What counts as "not constructive" on Meta Stack Overflow these days?

Question

Over the last couple of weeks, I have found myself wondering about the closure (or near-closure) of some questions on Meta. All of these questions were closed as "not constructive". And in each instance I thought "what exactly isn't constructive about this question?". Especially within the context of Meta.

Some recent examples of what I'm referring to are:

• Does the tag system need revamping? (3 votes so far)
• Where can I find out more about the process of tag cleanup on a Stack Exchange site? (3 votes so far)
• https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/170188/what-is-done-to-extend-outreach-to-other-countries-and-yes-women (by now deleted, so 10k only)
• What do you think of this suggested edit? (4 such votes so far)

And I remember commenting on a couple of others. I'm not suggesting that this is a recent change on Meta. Perhaps nothing changed at all. It is merely something I noticed and paid attention to.

To be honest, I just don't get it. Not all of the questions are great, some have content I disagree with (and I have left comments indicating that), but I don't see how they are "not constructive". Especially on Meta, where discussion is allowed and welcomed (if on-topic).

So my questions are:

• What makes these posts "not constructive"?
• Should these really be closed? Or put in another way, what is the problem in leaving them opened?
• Are we perhaps using this reason to replace/create a close reason we're missing?
• Do we use it to indicate a question/discussion has "run its course"?
• Are we perhaps using it to indicate disagreement?

I would love to hear your thoughts. I have been called out for close votes before which were misinterpreted, so who knows what I'm overlooking in this instance.

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For reference, and for those who can't close - the Meta description for not constructive:

Answer 1

Basically a Not Constructive close vote can mean any of the following:

• It's a rant, not a question (even on Meta that's not okay)
• It's trolling or otherwise garbage, but not quite spam/off topic
• Absolutely nothing good will come out of it
• There's no point, no reasonable way to answer. It's just...what?
• It's just...really really stupid

It's in part used in these ways since there's no "not a real question" (or "noise or pointless") close reason, and, at least IMO, Meta really does need some way to close questions that aren't off topic (per se), aren't duplicates, but really just aren't... constructive questions. As Anna Lear said in a comment, it's basically being used literally on Meta, where otherwise it has a specific, SE defined purpose.

Sure, it's a big of a hack, but IMO Not Constructive matches many/most of the NC closures I see on Meta, certainly more than any other close reason.

As for those specific examples:

Does the tag system need revamping? is a pretty big question, almost just "do you think the tag system could be better" (can't everything be better?), though personally I wouldn't vote to close it.

Where can I find out more about the process of tag cleanup on a Stack Exchange site? Is just poorly asked, IMO. I doubt it would have as many/any close votes if the title were just "how should one go about a tag cleanup".

What do you think of this suggested edit? Reads 60% like "why did Indians vote on my suggested edit" and 40% or less "what was actually wrong with this suggested edit". Once again I think it's the poor wording that kills it.

What is done to extend outreach to other countries and, yes, women? I find it hard to read this question (and it's assorted friends) as "SO why you so white/male/racist/sexist/English/etc". There's no suggestion here and IMO it's a pretty ridiculous question since, to my knowledge, there's really no ethnically/gender based targeting SE does to snag users...in fact most of it is purely organic. And this question, like several others on the topic, quickly devolves into not constructive name calling, defensive posts and generally pure drama that helps no one. I have no problem with the closure, and while I think deletion is a but much, I haven't voted to undelete.