Revisiting closure, part 3.2: Drawing the line for code

Question

There is considerable dispute about when questions about code should be closed. As far as I can see, this mostly applies to questions about HTML, CSS, or similar and not to questions about scripting graphic-design tools (correct me if I am wrong). Obviously it would be good to establish some clear guidelines for this and hence I am asking:

What is a good criterion (or set of criteria) for which code questions should be closed?

Answering and voting

• Suggest one criterion (or set of criteria) per answer. Ideally, an answer comprises all relevant cases.

• As I consider this a problem of previous discussions on this topic: Please try not to rely on examples too much. There is nothing wrong with using examples for the purpose of illustration of a criterion, but defining via examples is problematic: It leaves room for interpretation and requires that everybody is familiar with the example’s context and understands why you evaluate the example the way you do.

• Indicate agreement and disagreement on answers by voting.

Food for thought

• Could we base a criterion on whether the task in question can also be performed with “classical” design software?

• Would it be reasonable to categorically exclude implementing interactive or conditional aspects, such as, user interactions or querying the platform, a database, or forms?

• What kind of questions actually lead to problems as collected here? The main issue will probably be that we cannot evaluate answers to such questions.

• Is it a reasonable to ban questions that ask for help with producing valid HTML, CSS, or whatever?

• There is no rule that questions cannot be on-topic on multiple sites in the Stack Exchange network.

Previous discussions

• Aftermath of webdesign.se - should we be a bit more open to front-end questions?
• CSS/HTML questions
• What would be an appropriate use of HTML or CSS tag

Answer 1

Suggestion: Disregard the fact that a question uses code when deciding if it is on- or off-topic.

HTML & CSS are tools, just like Illustrator or Photoshop or a pencil and paper.

On a basic level, I do exactly the same thing in Illustrator or InDesign or on paper with pencil that I do in code with HTML & CSS. I also see no fundamental difference in the questions asked of those tools. With that in mind, I see no reason that a question should be off-topic simply because the method being used is code rather than an application’s GUI.

That isn’t to say that all code questions should be on-topic, only that the code in and of itself shouldn’t be reason for a question to be off-topic. As much as possible, the same reasoning in determining if a question is on- or off-topic should be applied regardless of the tools being used.

A few things to note…

• A code question may very well be unclear or too broad, and should be closed as such.

• If it is decided that implementation questions are off-topic then this would hold for code question too, but that should hold for all questions, regardless of whether it is a CSS question or a Photoshop question. The same applies for “tech-support” or any other close reason; all should apply regardless of the tools used.

• If low quality code questions become a problem because of the code (i.e. the code itself is the problem, not a more fundamental reason such as being too broad), quality guidelines (e.g. requiring an MCVE) should be implemented that need to be followed for a question to be on-topic (much as we do for critique or font-id questions).

• The fact that a question is on-topic on (or even better suited to) another Stack Exchange site should not be a reason for it to be explicitly off-topic here. It’s fine to direct someone elsewhere, but that shouldn’t exclude them from asking here.

How to determine if a code question is on-topic.

To be on topic, a question using code simply needs to either;

1. Directly solve a visual design problem. That can be; “How do I draw an X sided polygon?” or “How do I increase line spacing?” or “Does this color convey X, Y or Z?” etc.

2. Address an issue that a visual designer may reasonably face. This is a bit more fuzzy but akin to how, for example, questions about client management, workflow, automation etc. are all on-topic but not visual design problems. An example using code could be “How do I load a custom font in CSS?” or “How to semantically markup a CSS grid system?”.

With the aim of consistency, a rule of thumb for determining if a question is on-topic should simply be (similar to Wrzlprmft’s suggestion); If a sufficiently similar question using tools other than code would be on-topic then it is likely on-topic too.

The aim here is consistency. That is all.

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Note, I am purposely considering this at a very fundamental level. Without establishing a fundamental reasoning for dealing with code questions, any distinction seems arbitrary.

I’m also mostly considering this with HTML & CSS in mind; if there was an influx of jQuery or more technical questions then maybe there would need to be further discussion on the matter, but that isn’t the case as of now.

Answer 2

Furthering the mentality of my answer in one of the linked meta questions (I have a lot more experience with GD.SE than when I posted that answer), I would argue that all HTML or CSS questions dealing primarily with code implementation should be off topic. They are essentially tech support questions, of which we already have too many from design software. We should limit our scope to only questions regarding the theoretical-level graphic design nature of web questions.

Questions dealing with web-related code can already be asked and answered on other Stack sites like StackOverflow or others (depending on the exact question).

So more theory questions such as these should be kept:

• Text not very readable on different image backgrounds
• What's the best way to animate an illustration for the web? (though it's on the broad side)
• CSS snap point design guidelines
• How to properly set the css leading
• Responsive web design is based on screen resolution or screen size?
• Changing icons or graphics based on user geographic location/language?
• Are physical units for web design a good idea?

And implementation questions like this should be closed:

• Can't figure out why my opacity overlay isn't showing 100%
• How do I use a custom font in an SVG image on my site?
• Using Google Fonts with only CSS access?
• How can I create this irregularly-shaped border with pure CSS (no images)?
• How to control word-spacing in justified text with CSS?
• How can I left-align the text in a table of divs so that the rows are evenly distributed?

I think that this is the only way to be consistent while still allowing the majority of web-related questions that have been asked here.