34
votes
Accepted
Are "soft questions" "opinion based"? How about vice versa?
The standard reference for this is "Good Subjective, Bad Subjective".
Note that when we compare the two description you quoted there remains a gap.
On the one end of the spectrum there are those ...
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29
votes
Accepted
What should be acceptable as "context"?
For the specific question, the context seems completely clear. The question reads:
How deep is the liquid in a half-full hemisphere?
I have a baking recipe that calls for 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract, ...
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26
votes
Accepted
I voted mistakenly to close as duplicate. When I realised my mistake, my comment explaining why was deleted.
Your Comment contained a link to an older Question. Although this Question was not the final target chosen by voting to close-as-duplicate, someone may have voted to consider that target the ...
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26
votes
Accepted
Is there anything to improve in this post which is about ambiguity in question about field axioms?
Is there anything to improve in this post?
Yes. A lot.
Remove your commentary about the downvotes.
Remove your commentary about the close votes.
Move your comment about the cross-posting to a ...
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25
votes
"Be nice" vs. summarily closing questions for being too naive or "frustrating"
This is a difficult issue, but I basically disagree with your conclusions in these two cases. Sporadic thoughts:
I didn't vote to put either of those questions on hold even though I saw them in the ...
- 137k
24
votes
Accepted
Is arithmetic mathematics and can we answer questions about it?
The question you mentioned should be closed. The argument given for closing it is arguably prone to cause confusion and dissent though.
In our guidelines How to ask a good question. it is mentioned ...
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22
votes
Accepted
Why is the number of required close votes constant?
Votes do not just accumulate, they can "age away" and how quickly actually depends a bit on the number of views.
Moreover, questions with many views often are disproportionately viewed by ...
- 42.4k
21
votes
Accepted
Was this question a “problem statement question”?
I think there are two separate issues:
The complaint about your edit is of course unsubstantiated. If you face such a situation, please feel free to flag. (Flagging the post can be preferable to ...
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21
votes
Close reason: "lack of research effort"
Complementing Alexander's answer, a close reason of "lack of research effort" is, in my opinion, intrinsically bad for multiple reasons: it is impossible to ascertain how much research effort there ...
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20
votes
Can we please stop voting to close a question just because the question is short?
The question raises a valid point, but does so in a non-optimal way.
Can we please stop voting to close a question just because the question is short?
Yes, sure. Everyone agrees. Let's move on. ...
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19
votes
Close reason: "lack of research effort"
"No context" does function as a bit of a catch-all, and certainly 90% of the time, it is applied to "do my homework!" PSQs. However, there are several reasons it is stated like it is.
Its "forms of ...
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18
votes
A feature requested for the purpose of avoiding unintentional newbie-biting
Sorry about being late to weigh in - I was busy last weekend.
Why I support this feature-request?
The norm re context that we have developed means that new questions at varying levels of ...
- 137k
17
votes
Why should "trivial" questions not meet the guidelines?
TL;DR
This post has many upvotes now, but I'd like to make sure everyone is talking about the same thing. I think it's natural that many of those votes are probably fueled by the sentiment "I ...
- 157k
15
votes
Accepted
Allow question to be closed for low effort
About the first part of your question (about low effort posts) - this is exactly what the "missing context" close reason is for. (Of course, context is wider than just effort - there are ...
- 54.6k
15
votes
Accepted
Closed Question Despite 8 Upvotes and Detailed Attempts – Seeking Clarification
The very first comment asked "What exactly is your question?". It got 9 upvotes - that's a lot. And as I glance over it now, it's still not clear what you're asking.
And now with this ...
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14
votes
Can we please stop voting to close a question just because the question is short?
This (second) answer is specifically about the newly added paragraphe and the question mentioned there:
The question in its original form:
Find the second solution. First solution is 1/(1-x) .Solve ...
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14
votes
Why should "trivial" questions not meet the guidelines?
This is to augment rschwieb's answer (which I agree with) by the following observation:
While there is no causation between (perceived) "triviality" of questions and their closure at MSE (...
- 103k
12
votes
The overeager use of the "unclear what you're asking" close reason
Many questions, even if they should not be closed, should in fact be "put on hold" until they are edited. But in order to vote for that, I have to click the "close" choice ... a bit confusing perhaps....
- 114k
11
votes
Two announcements: new "FAQ" and new "closure rules"
After some discussion among the mod team, we've come to the proposal of changing the wording of the "off-topic: missing context" close reason. We plan to update the message to:
This question is ...
- 34.7k
10
votes
A better taxonomy of unacceptably bad questions.
Software
The only place for custom reasons to close is in the off-topic category.
The default off-topic reasons are:
This question does not appear to be about mathematics, within the scope defined in ...
- 26k
10
votes
Should close votes be used to answer questions?
I am responsible for such close votes so I would like to say a few words about them.
Indeed, it is true that MSE is a question and answer site for people studying math at any level and professionals ...
- 356k
10
votes
Accepted
Why can we vote to close as "primarily opinion based" on meta?
The literal answer to the title question is in all likelihood because nobody bothered to adapt the close-dialogue for the meta site.
That said, also for a meta questions there is a scale of "opinion ...
- 42.4k
10
votes
Kafkaesque question closure(s)
The "off-topic" menu contains some sub-points most notably this:
This question is missing context or other details: Please provide additional context, which ideally explains why the question is ...
- 42.4k
10
votes
Criteria for closing questions as duplicates
It is important to understand that "closing as a duplicate" can be done in different ways. For example, a thing that can be done in such a case is to explain how the duplicate applies. Note ...
- 42.4k
9
votes
Is it off-topic to ask for advice on what courses/subject areas to study in preparation for PhD study in a certain area of mathematics?
Is it "seeking personal advice" to ask what topics are worth studying when preparing to undertake PhD study in a specific area, or is it beneficial to others who may be seeking similar advice?
Yes, ...
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9
votes
Accepted
Is there a convention for whether or not you should vote to close old questions?
The idea is that the focus of moderation should be on recent content, but curating old content is also important. There is certainly no rule against closing old questions.
There are some users that ...
- 42.4k
8
votes
Should close votes be used to answer questions?
If somebody decides to close a question because they think it is not substantive enough, then indeed it is desirable that they articulate this and provided some details. The "other" close reason is a ...
- 42.4k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible