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I have posted a question on arqade couple days ago and it was closed soon after. The reason for closing states:

closed as not a real question by OrigamiRobot, fbueckert, ChrisF, Krazer, CyberSkull 19 hours ago

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

The problem however is that the question is not vague in any way. It simply asks for something which people that are not familiar with the game will not understand.

most of the questions on this website are impossible to answer if a person is not familiar with the game in question. A lot of the questions will however make sense to someone that is from the outside o the realm of the game. This however doesn't need to be the case with all questions. Games have specific items quests player names and strategies that are game specific. They might not sound like they make sense to someone who is not familiar with the game.

This is the case with my question. It mentions a player in the game, a race that is game specific and a strategy that is also game specific. This makes a lot of people confused confused and trigger happy with the close button. They are frustrated that they do not comprehend and therefore blame it on the question and mark it down. I've tried to explain everything within a question but having a lot of new terms thrown at you even if they are explained right away does not clear all the confusion.

I have no idea what to do to avoid situations like this one and what to do in situations like that.

I was considering flagging the question for moderators attention but im not sure if its a good idea. Hopefully a moderator would side with me but he might not understand a question either.

How do I deal with this situation?

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    Posting here is the right way to deal with the situation, try to keep the discussion constructive when someone answers though :)
    – juan
    Nov 16, 2012 at 15:31
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    It is honestly not clear to me why the question was closed. Would be happy to see some feedback from the closers.
    – Oak
    Nov 16, 2012 at 16:08
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    While I'm not a Starcraft player and will not take a stand either way, I'll say that it's unfair to claim that people who have voted your question closed must be clueless :)
    – badp
    Nov 16, 2012 at 16:15
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    This question seems equivalent, so whatever happens to one should probably happen to the other. gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/81348/…
    – bwarner
    Nov 16, 2012 at 16:55
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    @bwarner assuming Diamondprox is a well-known LoL player and builds are an important part of the LoL meta-game; which, as far as I understand, is the case.
    – user3389
    Nov 16, 2012 at 17:40
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    @badp I'm happy to hear alternative theories.
    – Decency
    Nov 16, 2012 at 17:59
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    I am late to this party. I did not VTC as NARQ. On the contrary, I thought the question was too specific. This is apparently the result of my misunderstanding of how prolific a player Jaedong is.
    – user9983
    Nov 16, 2012 at 19:02
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    @Decency Being competent at starcraft and being competent at voting to close are different things and either doesn't imply the other.
    – badp
    Nov 16, 2012 at 19:13
  • @badp I think being competent at <a game> is an absolute prerequisite to being competent at voting to close strategy questions about <that game>, especially when the questions are clearly well enunciated (as the two above are).
    – Decency
    Nov 16, 2012 at 19:20
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    @Decency I absolutely agree in the general case, but this question has very little lingo and is perfectly readable by the non-initiated. I don't need to be a Pro Starcraft player to agree with Mark.
    – badp
    Nov 16, 2012 at 19:57
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    Very specific questions should talk a little about the game and give a little more background so there is some greater context. Leading with "Among professional Starcraft players Jaedong is considered the best Zerg player in the world."
    – CyberSkull
    Nov 16, 2012 at 22:55
  • @CyberSkull The question in the OP did exactly that.
    – Decency
    Nov 18, 2012 at 5:28
  • @badp I agree with Mark too...? That wasn't the issue, the issue was people voting to close stuff because they don't understand it.
    – Decency
    Nov 18, 2012 at 5:29
  • @badp Also relevant: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/5876812#5876812
    – Decency
    Nov 19, 2012 at 20:29
  • @Decency I have no idea what that's got to do with anything.
    – badp
    Nov 19, 2012 at 21:26

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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You did exactly the right thing: if you think a question was closed incorrectly, coming here and creating a question explaining clearly why you think it should be re-opened is the appropriate thing to do.

In this case, I'm inclined to agree with you and I've voted to reopen the question, with a few minor revisions to the question body. To address fbueckert's concerns:

  • It's not a practical problem you actually face. Yes it is. Understanding how pro players play is a very large part of the StarCraft metagame.

  • It's too specific to anyone else. See above. Being too specific to anyone else is also not a reason to close a question as Not a Real Question (NARQ).

  • Looking for a link to other things. Not a reason to close a question; even if it was, an enterprising answerer could find the replays themselves, extract the build order directly from them, and post it in its entirety here.

  • "You added 'I will then extract the build order and post it here' to the end of your question." Not a reason to close question: that part just needs to be edited out, and someone should've just left you a comment explaining if do you find the answer yourself, just post it as an answer.

In terms of the revisions I made, I don't think they significantly affect your question: my read is just that you were offering suggestions on ways to get the information, but Stack Exchange works best if you just ask what you're looking for directly. I went ahead and removed those.

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    The primary close reason was NARQ. Dismissing the other concerns as closing it incorrectly does not make it a good question. It being too specific means it's still closable as Too Localized.
    – Frank
    Nov 16, 2012 at 16:37
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    @fbueckert Your other concerns are irrelevant to the closure, but you made no distinction between them in your response to this question. But there is nothing about this question that deserved a closure, which does lead me to agree that the reason for closure, primary or otherwise, was out of lack of knowledge about the game.
    – user3389
    Nov 16, 2012 at 16:42
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    To me, people who describe professional play, no matter how esoteric, as being "too specific to be of use to anyone else" show a dramatic lack of understanding of modern competitive games.
    – Decency
    Nov 16, 2012 at 18:09
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Notice the close reason:

closed as not a real question

And this is directly from the FAQ:

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face.

The primary reason I voted to close it is because you're not facing any problem at all with Starcraft with this question. All you're looking for is someone's build orders. I don't see how deals with a problem you are having in-game at all.

Some other problems I found with it:

  1. It's too specific to be of use to anyone else. You, yourself, are looking for a specific person's build orders. Questions are meant to be helpful to a wide range of users, not just yourself. A good question might be: What are some good build orders for Zerg vs. Protoss? I don't believe that has been asked, and a good answer would include what you are looking for. Additionally, it will help many others.
  2. You're basically looking for a link to other things. You're not looking for explanations as to what makes X a good build order, or anything else. In general, a question that does nothing but ask for links garners bad answers. We're not looking for answers that just provide links; those are the very definition of bad answers. See Why do we allow questions asking for guides and this answer on another question about link-only answers for more information on that.
  3. You added I will then extract the build order and post it here to the end of your question. A good answer would already provide this information. Remember, Arqade is not a forum; people ask questions, and those questions gain answers. As an example, this is what we do NOT want.

If you could generalize your question to point 1 above, I'd be all for voting to re-open it. We'd probably get some excellent answers on good build orders, and that would include Jaedong's, too. Arqade gains some fascinating and (hopefully) in-depth information, and you get the build order information you're looking for, too! Everybody wins!

As a small sidenote, making the assumption that people closed your question because they don't understand it sounds at least a little condescending. Please don't take a closure personally; it has nothing to do with WHO asked it, but with WHAT was asked.

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    Jaedong is the exemplar of good zerg play. Asking how Jaedong plays is of use to every other zerg player.
    – Invader Skoodge
    Nov 16, 2012 at 16:36
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    you're not facing any problem at all with Starcraft 2 with this question Why, perhaps that's why it's tagged with "starcraft", not "starcraft-2".
    – Rilgon Arcsinh
    Nov 16, 2012 at 17:06
  • @RilgonArcsinh Whoops. Typo. Corrected.
    – Frank
    Nov 16, 2012 at 17:12
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    And that's the last time I defend a close vote.
    – Frank
    Nov 17, 2012 at 4:56
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    "A good question might be: What are some good build orders for Zerg vs. Protoss?". That doesn't sound like a good question to me. That would be a textbook case of Not Constructive, a so-called shopping question with no right answers and shock-full of opinion and subjectivity.
    – Ben Lee
    Mar 3, 2013 at 10:36

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