Questions tagged [question-closure]
Use this tag to dispute or discuss questions that have been closed.
58
questions
84
votes
4
answers
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 ...
- 18.2k
29
votes
3
answers
880
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"...
- 80.4k
28
votes
8
answers
898
views
Is reopening of one's own closed question a misuse of moderator privileges?
Two hours after a recent question was closed by five users (four high-rep), the OP (also a moderator) voted to reopen his own question, which is, of course, an instantaneous and binding vote. This ...
- 55.2k
24
votes
3
answers
714
views
I didn't know the yellow ax question had been locked. Did you?
Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture?
Apparently, the question no longer deserves to be open and was locked on January 9, 2018. Is this a surprise for anyone? ...
- 90.3k
22
votes
9
answers
1k
views
Please vote on this proposal to ban from question titles certain words whose posts we usually end up closing and deleting
In reaction to high failure rates of questions with titles containing the
word "problem", the Stack Overflow community long ago forbade these. You
couldn't ask a new question with the word "problem" ...
tchristMod
- 134k
15
votes
1
answer
327
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 ...
- 18.2k
15
votes
1
answer
227
views
Are questions about the use of italics in English off-topic?
Recently, this question was put on hold: Why is "their" italicized?
I'm wondering, why it is considered out of scope? If it's considered to be too close to "analysis of literature," that ...
- 80.4k
15
votes
0
answers
259
views
Why is my question about the stress of "uroboros" a duplicate of the one about the stress of "stigmata"?
Sorry to make a post about "why my question was closed," but I'm having a hard time understanding it.
The question about "uroboros" asks about two things: descriptive information about the history ...
- 80.4k
14
votes
0
answers
357
views
By "gosh", the etymological hydra's immortal head unburied
Revisiting the "Request to reopen “Literal Meaning of 'Gosh'", I observe that a few minutes of dedicated research for that question ("Literal Meaning of 'Gosh'") antedated the earliest OED attestation ...
- 32.7k
11
votes
5
answers
298
views
Bad questions can lead to good answers
Many people at ELU seem to view the relationship between seekers and givers of knowledge as being essentially transactional in nature: the job of the questioner is to state his or her question simply ...
- 18.2k
10
votes
1
answer
155
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-...
- 598
9
votes
7
answers
505
views
What can be done to bring up site quality?
We are now at the point that most questions on ELU get closed. Our 90-day closure rate (10k only) is sitting at around two in every three. Some days it’s worse than that, some days it’s better, but in ...
tchristMod
- 134k
8
votes
2
answers
117
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 ...
- 7,089
8
votes
2
answers
226
views
Is it a bad thing to have your question marked as a duplicate?
This morning I had my question closed and, upon browsing through the answers to the proposed duplicate, I did find half of an answer to my question.
This leads me to wonder about some things:
Is it ...
- 6,435
8
votes
0
answers
261
views
Discussion on reopening a specific question: "Do tenses in a time clause never back-shift in reported speech?"
The question Do tenses in a time clause never back-shift in reported speech? (which I'll call The Backshift Question or TBQ for convenience) has an answer that could be considered canonical for back-...
- 38.4k
8
votes
0
answers
280
views
My question was incorrectly marked as a duplicate. Can this be reviewed again?
I believe there is a clear difference between my question and the question marked as a duplicate. I have edited the post to emphasize how it is different, now I'm posting here to see if someone can ...
- 1,419
6
votes
1
answer
350
views
Can a question ask for an objective explanation of a subjective topic?
"When can a celebrity be referred to by their surname only?" has been placed on hold for being primarily opinion-based and thus attracting opinion-based answers rather than facts, references, or ...
- 9,906
6
votes
0
answers
195
views
Why has this post been put 'on hold'?
My question Why is 'weird' given a sexual connotation nowadays?, has been put on hold as 'off topic', for the reason that 'it is not about the English language'.
Since it queries the current ...
- 64.5k
5
votes
1
answer
117
views
Why is a question about pronunciation "opinion-based"?
A while ago, I asked this question: Is the diphthong /aʊ/ generally realized as [ɑʊ] in British English? [closed] (now closed). I did not receive any answer which is fine but I don't see why this is ...
user387044
5
votes
2
answers
152
views
When a question is interesting but too 'loose', is it better to edit it even if you need to guess, or to vote to close it?
Consider the following question on the main site representative of the questions of interest here:
Is the verb "cast" in acting, metalworking and programming the same verb?
In essence, I ...
- 38.4k
5
votes
1
answer
181
views
How do you handle a poster who consistently asks the same type of off-topic question?
I know this is likely a duplicate of How should we handle users who generate consistently low-quality and off-topic questions? But, that seems like a discussion of a more egregious offender than the ...
- 22.4k
5
votes
0
answers
84
views
Question closed as duplicate but it wasn't
I asked a question about comma usage: Comma in "If in addition"
The question was closed as a duplicate. The question that my question is a supposedly a duplicate of is about parentheses and ...
- 141
5
votes
0
answers
122
views
Can "More formal word for know-it-all" be reopened?
More formal word for "know-it-all" was closed as duplicate of Know-it-alls--a synonym, which is duplicate of Is there word for this, other than know-it-all?, which is duplicate of One word ...
user140086
4
votes
2
answers
266
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 ...
- 32.7k
4
votes
1
answer
38
views
How does one appeal a closed question, duplicate?
I understand there is a need to close duplicate answers, but shouldn't there be some clear instructions about what one can do to appeal? I'm not talking about the option to edit (which is clearly ...
4
votes
0
answers
323
views
Can we reopen this question please? [Now re-CLOSED]
Edit note 2:
The patient and long-suffering OP has now re-asked aspects of this question in three separate posts. So, there's now probably no harm in leaving this one closed.
This useful question on ...
- 45.1k
3
votes
5
answers
189
views
How long should a questionable question remain open?
A question asked one hour ago was recently closed, and my answer to it was deleted. Let's assume for the sake of argument that the question was truly inferior as it was asked, and my answer was ...
user31341
3
votes
2
answers
156
views
Why was my question about '(s)he' vs. 'he/she' closed as being opinion-based?
Could somebody please explain to me how is Between '(s)he' & 'he/she' -- which is recommended/ preferable? opinion-based.
The question explicitly contains
Are both "(s)he" and "...
- 655
3
votes
0
answers
146
views
Why was a question about the origin and meaning of a phrase closed because the origin is known?
Note: The question in question has been reopened.
The question 'What’s the origin/meaning of “from belt buckle to shoe sole”?' was closed because
Mr Biden consistently gives the origin - his uncle. ...
- 32.7k
3
votes
0
answers
72
views
Was the question "etc. etc. usage" closed correctly?
This question was closed as being "opinion-based". But I thought that usage questions were on-topic for this site. After all, the asker says "Is there any rule…", not "How do ...
- 1,005
3
votes
0
answers
53
views
Mechanics of Closing a Question [duplicate]
I'm curious how (not why) this question was closed. I see it is closed as a duplicate by one person, FumbleFingers.
I'm only familiar with closes being done by voting to close (with a required vote ...
- 22k
2
votes
2
answers
192
views
Advanced users of English should be more welcome here
I have been speaking English as a first language for 23 years, I use a dictionary to expand my vocabulary every week, I read a lot, every day, and I actively criticize grammar when I hear it. Because ...
- 733
2
votes
1
answer
77
views
Why was my Groucho Marx question closed?
Why was https://english.stackexchange.com/q/516777/334589 closed? I would've accepted this comment if posted as answer.
The usual Groucho Marx quote is "I don’t want to belong to any club that ...
user50720
2
votes
1
answer
88
views
How does the current version of the "cyan" pronunciation question not show research?
How is "cyan" pronounced and where is the stress?
Note that the question covers both the pronunciation of the vowel and the position of the stress. I edited this post to quote dictionaries, ...
- 80.4k
2
votes
1
answer
53
views
Why is my question about the etymology of "foundation" off-topic?
This question of mine got closed as off-topic, in spite of receiving way more upvotes than downvotes and also receiving a detailed answer. Why did it get closed?
- 327
2
votes
1
answer
64
views
Should this question closed as "not constructive" be re-opened?
Why are “put” and “but” different in their pronunciation? [closed]
I was editing my answer to a very similar question here: Why there is difference in pronunciation of words PUT and CUT? In fact, I ...
- 80.4k
2
votes
1
answer
62
views
Should this question (which has been asked and answered elsewhere) be closed?
The EL&U question "Asking questions" has been asked and answered on ELL. It is very basic, so I don't think it belongs here, but it is not general reference.
Should we close it? If so, what is ...
- 29.1k
2
votes
0
answers
78
views
When are list-questions on topic?
Perhaps this is a bit too broad a question, but we'll see. Here goes.
Right now, the consensus seems to be that list-question SWRs are opinion-based or too broad (and thus off-topic). List-question ...
- 8,450
2
votes
0
answers
95
views
Closure of question that cited Etymonline, OED, & a logic textbook?
Why was this closed, in view of claims to 'please include the research you've done...'?
As stated in my OP, I consulted Etymonline, OED, and a logic textbook.
Update on 2015 May 6: I thank the five ...
user50720
1
vote
2
answers
51
views
Reopen question about how to format footnote references?
The question about Formatting two adjacent footnote indicators in the body of the footnoted text saved my day back in January this year, and I am disappointed it's still closed.
It has had a massive ...
- 514
1
vote
1
answer
68
views
How can word choice questions be closed for being opinion-based?
I asked a word choice question recently, and it was closed within minutes for being "opinion-based". Fine, I suppose it is.
But there are over 11000 questions tagged for word choice, not ...
user333815
1
vote
1
answer
124
views
Why is the question off-topic?
I can see that users are voting to close the question Where does Martian meaning inhabitant of Mars come from? as off-topic.
What’s the problem with the above question? or is it just a question of ...
- 3,841
1
vote
1
answer
56
views
Can we have a vote-to-reopen tag here on meta ELU?
We have a vote-to-close tag, but it would be nice to have a vote-to-reopen tag also, for those of us who believe our questions were wrongfully closed.
- 1,419
1
vote
1
answer
189
views
Why was my question (which exists on academia with lots of upvotes) migrated to ELL?
I have asked a question about a word (so in my understanding a single-word request but I probably tagged it wrongly as word-choice) for the "text" that often appears in the body of ...
- 568
1
vote
0
answers
208
views
Notes to Reviewers [Trial, version 2.1]
English Language & Usage (ELU) is a community for etymologists, linguists, and English enthusiasts. As a Stack Exchange community, ELU shares Stack Exchange's goal to build libraries of high-...
- 38.4k
0
votes
1
answer
82
views
Question was closed as duplicate but is a different question
The question Why did English take the "mix pronunciations and spellings" route instead of one rule route like French, or separate languages/dialects like Spanish? was closed as a duplicate ...
user485570
0
votes
0
answers
75
views
The singular of "the peoples" is "the people". Like in "the essence of a people". Was the question closed after a misunderstanding?
This is about German Singular "Volk" in English: "Das Volk ist mir zum Kotzen" = "The people make me sick" or "The people makes me sick"?.
It was closed, and ...
- 111
-1
votes
1
answer
235
views
Shall we make a list of Low-Quality-Questions regularly on Meta?
As Mari-Lou A pinpointed in Extraordinary spike in low-quality questions by 1 rep users, we have been swamped with Low-Quality-questions (LQQs) recently and it has been overwhelmingly difficult to ...
user140086
-1
votes
1
answer
278
views
Notes to Reviewers [Trial Version 2. Deprecated] [duplicate]
Please see version 2.1 of this trial.
On Stack Exchange, closing a question and putting it on hold is an invitation to improve the question. When you do, your question is automatically queued for ...
- 38.4k
-2
votes
2
answers
177
views
An English language learner better not ask in this site? [duplicate]
An English language learner better not ask in this site?
I asked this question and it had been closed as off-topic(it was reopened).
Some members seem to have an opinion that a learner better not ask ...
- 1,511