20
votes
Accepted
What to do with tutorial requests? -- part II
Yes, allow them.
If you think it's a bad question, downvote it. If you think it's off-topic, vote to close it. If you don't like them, ignore them. I'm not going to defend low-effort questions, but I ...
- 20.1k
11
votes
What to do with tutorial requests? -- part II
I'm really glad this question has opened up the discussion and to see so many participating. I've intentionally waited a long time to answer because the longer I think about this, the more ambivalent ...
PieBieMod
- 4,406
8
votes
What to do with tutorial requests? -- part II
I think the main point that was missed, is that the real problem (IMHO) doesn't lie in the asker, but rather in those who answer.
Obviously the low quality questions are, well, low quality and ...
- 9,999
7
votes
Why are Software Recommendation questions being closed and migrated?
Software recommendations do have their rightful place here. Finding the right tool for the trade is equally important an issue as the tricks of the trade itself. If the question fits our subject, it ...
- 25.3k
6
votes
Changing how we handle low-effort and tutorial-on-demand questions
In my opinion questions should be closed if:
They cannot reasonably answered in this format (or at all).
They cannot be reasonably answered by this community.
The first case is usually well covered ...
WrzlprmftMod
- 14.9k
6
votes
Is there a risk that we do not have enough community moderation with this election
It's a bit difficult to answer this question without first coming to an understanding of how moderation is currently getting done... So, let's do that.
Here are some statistics on various moderator ...
- 101
6
votes
Revisiting closure, part 2: What are good motivations for closure?
‘Gimme teh codez’
This is a phrase which has been used for many years on StackOverflow especially to refer to questions which show no evidence that the asker has done anything at all to try to arrive ...
- 2,979
6
votes
What to do with tutorial requests? -- part II
Thanks for directing me to this conversation Vincent, I think this is a very important topic.
In general - Yes.
My opinion is we definitely shouldn't be giving full on-demand tutorials on this site ...
- 4,076
6
votes
What are our current policies and guidelines for closing questions?
General rules of thumb
Closure is primarily about preventing answers, not about punishing bad or lazy questions (downvotes can do this).
Before you vote to close a question, always ask yourself what ...
5
votes
Accepted
How should the process for mods reopening a question differ?
I'm the one who reopened it and I make no apologies for it. To make things clear I didn't discuss it with fellow mods or anyone else. None were on at the time or maybe I would have, but I wasn't going ...
- 23.1k
5
votes
Revisiting closure, part 1: Preliminaries
Tech support
Are we closing too few or too many questions as tech support?
How can we define tech support in a better and clearer way?
How can we re-phrase the custom close reason for tech support?
5
votes
What to do with tutorial requests? -- part II
I know that some of these questions are annoying, and yes I think requiring some effort would be best.
However, sometimes these come from absolute raw beginners (who may be genuine or not).
Do we ...
- 88k
5
votes
What to do with tutorial requests? -- part II
Based on the views of this question as well as Why do how-to requests bother you? as well as countless older meta discussions and conversations there seems to be one specific problem that some have:
...
- 23.1k
4
votes
Accepted
Is there need for a third custom off-topic close reason?
There's so much talk these days of what's on topic, and what's off topic.
While it would be nice to tell lazy people to go away, that's what we're here for. That's what I'm here for anyways.
We ALL ...
- 23.1k
4
votes
Is there a risk that we do not have enough community moderation with this election
I'm very hesitant to post anything regarding how this site is run.....
But... I'll add this....
It's great to have at least one moderator that will be around at given time periods in general -- you ...
- 211k
4
votes
Is there a risk that we do not have enough community moderation with this election
It's a valid concern and you're right, moderators shouldn't have to hammer things closed and the community should be able to close and edit and do most "moderating" type stuff on their own... but we ...
- 40.8k
4
votes
Why are Software Recommendation questions being closed and migrated?
As far as I'm concerned nothing has changed and these are still on-topic as long as they're for graphic design related software. The creation of a Software Recommendation Exchange in no way diminishes ...
- 23.1k
4
votes
Changing how we handle low-effort and tutorial-on-demand questions
I think we have two issues:
Our close reasons are too similar and open to interpretation
People too liberally using Close Vote when a Downvote would suffice
In 2015 we got rid of "Brainstorming" as ...
- 23.1k
4
votes
What to do with tutorial requests? -- part II
Yes.
There is no problem with answering these kinds of questions, they should be upvoted when useful and answered as usual.
- 25.3k
4
votes
What to do with tutorial requests? -- part II
I'm going to say guidance is necessary.
First, I agree with the points made by
Billy Kerr
and zeethreepio.
The answer shouldn't be a flat No, but we do need to know where to draw the line.
I want to ...
- 1,830
3
votes
Revisiting closure, part 2: What are good motivations for closure?
Our community cannot judge answers to the question
A central aspect about the Stack Exchange system is that answers are evaluated by users via votes and thus good answers raise to the top.
This ...
WrzlprmftMod
- 14.9k
3
votes
Accepted
How should we deal with multiple questions per question?
When are multiple questions a problem?
A few rules of thumb:
Questions should only be asked together if their answers (if asked separately) can be expected to strongly overlap.
Otherwise, they ...
3
votes
Revisiting closure, part 1: Preliminaries
Broad Answers
What is wrong with broader answers?
If a question needs to be answered in broad terms, does that make the question bad?
What is a broad answer then?
3
votes
Revisiting closure, part 1: Preliminaries
Code questions
What sorts of questions requiring code are on topic?
What requirements do these questions need to meet?
3
votes
Revisiting closure, part 1: Preliminaries
Too Broad
Are we closing too few or too many questions as 'too broad'?
How can we better define 'too broad', if at all?
3
votes
Revisiting closure, part 2: What are good motivations for closure?
The question does not fit the general Stack Exchange format
These are questions that would not be a good fit for any Stack Exchange site¹.
Questions not fitting Stack Exchange’s question-and-answer ...
WrzlprmftMod
- 14.9k
3
votes
Revisiting closure, part 1: Preliminaries
Basic Paradigms
What’s our general goal when closing questions? When should individual users vote to close?
Do we want to close questions because they have a low quality?
Do we want to close ...
3
votes
Accepted
Changing how we handle low-effort and tutorial-on-demand questions
As of today, we deactivated the off-topic reason 'no effort':
If you're asking for help with implementation, please include what you've tried and why it didn't work with screenshots. Please edit ...
- 25.3k
3
votes
Changing how we handle low-effort and tutorial-on-demand questions
First, I agree that there is a lack of voting and an overuse of close votes/flags. Seeing questions with multiple close votes and no downvotes makes no sense to me. If a question is poorly written or ...
- 40.8k
3
votes
How should the process for mods reopening a question differ?
We mods understand that it's no fun to overturn y'all's decisions. Especially if five high-rep users gave their opinions, it kind of defeats the point of the 'self-moderation' of this community. That'...
- 25.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible