How can a closed topic be re-opened?

Question

I had a valid post downvoted by some people here jumping to conclusions in what might be an attempt to gain reputation or something, but I asked a question on StackOverflow about converting a string to an array. There were a bunch of people with very good answers to this valid question. However: my example contained "NL" and "DE"... Country codes of two countries not in the US, but the point was to convert a strong to an array. The fact that "NL" and "DE" were in the string had NOTHING to do with the question.

It was closed for being too location-specific. Check the question here, there are two countries in the example, but they have nothing to do with the problem and therefor this question is NOT only valid in a small geological area. Unless I'm in the only country in the world where strings are sometimes converted to arrays.

I'm just a bit frustrated a good question gets downvoted by some people that CLEARLY didn't read the question, hurting my reputation and hiding good answers to a valid problem that could occur ANYWHERE in the world. So... is there anything that can be done to reinstate this question?

Answer 1

Your question was closed as 'too localized' because as written, it only applied to your code and your specific situation.

One of the (many) things that differentiates Stack Overflow from other sites (and from those icky things called forums) is that every question on this site should be useful to future visitors. If they're not, they should be closed as too localized.

Your question did not meet that standard, and thus was closed.

I don't agree with the closing, because I think the question could have been salvaged. Remember, though, the first person who should be making sure the question is in good shape is the person asking it. In this case, you.

Admittedly, your question had a few things wrong with it, all of which on their own would not have caused the question to be closed, but all together they become a little much to bear.

For instance:

Your closing sentence was,

"So, basically any 2 letter word"

You didn't take the care and effort to formulate the ending of your question. It's just sitting there. That can cause people to say, "If he's not going to put effort into his question, why should it stay open?"

Second, you didn't show your effort in the question. Your question had a plzsendtehcodez feeling to it, and the community doesn't like those one bit.

When you were asked what you had tried, you never put it into the question. Clarifying points should always be added to the question. Comments are a bad medium for most things -- and clarifications are one of those things.

Finally, you lost your temper in the comments:

Closed as too localized?? Only because the examples are "NL" and "DE" instead of "US" and "CA"... The problem still remains the same, converting a string to an array. I think this topic can be very useful to people and DOES NOT need to closed!

And again:

@NikiC, Marc B, tereškom, Lucifer, Claus Jørgensen, closing this doesn't make sense! This question has NO localized content. It has NOTHING to do with any geographic area! This is a question about converting a string to an array, nothing more, nothing less. It might be good for your reputation to downvote valid questions, but people will miss out on good answers to serious, NON LOCALIZED questions!

All caps and exclamation points aren't generally signs that you're a happy-go-lucky guy. Rather, they tend to point towards someone who is none-too-happy about their situation. I get that, but it doesn't endear others to see things your way.

I've edited your question to give it a chance to stay re-opened. If it gets closed again, there's not much I can do.

In the future, your best bet is to take great care in asking questions. The more care you take in asking them, the more likely people will answer them with that same level of care.

Answer 2

Here's how the "too localized" close reason reads.

This question is unlikely to help any future visitors; it is only relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet. For help making this question more broadly applicable, see the FAQ.

Emphasis mine.

"Too localized" can mean that the question is focused on a small geographical region. In my experience, though, that applies to a really small proportion of questions closed with that reason. It's much more commonly applied to questions that ask for a solution to a narrowly defined problem. Something that probably won't help a future visitor, as the close reason describes.

It's cool if an answer to your question helps you, but that's not the main reason the question exists. Stack Overflow wants to gather answers that'll help future visitors. We want questions and answers to have life.

In your case, you've asked for a specific regular expression. The expression would work for your input, but not generally for anyone else's. That is a common case for application of the "too localized" close reason, and that's why five* Stack Overflow users voted to close. It would have helped (as I write in the comments below) if you had described the general requirements for your expression, in addition to your sample input and output.

_{* Well, three, really - two others might have voted to close for a different reason, but I doubt it.}