26 votes

Please add more off-topic close reasons

One I think uncontroversial close reason is for things which are typos or which cannot be reproduced: these are about TeX but are unlikely to help any future readers. Thus something like This ...
Joseph Wright's user avatar
  • 257k
16 votes

Questions which are bug reports, revisited

One man's bug is another man's feature... I don't think whether the OP considers it to be a bug is that relevant. If the problem has been identified and fixed by the package author in an updated ...
David Carlisle's user avatar
15 votes

Close voting is not a sport

Let's review the complete original question to see of there's any reason to close it. Title: "Just reducing the f***ing huge space before the first line" This is obscene language. Sean later took ...
Stefan Kottwitz's user avatar
  • 229k
14 votes
Accepted

Are troubleshooting questions off-topic?

Troubleshooting questions are quite welcome but the issue has always been how to answer them. The usual pattern is that a series of comments, none of which can really be viewed as an answer, are ...
Joseph Wright's user avatar
  • 257k
13 votes
Accepted

How to flag a question concerning a software bug

Flagging using the generic 'needs mod attention' function is fine (though we tend to be conservative about closing). Whilst we can add a limited number of custom close reasons for the site, the number ...
Joseph Wright's user avatar
  • 257k
12 votes

When flagging for close: Adding a reason

The feature you're requesting already exists. When closing as Off Topic, you can add a custom reason if you feel that the default ones are not appropriate. In this case a comment is automatically ...
Alenanno's user avatar
  • 37.1k
12 votes

Is closing a question as off-topic for being answered in the comments a valid close reason on this site?

I agree with your interpretation that a question about a problem resulting from a typo or failure to load a necessary package is fair game for closure, although "solved in comments" isn't ...
barbara beeton's user avatar
11 votes

Is closing a question as off-topic for being answered in the comments a valid close reason on this site?

Closing as "solved in comments" is the worst thing to do to a question. If the question does not have enough votes, the closure might make it eligible to be roombad (https://tex....
samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz's user avatar
11 votes
Accepted

How to search for duplicates and handle them?

First of all, understand that having duplicates on a site is not a bad thing. They provide multiple landing points for visitors seeking a very similar solution. That's correct: Different questions ...
Werner's user avatar
  • 598k
11 votes
Accepted

When flagging for close: Adding a reason

Sometimes questions are closed right away, which is unfortunate. SE policy states that closing isn't closing right away, but putting the question on hold, i.e. pressing the pause button. If an ...
Johannes_B's user avatar
  • 24.1k
10 votes

When flagging for close: Adding a reason

I heartily agree that close voters should give reasons, preferably in a comment so that the questioner is engaged in the process and not just informed of the result. Unfortunately, however, this ...
Alan Munn's user avatar
  • 215k
9 votes

What is wrong with my question?

While the question was reasonably clear (at least clear enough to get an answer that was useful for you), there were two things that could have been better: A minimal example (MWE) was missing. This ...
Marijn's user avatar
  • 36k
9 votes

Reasons for closing questions: too little effort

One possible custom reason could be Not generally applicable which is close to the old 'Too localized' reason we used to use. Many of the questions that closed after a comment trail or are 'do it ...
Joseph Wright's user avatar
  • 257k
8 votes
Accepted

Questions which are bug reports, revisited

In general, questions due to bugs should be treated no differently from any others. Thus provided the question is clear and reproducible it should be kept open, and (ideally) answered. For issues ...
Joseph Wright's user avatar
  • 257k
8 votes

Why are the eminent contributors in such a hurry to close questions?

The network model is that closing has a higher barrier than reopening: it takes more votes to close a question than it does to reopen one, and any edits to a closed question put it in the reopen ...
Joseph Wright's user avatar
  • 257k
8 votes

Reasons for closing questions: too little effort

It's possibly true that do-it-for-me questions have wider applicability, but they would only be found by chance. It is unlikely that people will find posts in any meaningful way when you have a title ...
Werner's user avatar
  • 598k
7 votes
Accepted

Is closing a question as off-topic for being answered in the comments a valid close reason on this site?

The 'official' way is indeed to convert the comment into an answer, see How to end the "unanswered" status of really solved questions in the comments and Solved by comment -> how to flag. ...
Marijn's user avatar
  • 36k
7 votes

Reasons for closing questions: too little effort

I changed my mind, let them open! My useless war against just-do-it-for-me questions is over, since it causes more harm than good. From now on, I'll join David's philosophy: I'll ask for an MWE only ...
CarLaTeX's user avatar
  • 61.3k
7 votes
Accepted

Not all options listed in voting to close

The reasons you note that is absent in the choices for voting to close a question as off-topic stems from the original close-voter using the "Other (add a comment explaining what is wrong)" choice and ...
Werner's user avatar
  • 598k
6 votes

How to search for duplicates and handle them?

in addition to the suggestions provided by werner, there's also a very nice meta question Often referenced questions which can be checked for possible duplicates. if something is there, good. if ...
barbara beeton's user avatar
5 votes

Questions which are bug reports, revisited

Thanks for posting this - it goes a long way towards addressing the concerns I raised in chat. This site is entitled to whatever customs it deems necessary to keep up the quality of the content (or, ...
E.P.'s user avatar
  • 1,415
5 votes

What is wrong with my question?

I voted to close the question as "Opinion-based" because of What is the most effective way to achieve the same thing within a macro? Of course, I could just define \funcbig, \funcBig etc., ...
Max Chernoff's user avatar
  • 3,707
4 votes
Accepted

What are the new displays associated with post notices?

This formed part of a bigger "post notice update" that was rolled out 3 weeks ago. The post notices now appear differently, depending on the viewer: Closed notice – Post owner: Closed ...
Werner's user avatar
  • 598k
4 votes
Accepted

Why isn't there the possibility of closing a question for being off-topic?

We had a discussion about close reasons here: Text for 'off-topic' closure. It seems that it wasn't completely discussed and finished. I activated an off-topic text, that was already prepared: This ...
Stefan Kottwitz's user avatar
  • 229k
3 votes

What is wrong with my question?

I voted for closing as “unclear”. You wrote I have a macro that typesets its arguments inside a set of parentheses \left(...\right). For simplicity, let's say it's \newcommand{\func}[1]{ \ensuremath{ ...
egreg's user avatar
  • 1.1m
3 votes

Reasons for closing questions: too little effort

We always had just-do-it-for-me-questions and we will always have them. They are often answered and they will be answered in the future. After all, an answer does help the person who asked the ...
Johannes_B's user avatar
  • 24.1k
3 votes

Reasons for closing questions: too little effort

After a nice discussion with @marmot some time ago. After a long thought, my opinion is as follows: In a diplomatic and democratic way, I, for instance, decided to downvote and cast a vote to close ...
Raaja_is_at_topanswers.xyz's user avatar
2 votes

Migration paths suggestions

In addition to the paths already mentioned, I would say: Code review, Emacs and Mathematics.
CarLaTeX's user avatar
  • 61.3k

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible