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Looks like sometimes moderators might not even be looking at the question description properly and just looking at the title of the question mark it closed.

What I as an OP can do, if I'm not convinced by the reason for closing the question? Should I do something or just go with the some of the moderators decision?

See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7083938/which-one-of-c-or-c-should-i-learn-in-depth-considering-that-im-not-new-to-pro

For this, some of the moderators seemed to agree that the question was answerable, but then some other moderator comes and locks the question giving the analogy of gorilla vs shark. Honestly I had read this article on SO blog before posting my question and I had tried my best to frame the question keeping in mind gorilla vs shark , and that's why I urged that the question is specific enough that perhaps it could be answered.

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  • Which other moderators disagree with the decision?
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 9:58
  • 2 moderators... u can see their comments there.
    – Atul Goyal
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 10:00
  • Sorry perhaps they r not moderators
    – Atul Goyal
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 10:02
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    Your question is subjective, argumentative, too localized and can only be answered with a biased opinion and might end up as a nice BBQ between the C and C++ guys...just saying. And as far as I can see, it already started in the comments.
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 10:03
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    Moderators have diamonds after their user names. I only see one diamond there. (And I completely agree with his comments.)
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 10:04
  • Armen initially closed it but then he voted to reopen as per his comment
    – Atul Goyal
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 10:08
  • Armen Tsirunyan is not a moderator, he's a 10k-user. Also, he and 4 other users voted to close, and he and 4 other users need to vote to reopen.
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 10:11
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    @Bobby: Actually, that won't work. Bill the Lizard (a moderator) locked the question, which means that it can't be re-opened except by another moderator.
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 10:14
  • @Cody Gray: Yes, I know...I was trying to explain the mechanic behind that...though, poorly stated.
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 10:15
  • Looking at the downvoting on this question, which indicates this is a bad question, I wanted to delete it to cleanup but it won't allow me as there is upvoted answer. What to do?
    – Atul Goyal
    Commented Aug 27, 2011 at 11:23

2 Answers 2

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As the question currently stands, I'm in complete agreement with the closure as "not constructive" and Bill the Lizard's explanatory comment:

Does no one read the SO blog anymore? Gorilla vs. Shark was just posted yesterday.

You don't provide anywhere near enough information about your background, situation, hopes & dreams, etc. for us to actually provide constructive answers.

For example, do you want to learn OOP? If so, learning C++ is probably a better choice than C. Do you want to learn systems programming at a fairly low level (without diving down to assembly)? If so, then C is definitely a good choice, along the lines of the reasons Joel gives in the article you linked to.

Yes, someone could post the above paragraph and more as an answer. But that's not a very practical answer. Jeff makes this point in his blog post:

2. It’s not nearly specific enough.

Where will the fight be, in what location? Underwater, or on land? What are the rules of the fight so we can determine a victor? Will it be to the death, or under some type of points system? Can they be trained specifically to fight by trainers, or are they completely on their own? Without any kind of scope, every answer can make any assumptions they like — and there will assuredly be hundreds, all different.

3. It is difficult to learn from these questions.

[ . . . ]  But even under ideal circumstances there really can be no absolute answer to this question other than “it depends; both animals are adapted to their particular environment and have certain strengths and weaknesses.” This is a good answer, maybe even the correct answer, but it’s just not that useful.

My suggestion is that you follow the instructions in the blog post to improve your question. He takes the title of a bad question, turns it into a little-bit-better question, and then turns into a sort-of-acceptable question, and then turns it into an actually passable question. Do the same with yours.

And once you've done that, consider reading the FAQ for the Programmers.SE site in anticipation of posting your question there. As it contains no actual source code and does not solve an actual programming problem, it is probably not a good fit for Stack Overflow.

More subjective questions are allowed there than are on Stack Overflow, but that (as the FAQ points out) does not mean that "anything goes". Another useful blog article might be this one, which tries to explain the difference between good subjective questions and bad subjective questions. Make sure that yours is a good subjective question.

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  • Thanks this was useful. I'll edit my original question
    – Atul Goyal
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 10:17
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    @Atul: I didn't actually say to edit your question. I recommend giving up on that one. Even "improved", I don't think it's a good fit for Stack Overflow. Like I said, investigate the possibility of reposting on Programmers.
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 10:18
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    @Atul - however you will have to include specific information about the problem you want to solve otherwise the question will be closed on Programmers. We don't answer "what language should I learn?" questions that don't have supporting evidence.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 11:28
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In addition to @Cody's excellent answer to the specific post in question, I thought I'd take a stab at answering the broader question you ask; what to do if you disagree with a moderators decision to lock/close/merge/destroy/laugh at/etc. something.

Moderators are people too, and can make mistakes, but I doubt anyone is firing off deletion actions in the dark, as such there is usually a strong evidence in the post that the action is merited, and correct.

In other words, if you strongly feel the decision to [insert actual action here] is wrong, you can flag the post for re-evaluation, or ask on meta (as you did.)

However, and here's the deal many leave out, be prepared to defend the post and explain why you feel the action taken was wrong.

Merely saying "This should not have been deleted" is not going to change anything at all, and will only serve to lower your flag weight.

Note that this is not in relation the specific question you asked about. It did, however, seem like you were asking two distinct questions:

  1. What to do if I disagree with a moderators decision (and evidence points to me being right)?
  2. What about this particular post?
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  • 1
    While you certainly can flag the post again, I think bringing the issue to Meta is perfectly acceptable once an action has been taken by a moderator. That gives you a little more space to justify your opinions than the flag dialog and it lets the general community air their opinions as well.
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 11:56
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    Oh, I agree, the exact way to handle it depends on the situation. My point was that if all evidence points to the moderator being wrong, then getting a second opinion, through either flagging or meta, is entirely possible.
    – Lasse V. Karlsen Mod
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 11:58
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    I definitely agree, getting feedback from the community is always welcome. I only locked that particular post because the OP was arguing that it was good enough as-is, instead of editing to improve it.
    – Bill the Lizard Mod
    Commented Aug 17, 2011 at 12:26

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