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Since I have no idea how to message moderators on this site (there doesn't seem to be a way to do this. why is that?) I'll post my question here.

Here the question I asked: Is there an app that generates chunks for Minecraft maps using a command line?

I read the FAQ like the message asked me to and under the FAQ it says:

If your question generally covers things such as …

...

  • Game-specific hardware and utilities

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

so I'm a little confused as to why my question was closed. If this was an error can a mod reopen it please?

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    If there's a largert issue, bring it to Meta as you have. If it seems like an oversight, flag it. There are no private messages. Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 1:03
  • @MatthewRead thanks man :) Commented Apr 10, 2013 at 8:02

2 Answers 2

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Downvoters: I'm explaining why I think it was closed, not saying it should have been closed (I agree with Anna). If you disagree with my reasoning you really need to also post a new answer explaining, just saying "nope" is not helpful for OP.


From the same FAQ:

Please note, however, that site policies prohibit questions of the following types:

  • Game and Mod Development (try the Game Development Stack Exchange instead)
  • Requests for game identification based on personal recollection alone
  • Catalogues (listing games that fit specific criteria or are like an existing game)
  • Shopping advice and recommendations

"Shopping advice" on SE covers "Is there a product for X?" style questions. One of the problems with this subset in particular is that the answers become a (potentially unbounded) itemized list, with each answer being one product, often with little explanation. Votes tend to become about popularity instead of how well they answer the question.

In your question, I don't see any indication why you need an "app" or to use the command line. Asking for a product Y to do X instead of asking how to do X directly is known as The XY Problem, and is frowned upon because it precludes non-Y solutions that may in fact be way better suited to your needs. Since you're asking the question you presumably do not have the knowledge required to determine what types of answers you should get!

Fortunately the "X" is clear from your post, unlike many XY questions. So take the Y away, and the core of your question (as Anna hints at below) is:

How can I generate chunks for Minecraft maps?

Which is a great question for this site. If you do need to use the command line, please explain why in your question, but use the "How can I?" format for best results.

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    hehe, it's funny how people only sees what they want to see...
    – juan Mod
    Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 1:09
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    TBH, it's not really clear that looking for an application that does X is a shopping recommendation.
    – au revoir
    Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 1:55
  • @JasonBerkan Yep, that's common. SE has a broader definition than most people I think. Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 2:29
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    @MatthewRead I think that gets misinterpreted a lot. Not every "I'm looking for X that does Y" is a "shopping question". Most times, folks just want to do Y and assume it requires an app, a script, a product, etc. The core of the question is completely legitimate in those cases.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 4:32
  • Also true. But editors do get very tired of transforming XY questions. Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 4:47
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    @MatthewRead If editors are getting tired, they should take a break from editing (though their work is very appreciated). Less close votes, more new user education. Make love, not war.
    – EBongo
    Commented Apr 10, 2013 at 2:14
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    How on earth was my question re: Shopping advice? And no I read that @jmfsg and that never occurred to me that I was asking for shopping advice. Thanks for the input, guys. Commented Apr 10, 2013 at 8:05
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    @EBongo We also get tired of educating new users. There are orders of magnitude more new users than editors. They have as much of a responsibility to read and understand the rules as we do of explaining it to them.
    – Frank
    Commented Apr 10, 2013 at 14:41
  • @DJTripleThreat Please see my updated post. Commented Apr 10, 2013 at 15:51
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    If you've got the energy to read questions and cast close votes, you should have the energy to explain to a new user why it's happening.
    – Sterno
    Commented Apr 11, 2013 at 2:23
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    @MatthewRead You're right about the downvotes. I was hoping someone else would step up. Thanks for offering an answer, even though I don't agree with it. :) I've posted an alternative.
    – EBongo
    Commented Apr 11, 2013 at 3:08
  • @EBongo Thanks! But your post doesn't really disagree with my guess at the closevoter's reasoning so much as explain why that reasoning may be faulty ;) Commented Apr 11, 2013 at 15:25
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This question should not have been closed. It has nothing to do with the policy on shopping recommendations.

This is targetting questions asking about money, budget, or marketplace - questions that in essence ask what should be purchased.

We decided 2 years ago (albeit with a poor quorum) that mod-rec questions for problems that were specific and correctly scoped would be allowed.

If it's something that can be defined easily [..] then it is acceptable.
So I'd say these questions should remain open, but carefully scrutinized to make sure [the problem to be solved] is something concrete.

We revisited this position 2 months ago with resounding support for a common sense approach to mod-rec questions.

Closing is our go-to solution for too many things.
On our site, these questions take a form where a mod is generally a solution to a problem. Judge questions by the problem being posed instead of the presupposed answer.

In this case DJTripleThreat had a very concrete problem, which is well suited to the expert advise and answers Arqade was formed to provide. I believe we wouldn't even be discussing it if he'd instead asked "How can I create large Minecraft maps based on parameters?" As agent86ix's answer suggests, just because mods are suspected as a solution by the asker does not make the question bad.

"I want to solve this concrete problem" is a good question for this site, with or without "using a mod" at the end.

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  • Thanks, I'll reword these types of questions more like this in the future. Commented Apr 11, 2013 at 20:30

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