1

Questions about account support such as this one crop up occasionally. These questions are almost always closed as off-topic, with a recommendation to contact support instead.

Another example that's currently open but may be closed as unclear or dupe.

Obviously the requests asking for us to unban accounts made by users who believe we are the support are off-topic because they aren't questions. However, is this really the way to handle questions like the example where the question is about what to do? I can't find a meta post supporting this (so if it is, let's make this one).

Instead, should we consider these on topic and consider "You need to contact Supercell/Mojang/etc. Support. Here's a link." a valid answer?

5
  • I would only agree to this if we instead close the questions as duplicate of another canonical question which says 'contact support'.
    – angussidney
    Apr 1, 2016 at 9:37
  • @angussidney Do you mean if there's one for the same game, or link every question like this to a single question?
    – Comic Sans Seraphim
    Apr 1, 2016 at 10:11
  • Does one of the downvoters on my answer want to make a case for these being off-topic?
    – Comic Sans Seraphim
    Apr 1, 2016 at 19:47
  • A general question. Q: I forgot my username/password/email for one of my games, or they aren't working anymore. What should I do? A: Look for any forgotten password/username links, and if you can't find any, contact the support for your game. <insert general instructions where support is usually found>
    – angussidney
    Apr 1, 2016 at 20:41
  • @angussidney Then no. Even for that situation, we're better off helping users with each game individually. If they're asking, it means they can't find the forgotten password link in the first place so telling the user to just look for one is unlikely to help.
    – Comic Sans Seraphim
    Apr 1, 2016 at 22:00

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

No, questions aren't off-topic just because "contact support" is a possible answer. These are legitimate (if sometimes poorly researched) questions.

We cannot expect users to know the answer to a question before they ask it. A potential answer should not make a question off-topic.

Additionally, there may be other answers besides contacting support. It may be that there are workarounds, or other actions a player could take to get the desired result without needing to bother support about it. If there was another way for the asker in the example to solve his problem, it's now impossible to add as an answer.

If contacting support is so obvious and the asker has done literally no research, that's what downvoting is for.

2
  • While I agree with the gist, I don't agree with the portrayal of closing these questions as being super downvotes.
    – Frank
    Mar 29, 2016 at 12:35
  • @Frank Fair point. I wasn't implying that this was the reason- I just wanted to remind people that close and downvote have different uses. I'll edit out the link.
    – Comic Sans Seraphim
    Mar 29, 2016 at 16:52

You must log in to answer this question.

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