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Questions on Stack Overflow are expected to generally relate to programming or software development in some way, within the scope defined in the faq.

I think my question fits perfectly with that description.

I was asking a perfectly fine question on how to find an URL inside a domain and got downvoted and closed

I just want to know if my question was voted/flagged fairly. I usually know why that happen, but this time they didn't left any comments at all, so it is kind of hard to know read their minds

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    How is your question programming related? Stack Overflow is a site for software developers to ask questions about their programming concerns.
    – user102937
    Mar 14, 2012 at 18:15
  • @RobertHarvey I was expecting to receive a program-related way to do that, like a PHP script or something
    – Yim
    Mar 14, 2012 at 18:16
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    @Yim You didn't tag your question PHP, you didn't show code that you wrote to try to solve your problem.
    – Luc M
    Mar 14, 2012 at 18:18
  • And why I am getting downvoted here as well?, If you don't want to see questions like this, just don't click on them (my title is very descriptive). And don't tell me I am not allowed to ask why one of my questions (with 0 comments) was closed
    – Yim
    Mar 14, 2012 at 18:18
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    @Yim: Downvotes have a different meaning on Meta.
    – user102937
    Mar 14, 2012 at 18:20
  • @RobertHarvey I didn't know about the voting system here on meta
    – Yim
    Mar 14, 2012 at 18:22
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    <sarcasm>I think -6 isn't enough, I still don't get the message</sarcasm>
    – Yim
    Mar 14, 2012 at 18:27
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    Ah, well. Reputation on meta is worth about the same as Monopoly dollars anyway. Which is to say, not very much. You're capped at 1 rep anyway, so it's not like you're losing anything. If I were to guess, I would say that the downvotes are coming from the "Sheesh, why don't people read?" crowd. :)
    – user102937
    Mar 14, 2012 at 18:28
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    @RobertHarvey I don't really care too much about my rating, but I care about the message they are sending to new users... With this behaviour they could scare away people from entering this amazing community (hopefully I am not new and I know it is a great community if you take the time to write proper posts, but what if this happened with a real new user?)
    – Yim
    Mar 14, 2012 at 18:33
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    @Yim: Feedback like this can sting, but the new users who can take that feedback constructively and learn from it generally become productive Stack Overflow citizens. Read the FAQ and how to ask, and watch how other people ask productive questions, and you'll do fine.
    – user102937
    Mar 14, 2012 at 18:36
  • @RobertHarvey just a last thing, I am not new (as I pointed out on my last comment) and I already read all that I needed to read. It looks like I had a bad luck with that particular question... On my older (and lost) account, I had a downvoted post ratio of just 1:10 aprox. I was a member for around 2 years. I am sure if I keep posting like I usually do, I will have 90% good posts, you'll see (except for meta, I don't get how it works and not I am not planning to). So I don't need to 'read the FAQ' to do fine :)
    – Yim
    Mar 14, 2012 at 19:20
  • I can assure you it is like @RobertHarvey said. I was down-voted at the beginning, on MSO, and I have learned how to be a good citizen. :)
    – apaderno
    Mar 14, 2012 at 21:15
  • There's something that feels strange about giving pre-written code to someone whose intention is to brute-force request a few million HTTP requests to a server that he or she explicitly doesn't administer. Where's the elegance in that?
    – sarnold
    Mar 14, 2012 at 22:38
  • I voted to close this because it was not obviously programming-related. Now that it says PHP all over the place, I'm gullible enough to believe that it is programming-related, so I'm voting to re-open (i.e., "undoing" my close vote). You should have titled it that way and made the programming focus clear to begin with, then I wouldn't have voted to close in the first place. It still may not be a good question, but I don't know enough about PHP to make that call. Mar 15, 2012 at 3:49

3 Answers 3

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Actually your question doesn't meet any of the requirements below:

  • a specific programming problem
  • a software algorithm
  • software tools commonly used by programmers
  • practical, answerable problems that are unique to the programming profession

Your looking for a url that is not indexed, how has that got anything do with programming?

@RobertHarvey I was expecting to receive a program-related way to do that, like a PHP script or something

Where in your question did you state this? Even if you did, it would be a give me the code question, and those are discouraged on SO.

In this case, Google will actually be your best friend. If you have problems getting a script working, or understanding it, well then SO is the right place to ask.

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The part of the FAQ that you overlooked is:

...within the scope defined in the faq.

Without that specific guidance, almost any question could be on-topic, including "What pickles will most stimulate my mind while programming?"

You didn't include a programming language tag in your question. It seems unlikely that the user community could answer your question in a programmatic way.

In addition, it is generally expected by the community that you show your work. What have you tried?

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  • The pickles question is kinda silly since everyone knows koolickles are the most stimulating Mar 14, 2012 at 20:21
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    @ConradFrix: Wow, that's really... Eww. I like pickles, and I liked Kool-Aid when I was a kid, but some things should never go together.
    – user102937
    Mar 14, 2012 at 21:07
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It may have been a case of people not actually understanding your question as you wanted it to come across. At first glance, your question comes off as a "how do I use this" question. Your question doesn't really indicate that you're looking to program something to achieve this, nor does it include any programming language that you might be using.

Even if it shouldn't have been closed for this reason, it still should be closed. I would have personally voted to close this as not a real question. Your post contains no information relating to a specific programming problem. All it does is state that you've tried using a Google service that didn't do what you want, and now you want us to come up with something that would work for you.

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