10

A.k.a. reopen this.

I'm referring to question asked by myself - Where to farm experience in Pokemon X/Y?.

I accept that the question could be seen as "too broad" by some. I was unsure if it wasn't - but then I saw an almost identical question that wasn't closed - so I figured it was okay for me to ask.

Moreover, when going to help centre, you an see clearly, that question's scope fits into the page description:

If your question generally covers things such as … 

Gameplay strategies and tactics

…then you are in the right place to ask your question!

Question is marked as "Too broad". I disagree. While there are many different answers possible(but that's the case for 90% of the questions anyway), this is strictly not the case - after 16 hours only one answer was provided(where are "too many answers" again?), and the one provided is great example of what I (almost) had in mind - comprehensive, with detailed explanation. The user surely put his time and knowledge into answering the question - and answer is really good( I only wish he added more places for low-levels, but it's okay).

And since some questions do have multiple answers possible, we're on SE - we can vote, so bad answers("just go into the bush") will get immediate downvotes. Good answers will rise up to the top. This isn't the question about many things at once - it's one specific thing, that can be answered well and you can prove your answer is better(if you provide statistics that your place gives more experience).

But I'm curious to hear your arguments.

8
  • That's the same argument I used when I looked at it. But I think what's happening is that people are twigging on, "comprehensive list". It sounds low quality and no effort.
    – Frank
    Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 9:36
  • 1
    Closing strategy questions seems to be a common theme recently... gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/236676/…
    – user101016
    Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 9:39
  • 1
    And really, asking for a comprehensive list from 30-100 is going to be a large answer. Asking where to farm is easier, as it pre-supposes a high enough level to make use of all the tools available (high level pokemon to carry, exp share, etc.)
    – Frank
    Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 9:39
  • 1
    Comprehensive list is out there to prevent one-line answers (like the one with the bush) - I wanted to specify I want to learn how and where to farm, not only tips where/how to farm. Also, I can't see how this is no effort - I've seen on some Meta post(can't recall where it was) that if you can't find answer by simple google and looking at top scores, or that top scores are too lengthy to chew on - you're encouraged to ask. This is the case.
    – MatthewRock
    Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 9:43
  • 1
    Not mentioning that SE is out there to provide quality content to people who are asking and people who could ask similar question in the future - so closing the question because it "looks like no effort" where you can clearly see many people who could ask the same question(e.g. basing on the other similar question), closing the question can be considered harmful for community and overall goal.
    – MatthewRock
    Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 9:45
  • 1
    I don't think you understand what I'm saying. I can definitely see the question as being too broad, because you're not asking for one, single spot to farm. You want farming spots throughout the levelling grind, which is a critical difference between your question and the one you're citing. That could very well be why people voted to close it.
    – Frank
    Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 9:50
  • 2
    But then again, one single spot to farm looks like a question that should be closed because of primarily opinion-based to me - and that's harder to defend then the question I asked, imho.
    – MatthewRock
    Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 9:54
  • 2
    It's worth stating that a question showing "no effort" should have no bearing on whether or not a question is closed as "Too Broad".
    – Sterno
    Commented Sep 29, 2015 at 19:17

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
9

I haven't been on this site for that long but in that short time have noticed a culture of good cop bad cop. You have people voting to close questions very quickly on one interpretation of allowed questions. That view isn't shared by everyone but unfortunately the people in the review queue voting to close are faster and or more active that people who vote to keep the question open.

You also got the problem of people who don't vote either way, and people who were not around to see the vote.

It would be nice if concerns with questions were added as comments earlier, giving the question a chance to develop. Also a little time to see potential answers come in before people call a closure on an assumption.

Anyway, this all applies to questions with a little grey area rather that blatant off topic questions and spam. Reviewers do a very efficient job on that front.

Welcome to the internet. Don't take anything personally.

3
  • 9
    I've noticed that problem on some SE sites is not that there are people who are posting bad questions, but that there are people who completly forgot about what SE is about. On Linux&Unix SE I often edit questions that are unreadable, and leave them like they were asked by well-versed guy looking for help. I'm doing them a favour, because I know that this is one of site's purposes - as well as leaving questions for future generations. Yet there are still people who would happily close 50% of questions, because they don't like something about it; completly missing the point of the site.
    – MatthewRock
    Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 17:45
  • 2
    I disagree to an extent; While sometimes 'we' may be a little eager to put a question on hold, It is rarely because we "don't like something about it". It is because we feel that the question fall outside the bounds that we deal with. And so a quorum of members agreed that it needed to be put on hold. This is not always done as punishment to the question, sometimes a question needs to be put on hold to protect it from bad answers that could arise from the original phrasing. After it is fixed to be within the rules (or determined that it never outside them) a second quorum re-opens it.
    – Trent Hawkins
    Commented Sep 19, 2015 at 8:48
  • 3
    The close/reopen system is one of the most egregiously mis-designed features of the SE network. And that is something, since basically everything is mis-designed here.
    – o0'.
    Commented Sep 20, 2015 at 15:35
1

Specific case: While I don't necessarily agree with the assessment of this particular question as too broad, there is definitely a strong case for it. The question asks for a comprehensive list, which tends not to work particularly well for this format. However, it is more specifically open-ended lists that don't work well, and I personally don't feel this is one. List questions are complicated, and a good case can probably be made either way.

General case: We do not close questions based on the answers they receive. Questions are closed or left open on their own merits. It doesn't matter, returning to the specific case here, that the question in question only received one answer before being closed. The fact that bad answers are downvoted is orthogonal to the point: questions that do not belong on their own merits should be closed. This prevents bad answers, and helps to keep the site clean and appropriately scoped.

And the system is designed to require some sort of consensus to close a question, and allow for disagreement after a question is closed.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .