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This is my post which I tried to post at Stack Overflow. But when I tried to submit it, I got the message

This post does not meet our quality standards.

I have checked it for 10 minutes, but I can not find if I am wrong. But I can post it at gis.stackexchange.com

Why does this happen?

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    Wait... that got blocked by the quality filter? Either I'm missing part of the story here, or somebody set the threshold a bit too high...
    – Mysticial
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:16
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    There's no code in your post. What did you try?
    – Bill the Lizard
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:19
  • Yes, I can not post it at www.stackoverflow.com. Nobody can imagine what I have suffered to make it submitted. :(
    – hguser
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:19
  • @BilltheLizard: Are the codes necessary? I am looking for a solution. And why this post can be submitted with no codes stackoverflow.com/questions/16137435/…
    – hguser
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:23
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    Yes, if you want people to spend time helping you, show what effort you've put in yourself. I have no idea how that other question got through without code.
    – Bill the Lizard
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:29
  • @BilltheLizard: Maybe you mean that the codes can make people understand my question easily. Isn't it? But I think it depends. In my post, it do have no codes related since we have not write the codes before we find a possible solution. So what codes can I post in this case?
    – hguser
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:33
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    @BilltheLizard While I agree with what you say, I find it hard to believe that the quality filter is able to distinguish between a long question with proper formatting and grammar (and images) apart from a long question with proper formatting and grammar that lacks a "what have you tried" section.
    – Mysticial
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:35
  • @JoshCaswell: I do not think it is duplicated. Because I just take my un-submitted post as a example. I am not looking for a generic but a concrete answer to tell me why I am wrong in the post.
    – hguser
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:44
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    As one of the moderators has said, there are thousands of questions hitting this filter every day; it's not reasonable to expect each one to have a customized response. Further, the same "do your homework" standards apply to Meta questions as to SO questions: have you read the FAQ question I linked? Have you followed the advice? What, very specifically, are you having trouble with?
    – jscs
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:48
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    I read the FAQ, and I have read almost 20 questions related to the quality standards. But I still can not find why I am wrong. I understand what stackoverflow did using the filter, but I just want a clear error response! Just like I am register a email address, and after I fill the email name fields and hit the submit button. You just tell me my email name is invalidate without further information.
    – hguser
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:54

3 Answers 3

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I had this yesterday and after 20 painful minutes I realised it was because the first letter in the title was lower case. It looks like this may be your problem too.

Seriously Stack Overflow, way to annoy the best software development community you've done such a brilliant job building over the years....

Whoever wrote/released this filter in its current state needs a bit of a talk IMHO.

This was my post. Without that 'H' it did "not meet quality standards".

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    ps, the model of peer editing should render the need for this kind of check entirely void!
    – pstanton
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:37
  • please don't downvote without a comment.
    – pstanton
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:40
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    Your keyboard is broken or something, weird characters appear where there should be letters
    – Cat Plus Plus
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:41
  • yes i had a rant, then thought it better being PG.
    – pstanton
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:45
  • @pstanton: You are right. I change the first letter of the title to upper case. And it is submitted.
    – hguser
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:49
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    Now I'm wondering how the hell this question got passed the quality filter... It also has a lower case first title word and has a pretty crappy body as well.
    – Mysticial
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:54
  • The filter is to be improved. :)
    – hguser
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:57
  • Another example starting with small h. @Mysticial
    – Himanshu
    Apr 22, 2013 at 3:57
  • Had to add at least one line of code for the filter to approve, although the question wasn't about programming at all. :facepalm:
    – Youda008
    Dec 11, 2019 at 9:47
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FWIW: I've dialed back the threshold on this check a bit, since I didn't take title quality into account when I recently analyzed the data to determine an appropriate value.

Since title quality counts for up to a third of the total quality score, small problems with a title can have a large impact on an otherwise-decent post. While I certainly think you should put a bit more work into titles (capitalization and specific details make them much more enjoyable to read), the current guidance for this particular error doesn't make this obvious enough to avoid frustration.

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    "small problems with a title can have a large impact on an otherwise-decent post" - that's the key phrase here.
    – Mysticial
    Apr 22, 2013 at 2:57
  • At the (new, new) threshold, you pretty much have to check all the boxes (short, no caps, all one misspelled word, etc) to damn an otherwise top-scoring post. I'll try to collect data on title quality sometime next week to see if this can be tweaked further, but for now I think it will suffice.
    – Shog9
    Apr 22, 2013 at 3:05
  • I got it, that's to say you can not tell people exactly why his post does not meet your quality standards.
    – hguser
    Apr 22, 2013 at 3:27
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    @hguser: I think the other folks here already explained it pretty well... A good title follows normal writing conventions: first letter capitalized, proper nouns capitalized (Android), etc. I should also note that you added the graph tag when you posted on GIS, which improved the quality score slightly too.
    – Shog9
    Apr 22, 2013 at 3:38
  • thanks for paying this issue attention @Shog9 - i'm positive there is room to tell users about certain issues while i can see the motivation to not spell out everything. this example is one of the former IMO. there must be a happy medium. a site should not alienate the users it depends on simply for not being 'englishophiles'.
    – pstanton
    Apr 22, 2013 at 5:05
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It is the most immensely irritating crap ever. Nobody would use a compiler that just said "Error!" whenever anything went wrong. I certainly lost my inclination to post questions here. An automatic filter needs to justify its response.

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    Considering how many low-effort bad posts do get through I'd say this filter is pretty useless. But hey
    – Cat Plus Plus
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:42
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    If you tell people exactly what's wrong with a low-quality post, they'll do the minimum required to get it to be accepted. There are general guidelines posted in the sidebar. meta.stackexchange.com/a/121049/1288
    – Bill the Lizard
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:52
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    @BilltheLizard: The alternative is that people who write posts that happen to trigger it by accident simply don't come back.
    – DeadMG
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:55
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    If they can't be bothered to formulate a good question, I'm ok with them not coming back.
    – Bill the Lizard
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:56
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    @BilltheLizard I think the point he's trying to make here is that the current settings on the quality filter are getting too many false positives. Based on the other answer, it seems that a bit too much weight is being put on the capitalization of the first letter of the title.
    – Mysticial
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:58
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    @BilltheLizard i have been here for a long time and have in put considerable effort helping people and writing clear and hopefully GOOD questions. I find your comment offensive and was offended when yesterday a question I spent a good 15 minutes formulating was rejected. Do you mean that people like me should leave and not come back?
    – pstanton
    Apr 22, 2013 at 0:58
  • @pstanton If you're putting in effort in your questions, then you're obviously not who I'm talking about, right?
    – Bill the Lizard
    Apr 22, 2013 at 1:00
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    @BilltheLizard then the filter is wrong. I hope we can agree on that.
    – pstanton
    Apr 22, 2013 at 1:07
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    @pstanton No, I really don't agree. Proper capitalization seems like a reasonable think for you to check without being told.
    – Bill the Lizard
    Apr 22, 2013 at 1:14
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    @BilltheLizard Then you are contradicting yourself. And if you were to run into the scenario I did yesterday without any prior knowledge of the cause, you would see my point I assure you. ps try not to make any more spelling mistakes or the quality filter might delete you.
    – pstanton
    Apr 22, 2013 at 1:19
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    @BilltheLizard: Then I wonder why does not stackoverflow publish a statement "People without good English skill will be not welcome here "? Now, to my question, I am not very good at English, but once I tried to post a question, I will write my question first in my text editor, and then read twice at least, and I would use the google translate or something else when I meet a problem. In one word, I have tried my best to make my post understood as many people as possible. Then I think what I suffered by the filter is not deserved.
    – hguser
    Apr 22, 2013 at 2:43
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    And I am VERY appreciated when my post is reviewed and edited by someone. In fact, I will read the review very carefully to make sure a same error will never happen again.
    – hguser
    Apr 22, 2013 at 2:47
  • Exactly, non-native english speakers are basically not allowed to ask questions now.
    – Youda008
    Dec 11, 2019 at 10:00

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