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See http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2013/06/the-war-of-the-closes/

  1. “On hold” will replace “closed” on newly closed posts
  2. New close reasons are nicer and clearer
    • “not constructive” and “not a real question” are replaced by "too broad", "unclear what you’re asking", "primarily opinion based"
    • “Off-Topic” now includes site-specific close reasons
    • Duplicates now focus on redirection to the answers you need
  3. Questions edited by the original poster automatically go to the re-open queue

Lots of good ones there for this SE! I'm not sure what "site-specific close reasons" would be on this SE though. Is there any clear thematic pattern to questions closed as off-topic?

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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There are some thematic ones, I think, I can think of at least one. Maybe others can add to this community wiki post.

  1. "Test My Theory" style questions: those questions where the OP clearly has something to say and is more or less uninterested in the answers unless they say "Hey! Great theory!" (which they rarely, if ever, do).
  2. "The Big Question" questions: these are questions like "Does God Exist?" and "What is the meaning of life?" which, though certainly philosophical in nature, are simply way too broad and impossible to satisfactorily answer to be on topic. If, after 2500 years of doing this, we've gotten no closer to (indeed, farther from!) a consensus on how to even approach a question, it's just a bad idea to ask on the internet.
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    "Site-specific off-topic reasons" is a bit strange. The 2 listed here are good reasons to close a topic, sure, but it's not usually because the topic is wrong but rather because it is either not reasonably answered or it solicits extended discussion.
    – stoicfury
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 1:59

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