-and-paste friendly format:
- "How to improve my English?" (this is not constructive anyway)
This question may be off-topic because ELU discourages questions about "How to improve my English?" as noted in the [help/on-topic](https://english.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) page.
- Translation and non-English languages — please see the translation tag info for details
This question may be off-topic because ELU discourages questions about "Translation and non-English languages" as noted in the [help/on-topic](https://english.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) page when outside the limited scope of the [translation](https://english.stackexchange.com/tags/translation/info) tag.
- Naming, including naming programming variables/classes
This question may be off-topic because ELU discourages questions about "Naming, including naming programming variables/classes" as noted in the [help/on-topic](https://english.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) page.
- Criticism, discussion, and analysis of English literature
This question may be off-topic because ELU discourages questions about "Criticism, discussion, and analysis of English literature" as noted in the [help/on-topic](https://english.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) page.
- Jokes that do not rely on the English language
This question may be off-topic because ELU discourages "Jokes that do not rely on the English language" as noted in the [help/on-topic](https://english.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) page.
As @J.R. correctly points out taking the time to customize a comment can be very instructive to a new user. This answer is actually intended to give you that time by freeing you from the more repetitive typing. There is certainly room to add more instructive comments.
Here's one I've used more than once:
Given that you're relatively new to the site, I'd like to tell you about our sister site, [ell.se]. In the future, that may be a better place for questions like this one. You can read more about the two sites at our [_What is the difference between ELU and ELL?_ meta post](http://meta.english.stackexchange.com/questions/3722/what-is-the-difference-between-elu-and-ell/).
As @Rathony points out some questions are closed as off-topic because the community has decided they are not what this site is about. While it's always good to direct a new user to the help it may confuse them to cite the help as the reason the question is being closed when the help doesn't expressly prohibit the question.
I propose to gather such close reasons here:
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because ELU is not a transcription service
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not constructive
The help/on-topic page expressly forbids things we don't have a canned close reason for. Here are some canned comments in a copy and paste friendly format:
- "How to improve my English?" (this is not constructive anyway)
This question is off-topic because the topic "How to improve my English?" is expressly prohibited by the [help/on-topic](https://english.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) page.
- Translation and non-English languages — please see the translation tag info for details
This question is off-topic because the topics "Translation and non-English languages" are expressly prohibited by the [help/on-topic](https://english.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) page when outside the limited scope of the [translation](https://english.stackexchange.com/tags/translation/info) tag.
- Naming, including naming programming variables/classes
This question is off-topic because the topic "Naming, including naming programming variables/classes" is expressly prohibited by the [help/on-topic](https://english.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) page.
- Criticism, discussion, and analysis of English literature
This question is off-topic because the topic "Criticism, discussion, and analysis of English literature" is expressly prohibited by the [help/on-topic](https://english.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) page.
- Jokes that do not rely on the English language
This question is off-topic because "Jokes that do not rely on the English language" are expressly prohibited by the [help/on-topic](https://english.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) page.
As JR correctly points out taking the time to customize a comment can be very instructive to a new user. This answer is actually intended to give you that time by freeing you from the more repetitive typing. There is certainly room to add more instructive comments.
It would also be useful to see this answer edited and ratified into something the community agrees with so we can use these with confidence.