I asked a question yesterday, and spent a lot of time making sure that I described my problem exactly, and that I provided example code which exactly displayed my problem. I didn't know what my problem was, so I couldn't completely generalise it, but I generalised it as much as I could, without knowing the problem. (I cut if down from 247 lines to 24 lines.) However, when I checked it this morning, it had been closed as "too localised", and not one of the people who voted to close it bothered to comment why it was too localised, or how I could fix it. Why don't people comment? The question is here. (I have specifically tried to generalise this question. If you vote to close this question as too vague, I will personally hunt you down and kill you. =P)
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5Stack Overflow gets some 7k new questions every day. That's one part of the explanation why no one comments any more :)– PekkaFeb 13, 2013 at 0:17
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7My guess for your particular question is that the closers read: «To run the code you will need a Raspberry Pi, and will need to download Minecraft from here You then have to navigate into the api/python/ directory. I have renamed my mcpi directory minecraft, so you will have to either rename your directory, or change the import line from import minecraft.minecraft as minecraft to import mcpi.minecraft as minecraft.» and said "Are you kidding me? You want me to buy some hardware, then install and configure a bunch of crap before I can answer your question?", which I think is sort of fair.– jscsFeb 13, 2013 at 0:21
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1However, the answers indicate that none of that is necessary. So, some credit to you for doing your best to make an SSCCE, even if it isn't really SC, and I've voted to reopen. Your more general Meta question, on the other hand, has been asked many, many times here. Here's one example that will link you to some others: Require a comment regarding the close reason– jscsFeb 13, 2013 at 0:22
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Ah! I see. I was trying to be helpful. (I was following the first rule of the FAQ... "Be Specific"...) Would it have been better if I removed the list of requirements from the end?– daviewalesFeb 13, 2013 at 0:24
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Incidentally, what is "SSCCEE" and "SC"?– daviewalesFeb 13, 2013 at 0:24
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I see the helpful intent, and it's probably best to have that stuff in the question. I just suspect that it may have caused an allergic reaction on the part of the closers.– jscsFeb 13, 2013 at 0:26
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I see. Should I try to reproduce the problem using standard Python libraries, and rewrite the question?– daviewalesFeb 13, 2013 at 0:30
1 Answer
I cast 40-50 close votes a day. If I had to come up with an exact reason for every one and explain it, I wouldn't be doing much else on the site at all. (Same goes for down votes).
There are multiple, general choices for me to make. Sometimes, I do comment when I don't think the general choices are specific enough. Other than that, I trust that the poster of the question will take a second look and expend some effort trying to improve their question.
As for your question; it looks like there's a bit too much code, and you haven't narrowed things down much. That's just my initial guess from looking at it. With so much code and not much previous debugging to narrow things down, the question is unlikely to help future visitors.
Another thing to note: There were extensive requirements to even try to run your code sample; Very few will be able to do that.
You note in your comments below that the technology you are working on is basically brand-new; This could have had a significant impact on the closing here. As usage of that technology grows (and in this case, that is very likely), the chances of this happening again are much reduced.
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Actually, the top half is the two error messages, and the bottom is only 14 actual lines of code if you exclude comments. Would it have been better if I removed the error messages? I literally could not have removed one line of code from my example without breaking it. Feb 13, 2013 at 0:19
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3@daviewales No; it would have been better if those requirements didn't exist. But please note that I'm not necessarily saying I agree 100% with the close. I'm just giving you what seems to be the most likely reason, and answering why we don't comment on everything we vote to close. Feb 13, 2013 at 0:23
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I see. My problem was that I didn't know what my problem was, so I was unable to generalise it further. I know what the problem was now, thanks to a couple of answers that scraped in before it was closed, so I'll try to rewrite a more general example that only requires the standard Python library. Feb 13, 2013 at 0:29
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@daviewales Keep in mind, also, that it's possible you hit a (not-so) sweet spot where your question was 'too localized', but was still able to get an answer. That can actually happen with some frequency. (Not that it's something anyone should seek to do) Feb 13, 2013 at 0:33
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I can sort of foresee this question becoming less localised in the future. There are over 1 million Raspberry Pis in the wild, and Minecraft for Raspberry Pi was only released 2 days ago. The API that I was using is the whole point of Minecraft for Raspberry Pi, so it's probable that there will be half a million users in the near future. Not all of them will have trouble with threading, but I'm sure some will. Feb 13, 2013 at 0:38
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@daviewales Yes, actually; you have hit on one of the possible items related to "Too Localized" closings. With more people using the technology in question, that is a much less likely occurrence. Feb 13, 2013 at 0:39