Is "this works, but are there better ways?" too broad?

Question

I just failed a reopen audit for C# Arrays - Using them to store game level in which the OP has a working solution, suspects that there may be better ways to achieve the goal, and asks, at the end:

The thing I'm not sure about is how efficient this is, having an array for each piece of information doesn't seem that memory efficient.

Is the idea I have a good solution, or is there a better way I haven't thought about?

Any advice would be great! Thanks

The review was presented as one that had been closed (though it actually hadn't been closed), and the audit expected me to reopen: "This was an audit, designed to see if you were paying attention. You didn't pass. There are no major problems with this question. You should click Reopen, or make minor corrections via Edit and Reopen."

Unless there's a single solution to this sort of thing, isn't this too broad? There are lots of possible answers, and which is best would depend on the usage patterns in the OP's application, and other factors. Since it's a question about efficiency, I don't think that it's primarily opinion based, since any solutions could, at least in principle, be compared.

Might this be more appropriate on, e.g., Code Review or Programmers?

Answer 1

There is no code to review, so it will be a bad fit for Code Review. It may be a better fit for programmers but that site tends to lean towards language agnostic.

This question has many issues in my opinion. Being too broad could be one of them since it really leaves the door open for any implementation other than the one shown. It is also hard to tell what the OP is asking, because the question is phrased in such a vague manner. On top of both of those reasons is a lack of understanding for this current approach, which hits an off topic reason.

Overall it is not a good fit for stackoverflow. It at least shows some attempt, so I think that rules out off topic. I think it is more broad than unclear so I would agree with your assertion that this question is indeed too broad.

Answer 2

The question isn't a great candidate for the audit review because, in my opinion, it's not "easy" (and audit reviews are supposed to be easy).

An algorithm selects questions for the audit, not a human. These kinds of questions are bound to turn up every once in a while. But don't worry - as long as you aren't failing them often, there will be no negative impact.

That said, it's about a software algorithm, it's practical and the OP is specifically looking to improve memory efficiency which is, in my opinion, an answerable question with a narrow scope. I do not think it's off-topic.

Answer 3

Posting a solution and then asking if it's any good is a yes/no question, and those tend to be pretty boring, especially when the answer is yes. I see no reason to re-open such a question, unless the intention is to re-close it soon afterward with a different close reason (say, primarily opinion-based instead of too broad). It's hard to argue that a question whose only possible answers are yes and no is too broad.

A better way to present a question like that is to describe the problem in the question, and then provide the known working solution as an answer. There's no need to solicit other answers because that's implicit in every question ever posted to Stack Overflow. There's no need to ask whether the solution is any good, either, because that's implicit for every answer ever posted.

However, none of that can be fixed merely by opening or closing the question. It's something only the original asker can fix. You could fix it yourself, but that would essentially involve you sniping the asker's solution as your own because you can't post the answer portion in someone else's name. On the other hand, posting the solution portion as an answer can't be done while it's closed anyway, so perhaps re-opening is the right thing to do in this case.

Regardless, I conclude that the question was a poor candidate for auditing in the first place. Better luck next time.