Questions tagged [close-reasons]
The close-reasons tag has no usage guidance.
110
questions
85
votes
4answers
1k views
Nobody cares how YOU pronounce it
I'll come right out and admit it: I'm a pretty self-absorbed person, and I sometimes have a hard time remembering that not everything is always about me. To this day I believe deep in the core of my ...
63
votes
2answers
832 views
Basic questions are not so basic
It has come up in other threads that we have a lot of "basic" or "lowest common denominator" questions. However, a few myths about this need to be put to rest.
First, we do have a general reference ...
45
votes
6answers
747 views
Is the EL&U community overzealous about closing/down-voting questions?
I'm fairly new to the stackexchange network, but I participate quite a bit on stackoverflow. I've used a few others (like this one) for one or two questions.
And I have to say, EL&U feels ...
30
votes
3answers
842 views
Why was there such a negative reaction to this question: “Word for a person from another race?”
Is there a word for "a person from another race"?
This question has three down-votes and was closed because "Questions that can be answered using commonly-available references are off-topic"...
29
votes
6answers
776 views
Waning gap of acceptable questions
After a couple days of break I revisited EL&U to find about a third of questions on the main page marked [closed].
It appears anything that can be looked up in more or less obscure source (NOT ...
28
votes
6answers
437 views
General Reference = general clairvoyance?
This question asked what you call those words that sound like the sound they make. It was closed as general reference. Really!? How the hell is the guy supposed to look up the answer when he doesn't ...
28
votes
2answers
303 views
Proposal to fix the uselessness of the new off-topic close options
Bait-and-switch Close “Options”
With the new close options recently implemented, when you click close on ELU, that takes you to a first-level menu of five different close options. From that first-...
28
votes
1answer
494 views
New close reason: include the research
After reviewing several Meta posts and related commentary, the moderator team has replaced one of the custom close reasons on the site. The General Reference close reason has been replaced by:
...
20
votes
4answers
434 views
Close Reason Comments
We've been seeing a lot of comments lately that are somewhat along the lines of
Off-topic. Voting to close.
or
This is too localized. [remainder of comment...]
Essentially, these comments are ...
19
votes
0answers
226 views
About Reference Questions
It seems that we must once again clarify what questions should and should not be closed with the close reason:
Questions that can be answered using commonly-available references are off-topic. A ...
17
votes
1answer
323 views
Who is voting to close all these questions?
I just went though the closure review queue, consisting of a couple dozen questions with close votes. At least 75 percent of these questions were not even remotely closeable according to the ...
17
votes
2answers
284 views
Hold-Reason Suggestion: “More Research Desired” (MRD)
I was reading some posts on improving question quality and narrowing the definition of the General Reference when I had an idea. What does ELU Meta think about putting a question on hold when "more ...
17
votes
1answer
396 views
Proposal for narrowing the scope of the “reference” close vote
I strongly disagree that "questions that can be answered using commonly available references" should be considered "off-topic" at all, but I can at least understand why someone would want to close ...
17
votes
0answers
209 views
when is “primarily opinion based” a valid answer, and not a reason to close?
Possible duplicate of What the "primarily opinion-based" close reason is for.
I think there's a litmus test here that is misapplied.
As an example, Capitalizing Stages of Diseases is ...
16
votes
1answer
241 views
Reword General Reference to include research / ELL
This is a spin-off suggestion from Add a 'too basic' close reason. I put forth that we already do have a 'too basic' reason, General Reference, but the wording should be improved. Here is what I ...
16
votes
2answers
174 views
Potentially improved “proofreading” close reason (for the banner)
So, under this question
making an appointment with a psychologist
I would like to request an appointment with my psychologist and I was wondering if the following sentence is correct:
...
16
votes
1answer
315 views
What the “proofreading” close reason is for
This question highlighted a humorously incorrect use of Elizabethan-era English in a television commercial and asked how it was incorrect. In the original version of the question (since edited), the ...
14
votes
2answers
135 views
How to vote to “Leave Open” without going through every question on the Close queue
From time to time I find a post marked [Close] which I think is deserving of a longer life. It has been mentioned in the past that some people go directly to the Close queue and flip through all the ...
13
votes
2answers
129 views
Amend the “proofreading” close reason
Does the community welcome a proposed change to this close reason which would broaden and clarify it, with the goal of making it more generally useful both to questioners and to people voting to close?...
12
votes
1answer
226 views
what values drive our policy towards question closure?
In recent discussions on this site about question closures, I took away a few values which would appear to motivate some of the pronouncements:
The point of answering a question is to satisfy the OP'...
12
votes
2answers
341 views
Why are these questions about percentages closed?
I came across two very similar questions that were closed as "not a real question":
Another word for "fraction" that fits in conversation like "percent"?
Term for measuring in ...
12
votes
2answers
228 views
How can users nominate old, popular questions for exemption from closure as being of 'historical value'?
What is the proper procedure for recommending that an old question be retained as being of historical (and continuing) interest despite its clearly not satisfying current site standards for research ...
11
votes
2answers
487 views
What the “primarily opinion-based” close reason is for
(tl;dr version: "Primarily opinion-based" is designed to stop "What's the best X?"-type questions. It's not supposed to be used on every single question that involves opinions.)
Until last year, one ...
11
votes
2answers
161 views
What about a “it’s just a typo” off-topic close option?
On StackOverflow proper, one of the possibilities offered for an off-topic close reason is that it’s a simple typographical error.
Although the no-repro part doesn’t apply to ELU, we do have quite a ...
10
votes
2answers
285 views
Why was the buffalo question closed as a duplicate?
Someone recently asked about the famous *Buffalo buffalo ... * sentence, asking for an explanation of how it worked, having read the Wikipedia page and apparently not having understood it.
Buffalo ...
9
votes
1answer
136 views
Single-word-request rule clarification needed
My question Alternative to trumped was recently closed for being opinion-based. However, the tag single-word-requests has 300+ pages of questions similar to mine.
Why is there the tag single-word-...
9
votes
2answers
239 views
Is it possible to write a more accurate Close message?
In a recent question closure, the reason box displayed was:
Questions on choosing an ideal word or phrase must include information on how it will be used in order to be answered. For help writing a ...
8
votes
2answers
109 views
Are 'symbols' and their etymology/usage on-topic?
Recently, this question of mine was closed as off-topic:
Where does the @ symbol come from?
As far as I know (and some commenters have agreed) the use of symbols in English if on-topic.
My argument ...
8
votes
3answers
281 views
This is a great question - why was it closed?
Here is my idea of a great question:
"Key thob" and "key fob"
It turns out whole bunch of people say "key thob" instad of "key fob" - enough for Google to automatically correct ...
8
votes
1answer
279 views
Why was my question on dog terminology closed?
In reference to this question:
Polite alternative to the term "bitch" when referring to a female dog
I'm curious to know why it was closed. The question boils down to "What is a polite term ...
8
votes
4answers
445 views
When you don't remember a “word”
What's that word?
It's happened to everyone one of us, and it happens to each and every one of us more and more frequently as time passes by.
What was that great word I read the other day?
You ...
8
votes
1answer
113 views
Can moderators redirect links from badly chosen duplicates to actual duplicates?
The question Subject-verb agreement when using singular they? recently popped up in the Reopen Votes queue because the poster returned and edited it in hopes of getting it reopened. It had been closed ...
7
votes
2answers
117 views
Why can edits to a closed question be rejected as “should have been written as a comment or an answer”?
Although a long-time reader of various SE sites, I'm new to active participation and still learning the rules and conventions. My question here is about the possible stock reasons for rejecting edits ...
7
votes
5answers
228 views
Is the “review” feature responsible for lazy close-voting?
The following are two examples of questions which have, as of right now, registered a number—four in these cases—of close votes.
How do you refer to a hyponym that is the same word as the hypernym?
...
7
votes
1answer
126 views
What exactly are the “specific concerns” that are acceptable in the Proofreading closure?
I have read What the "proofreading" close reason is for.
But, I'm still not 100% clear what we mean by "specific concerns."
Are we saying that the following would be acceptable:
Is this ...
7
votes
0answers
123 views
I thought my question was a punctuation question
If I thought my question was a punctuation question (which would be on topic) and all the experts here thought it was a typography or style question (which is understandably off topic) how is it ...
6
votes
1answer
85 views
Let's update some links
Under Closing → Off-Topic, please update:
http to https.
meta.english to english.meta.
for ELU.
Meta ELU's looks okay.
6
votes
2answers
108 views
Cross-posting on ELL: which to close first?
Recently, we have seen a spate of cross-posted questions on ELL and EL&U (such as this one on EL&U).
I can understand the frustration of a new user looking for an immediate answer to their ...
6
votes
3answers
189 views
What is the best way of dealing with the questions that are too localised?
I understand that once upon a time, there existed on the menu of possible reasons for closing a question one that was labelled too localized. While the label may not have been perfect, it was ...
6
votes
2answers
224 views
What widely-accepted standards should be used to judge whether a single-word-request is too broad?
This question is an off-shoot of this Meta question focused on the deletion, and consequently on the closure, of a particular single-word-request question.
Deleted Upvoted and Popular Question: Why?
...
6
votes
1answer
154 views
Reasons for dupe-close on question with the tag question-tag?
Can someone tell me why this question on question-tags was closed as a duplicate of this other one?
As far as I can tell, the new question (though not particularly well-written by the standards of ...
5
votes
2answers
233 views
Is this the type of single-word request question we should be closing?
I understand that the site is now discouraging single-word requests, but I'm not clear if this is a sweeping guideline (as in, all of them should be closed) or something to be considered on a case-by-...
5
votes
1answer
141 views
Does the “proofreading” close reason cover questions that do identify specific words or phrases?
I found some background questions about this, but there doesn't seem to be a consensus.
What exactly are the "specific concerns" that are acceptable in the Proofreading closure? Phenry's ...
5
votes
1answer
155 views
Why are word choice questions considered appropriate for this site but sentence structure questions are not?
It seems to me that questions regarding word choice and sentence structure are both primarily opinion-based and generally do not have a single right or wrong answer. I'm curious as to why a question ...
5
votes
0answers
190 views
Why was my post deemed off-topic?
Hypernym for "to increase" and "to decrease"
It is on topic, I'm guessing someone saw I was asking about a video game and instantly closed it. It's about English if you actually ...
4
votes
3answers
256 views
Proposal: Add a “too basic”/“uninteresting” off-topic option
Also see: Proposal: Require a whitelisted URL to close as General Reference
It is clear that many close-voters use the "commonly available references" option as a catchall for questions that they ...
4
votes
4answers
219 views
Proposal: Require a whitelisted URL to close as General Reference
Also see: Proposal: Add a “too basic”/“uninteresting” off-topic option
It is clear that many close-voters use the "commonly available references" option as a catchall for questions that they just don'...
4
votes
2answers
261 views
Why is “Did noted 17th century poet Katherine Philips make a grammatical error?” on hold?
Why is Did noted 17th century poet Katherine Philips make a grammatical error? on hold?
The question is clearly about the history of grammatical development in English, specifically about the ...
4
votes
2answers
138 views
Can moderators change a close reason from 'Please show your research…' to 'Duplicate of…'?
Last week, I asked this question: Can moderators redirect links from badly chosen duplicates to actual duplicates?
The answer (from moderator MetaEd) was
Moderators have the ability to edit the ...
4
votes
1answer
215 views
Reopen Request: Collective noun for lightnings / thunderbolts
Can you please reopen this question:
Collective noun for lightning(s) / thunderbolts
I really think that people were not fair about this question and I really feel like people are being against ideas ...
