Closing for "Unclear what you're asking" detrimental to educating new users to our guidelines?

Question

I've been much more active in the review queues lately and ran across a few questions over the past days with votes to close for "Unclear what you're asking".

It's not like the questions were gibberish, more like lacking in details or proper terminology and coming from novice users. I was glad to see that, for most of them, there was already an ongoing dialogue with the OP to help them better phrase their question and understand their problem.

Although the close vote requires the OP to:

"Please clarify your specific problem or add additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it’s hard to tell exactly what you're asking. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question."

I think it needs to be considered that novices don't always know the proper terminology to their issue and guided questions from the community are likely more helpful than a close vote. I also find "Unclear what you're asking" has a lot to do with the readers' perception. I could take a bunch of questions out there regarding software that I don't use and consider them "Unclear what you're asking", but I disgress...

Is there really a good reason to vote to close for "Unclear what you're asking" as opposed to just asking the OP to clarify keypoints of the question in a more guided manner?

I feel that by voting to close right off the bat instead of trying to explain to users what they need to provide in order for us to be able to help them, we are passing a good opportunity to educate new users to our format.

Answer 1

I vote to close as unclear when the question is unclear. It's that simple.

I try and refrain from editing for intent. Because, well, I don't know the actual intent, which is why I perceive the question as unclear. I only edit a question for typographical, grammar, tags, and formatting issues, not content.

I don't feel editing for terminology helps the user. It's better to explain correct terminology in an answer. That way they grasp it better in my view. Merely editing for things like terminology only serves to confuse anyone that doesn't understand the correct terminology in the first place.

I also vote and typically post a comment asking for clarity. There's no telling if the user, especially one with less than 101 rep, will ever return to clarify the question. I mean, watch the questions that "Community" bumps.. and how many are asking for clarity with no response.

My close vote is not something I expect to immediately take action. In fact, I rely on the fact that it does not close the question immediately. But, it's there to count towards the eventual close should the user never return to clarify and others also vote.

Note I don't down vote unclear questions either. I only down vote bad questions.

Answer 2

When you first visit the site as a new user you're going to ask your first question badly.

When high rep users come in and edit your question and make it more like what they expect it helps educate users rather than persuade them to leave the site.

As long as the intent of the question remains the same I believe this would solve the issue.

Answer 3

Yes, we need to educate new users, but I don't think it is even a matter of asking them to follow guidelines.

Most questions are badly asked to some extent. If you really know what question to ask, then the answer is on Google, or you have found the answer by yourself while writing your question, and you no longer need to ask. So the really good questions will rarely show up here...

Now, I have seen many answers, put on hold for "Not clear what you are asking", that got the right answer (in comments), so maybe sometimes some people should look a bit harder.