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Off-Topic close reasons should always include ways to fix the problem and alternative websites, if the question is unfixable. Current options:

  • Questions about general computing hardware and software are off-topic for Stack Overflow unless they directly involve tools used primarily for programming. You may be able to get help on Super User.

    Good.

  • Questions concerning problems with code you've written must describe the specific problem and include valid code to reproduce it. See SSCCE.org for guidance.

    Technically, it is not off-topic, but an incomplete question. It's hard to choose between this option and unclear what you're asking option.

  • Questions must demonstrate a minimal understanding of the problem being solved. Tell us what you've tried to do, why it didn't work, and how it should work. See also: Stack Overflow question checklist

    Again, not off-topic; again, too close to unclear what you're asking option.

  • Questions on professional server, networking, or related infrastructure administration are off-topic for Stack Overflow unless they directly involve programming or programming tools. You may be able to get help on Server Fault.

    Good.

  • Questions asking for tool or library recommendations are off-topic for Stack Overflow as they tend to attract opinionated answers and spam. Describe the problem and what has been done so far to solve it.

    So-so. While it gives suggestions how to make the question appropriate for SO, it does not provide alternatives, and in case of tool and library recommendations, the answer to "what have you done so far" is often "googled and found A, B and C". The linked question on meta is quite specific.

  • This question belongs on another site in the Stack Exchange network

    So-so. It again suggests Super User, so it is duplicate, but not Server Fault (no consistency).

On the whole:

  1. Options describe the specific problem and demonstrate a minimal understanding of the problem being solved (essentially "what have you tried?") should be moved as sub-options of unclear what you're asking.

  2. An alternative should be added for tool or library recommendations option. That is, if there is any good website for comparisons like on Wikipedia ("C# vs Java", "Text editors" etc.) It should probably also be a sub-option of primarily opinion-based, because that is exactly what it is.

  3. A list of another sites in the SE network should include Server Fault. Maybe it should include other sites, but I don't know statistics.

  4. Period is missing in two of the options.

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  • I think the overlap with Code Review is worth a special call out. Code snippets are frequently submitted to SO with a request for help in making them "better" in some way, typically clearer, DRYer, etc. This is arguably in the domain of Code Review, but the implementation of this policy seems arbitrary. Is "functional correctness" the only legitimate topic for code feedback on SO? What about performance? See meta.stackexchange.com/questions/185842/… for an example. Jun 26, 2013 at 2:43
  • In general, I think the "off topic" wording suffers from the same problem that the "not a real question" wording did previously. The typical English interpretation of what the words mean is much narrower than the category definition. I realize that this question of taxonomy has received a lot of work/attention, so I don't want to glibly suggest a specific alternative, but it would be nice if the breadth of the wording matched the breadth of the category. Jun 26, 2013 at 2:51
  • Can you tell me where you found the detailed documentation you reviewed? All the SO help and FAQ pages I've been able to find still point to the old taxonomy. Jun 26, 2013 at 3:26
  • @PeterAlfvin I've just clicked the "flag" link under a question on SO. Jun 26, 2013 at 3:32
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    Regarding the recommendation link: I'd actually like to switch that up for something like this, but I'm letting that discussion bake for a bit more. Also, you can find some additional discussion of the specific off-topic reasons here: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/185142/…
    – Shog9
    Jun 26, 2013 at 6:22
  • "Technically, it is not off-topic, but an incomplete question. It's hard to choose between this option and unclear what you're asking option." <-- well, no, technically, it's off-topic, because the off-topic reasons includes that, in fact, verbatim. And we're saying incomplete questions are off-topic, and have no intention to start incompletequestions.stackexchange.com, but if we did, they might be on topic there.
    – djechlin
    Jul 8, 2013 at 19:14
  • @djechlin "incompletequestions.stackexchange.com" moseys on over to Area51.... ;)
    – WendiKidd
    Jul 12, 2013 at 22:16
  • When reviewing I find it confusing that "incomplete"-reasons are under off-topic. It's simply not the same thing.
    – keyser
    Aug 10, 2013 at 13:42

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