More reasons to put a question on hold [closed]

Question

There are certain types of questions which are being asked on a regular basis, should be put on hold and don't fit properly within any of the existing reasons for putting a question on hold.

All the situations below these lines can be fitted within a wide interpretation of some of the current on-hold categories. But why bringing restricted definitions to their pure limits, instead of extending them as much as required? It has to be borne in mind that the whole point of the reasons to put a question on hold is to help the OP understand what needs to be changed.

The main types of questions/behaviours which I think that should be accounted for are:

1. "Jeta" subtype:

   • Questions consisting of plain requests to write a piece of code by merely providing the inputs/outputs (or the original code in case of migrations).
   • Questions with a more or less big code (which the asker is clearly not even understanding), no description and a generic request (e.g., why doesn't it work?).

2. Nonsense subtype:

   • Spam or sets of random words.
   • Question written so badly that it is impossible to understand what is being asked.
   • Questions written in a language different than English.

3. Clueless subtype:

   • Very basic questions implying that the asker doesn't have a minimum understanding about the given language (or even about programming in general).
   • Questions which are too abstract or unprecise.
   • Questions which can easily be answered after a 1-min. online research.
   • Questions complaining about errors which are not properly defined (e.g., error message and code line where it happens) or which occur in parts of the code not being shown in the description.

Answer 1

There are ways of dealing with all three classes of question that you mentioned.

"Jeta" subtype

Questions that ask for someone to write a piece of code and/or questions that the asker knows there's a bug but is too lazy to find it can be considered off-topic. In fact, they are often cited as examples of "Plz snd me the codez" questions - yes, that's a technical term here on Stack Exchange - and are closed as off-topic. I don't know of a Stack Exchange site that will allow really crappy questions like these. Different sites have different standards, true, but they all have standards.

Nonsense subtype

This has "unclear what you're asking" written all over it. There are ways of dealing with these questions, and they general involve closing them as . . . well, unclear what you're asking. Not many people can understand nonsense.

Clueless subtype

Sites often have close reasons for these questions. They can be considered off-topic for showing a lack of research effort. Trolls sometimes ask these questions, too - not just naïve beginners - and those are dealt with a accordingly.

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If you think that any one of the these reasons is insufficient, you can always leave a comment - this is very helpful for the asker - or choose the custom off-topic close reason option when voting to close, to expand on your close vote. See Add a custom close reason and Closing changes: on hold, unclear, too broad, opinion-based, off-topic reasons, bye-bye to Too Localized.

Answer 2

These are already covered by the existing close reasons

Unclear what you're asking

• Code dumps with no description or context
• Random sets of words
• Incomprehensible and impossible to understand
• Ill-defined errors or missing context
• Written in anything other than English

Too broad

• Too abstract or imprecise

Off topic - Incomplete debugging

• Code dumps with no description or context
• Ill-defined errors or missing context

Flag as spam

• Spam

RTFM

Declined: A "general reference" close reason.

If you wanted more nuance, that's where the free-form field finds you under "Off topic - Other".