10

The Help Center page at /help/closed-questions titled What does it mean if a question is "closed"? lists the five top-level close reasons and their descriptions.

However, the close reason descriptions have not been updated following the new post notices rollout. As far as I can tell, the new descriptions are displayed only on Stack Overflow.

Can this be fixed for the rest of the sites in the network?

Descriptions of the close reasons as given in the Help Center:

  • Duplicate of...
    This question has been asked before and already has an answer.

  • Off-topic because...
    This question does not appear to be about programming within the scope defined in the help center.

  • Needs details or clarity (earlier, unclear what you're asking)
    Please clarify your specific problem or add additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it’s hard to tell exactly what you're asking. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question.

  • Needs more focus (earlier, too broad)
    Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. Avoid asking multiple distinct questions at once. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question.

  • Opinion-based (earlier, primarily opinion-based)
    Many good questions generate some degree of opinion based on expert experience, but answers to this question will tend to be almost entirely based on opinions, rather than on facts, references, or specific expertise.

Descriptions of the close reasons as they should be (and as on Stack Overflow):

  • Duplicate of...
    This question has been asked before and already has an answer.

  • Off-topic because...
    This question does not appear to be on-topic for the current site and/or belongs on another site in the Stack Exchange network.

  • Needs details or clarity
    This question should include more details and clarify the problem.

  • Needs more focus
    This question currently includes multiple questions in one. It should focus on one problem only.

  • Opinion-based
    This question is likely to be answered with opinions rather than facts and citations. It should be updated so it will lead to fact-based answers.

Improve this question
1
  • 2
    They probably set them on Stack Overflow thinking it would propagate network-wide, but they're actually propagated from this site (Meta.SE). Editing them on a different site will create a site-specific override (and prevent future propagation to that site).
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Aug 14, 2020 at 21:45

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

I've updated the close reason descriptions on the /help/closed-questions help center page network-wide to match those in the "Close" dialog.

I've also updated the names listed in that help center article for 2 of the listed closed reasons to match those in the "Close" dialog. Specifically, I've changed the "Duplicate of..." close reason name to just "Duplicate". Likewise, I've changed "Off-topic because..." to "A community-specific reason", as it appears in the dialog, and added a parenthetical noting that it was previously known as "Off-topic".
(Stack Overflow has a site-specific override of the help center page, as noted in the question/comment, so I've made this change both to the network-wide version and to Stack Overflow's site-specific version.)

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.