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Questions tagged [off-topic]

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This tag is for questions regarding off topic questions (in other words: questions for which a community-specific close reason applies), including whether a question is on topic and what to do with off topic questions. DO NOT use this tag to post questions you know to be off-topic for the site.

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54 views

Are there times that questions are more or less likely to get closed as off-topic before they can get answers?

I was wondering whether the time that a question is posted has an effect on whether the question is likely to get closed as off-topic. I noticed that some questions that look like they fit the ...
4
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1answer
158 views

How should you handle non-closed, non-down-voted questions if you are not a moderator?

I would like to ask about the following, systematically observed, moderation-style of the biology site that I would loosely interpret as planting "answer traps". Here an example of what I ...
3
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2answers
61 views

Question with multiple topics: site recommendation

I want to ask a question that involves several topics: a PHP framework, MySQL database, user experience, page loading performance, server performance. Since the question is complex, I can't find a ...
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1answer
94 views

Do questions about the identification of objects/species have a place in the Stack Exchange Network?

When I made an account for the Earth Science Stack Exchange, I came across this meta post: I've had enough. Let's ban rock id questions. In this post, the author addresses the issue that the website ...
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1answer
104 views

The off topic notice should include option to migrate in the notice, and allow author to do it [duplicate]

I recently googled for a topic, found a very similar question of the same topic in Stack Overflow, and posted my question. After a few days nobody had answered it, but I found the answer on my own and ...
0
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1answer
178 views

Is the chatroom to be used for topic related chatting or not? [duplicate]

I found a chat section in Stack Overflow. Is it to be used for simply chatting or a particular topic? For example, if Android is the name of the chat room, is there only Android-related chat allowed?
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3answers
106 views

Add intentionally off-topic tags

There are quite a few threads asking about tags that tend to lead to off-topic questions: Suggestions for Off Topic Tags Should tag-wiki discourage off-topic posts for mostly-off-topic tags? What ...
13
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2answers
207 views

How should I deal with a stubborn, annoying user?

Long story short, out of the blue there appeared a user that seems determined in their attempts on derailing discussions I start on SE. At first they were attempting to start comment wars and being ...
4
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1answer
96 views

How does this question “not appear to seek input and discussion from the community”?

Question in question: Is it a good practice to write an answer to respond to another answer, rather than actually answer the question? It is closed for being off-topic with the reason: This question ...
27
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0answers
157 views

Why are the “off-topic” flag options (including “blatantly off-topic”) listed under “needs improvement”?

When I see an off-topic question on a site where I have the "cast close votes" privilege (mainly, SO), I can click on Close, select "A community-specific reason" (AKA/previously, &...
18
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7answers
476 views

Has your site blanket-banned a whole class of questions that were originally on-topic, and how did that work out?

I'm brainstorming streamlining close reasons at Chinese.SE where there are few question styles which are problematic (e.g. "what's a good resource for XYZ?"; "what does this say?")....
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3answers
82 views

Do not show questions with off topic votes in Top Questions on meta

The default view for meta.stackexchange.com is Top Questions. This list very frequently shows off-topic questions that are (mostly) intended for Stack Overflow main. Such questions usually have a ...
-15
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1answer
121 views

Detect off-topic to suggest sister-site

I have frequently visited stackexchange.com/sites to look for the right site to ask a question. Yet I still make mistakes, that I think can be prevented, and thereby save time for moderators. And ...
-14
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1answer
193 views

Avoiding misuse of SE/SO for online university tests during COVID-19

A number of science and technology-related sites have traditionally considered homework off-topic. As far as I understand, this is because we aim to create a base of answers which are useful for ...
34
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0answers
287 views

Please reinstate the words “off-topic” into the closing dialog

Recently, the button for "off-topic" in the closing dialog was changed to "A community-specific reason". To be clear, I agree with the gist of the change, since "off-topic&...
17
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3answers
229 views

Missing flag option “Should be closed” resulted in rejected flag “Please familiarise yourself with standard flags”

On meta.stackexchange about an hour or so ago, this happened. Normaly encountering an off-topic post I would flag as "Should be closed" which directs me to a number of options: Blatantly off topic, ...
0
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4answers
313 views

Improving my question about the Teachers' Lounge so it can be reopened

I am trying to improve my Meta Stack Exchange question Rename the Teachers' Lounge in order to get it reopened. It was closed in October 2019 for the reason "This question does not appear to be ...
-8
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3answers
363 views

When can someone show gratitude on this site for things a person has done (not necessarily on this site)?

I have read this question. It doesn't seem like a question to me; it looks more like a comment one can put below questions and answers. I thought one should avoid comments (assuming this question is ...
15
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1answer
262 views

Why is a bug report about Stack Overflow's search functionality considered “off-topic”?

A bug report I posted earlier today (Search fails to find matching issues) was just closed due to being "off-topic". This is despite the fact that it is a very clear, easy to reproduce bug affecting ...
8
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0answers
105 views

Why don't off-topic close notices indicate which specific users voted for specific off-topic canned reasons anymore?

In the old notices, on questions closed as off-topic, the notice would not only indicate all of the close voters who closed the question, but also the specific users who voted for specific canned ...
6
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1answer
105 views

Is it valid to edit “how to do off-topic X” questions into “Where to ask how to do X”?

Some day this week I came across a question that a asked about a Microsoft product licence thing. The question title and body was a clear "Where to ask about ..." I agreed with one comment that ...
2
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3answers
184 views

Should we close old Winter Bash questions?

I see a few questions in the Close Votes review queue here on Meta Stack Exchange for specific questions about the challenges and rewards of Winter Bashes gone by. Some people are voting to close them ...
24
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3answers
305 views

How many people re-post their question in the correct place after accidentally posting it here?

As a lurker here on MSE, I regularly see people posting questions that were meant for another site on the network, usually by mistake. These questions invariably receive comments directing them to the ...
20
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2answers
727 views

Is an off-topic political message inherently rude or abusive?

A user posts a blatantly off-topic political message on a Stack Exchange site, but expresses it in civilized language. For example, something like this might qualify: Don't vote for [politician], ...
-8
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1answer
72 views

Help on viewing a seemingly deleted answer on a marked off-topic post? [closed]

I asked a question in the physics stackexchange about the fastest ramp ending velocity for science project and it got one answer before it was marked off-topic for being too similar to a homework ...
10
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5answers
491 views

Upvoting off-topic questions

Someone on Meta has started to upvote many/most off-topic questions. These are questions asked by people who are simply lost, here's a couple of examples: I want to understand how to interpret ...
7
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1answer
170 views

Yet another feature request to prevent off-topic questions be marked as HNQ

Recently one questions on Web Applications (WA) reached the HNQ. This was tagged dns by the OP. The WA's dns tag excerpt currently says (emphasis mine) Domain Name System - Usually questons(sic) ...
4
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1answer
37 views

Can we have an auto-comment for the Off-topic flag

There are a lot of questions here on MSE that really deserve to be on any other "main" site in the network. They are usually met with a ferocious amount of downvotes, and usually closed (quickly). ...
3
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0answers
49 views

Clarification on “what if _ happened?” off-topic questions

Many (all?) Stack Exchange sites include an off-topic question category that reads: you are asking an open-ended, hypothetical question: “What if ______ happened?” I read this as referring ...
11
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2answers
199 views

How do we make changes to a site's scope?

We are discussing this topic at Earth Science Stack Exchange, because our homepage has many questions asking to identify their rocks based on a picture. Some of us want to no longer accept such ...
3
votes
1answer
58 views

Any widget to close questions as off-topic in one click from questions list?

I am moderating a site overflown by off-topic questions sent to us by the wizard. 80% of the questions can be recognized as totally off-topic by just looking at the questions list. Problem: I still ...
4
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1answer
68 views

Has the idea of something like, “Before asking a question, you must read what's on-topic for this website.” been explored before?

The problem I see: A lot of communities on StackExchange have dealt with newbies that join their particular community and quickly ask questions that are considered off-topic. Heck, you can even see it ...
6
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0answers
49 views

Add the “can no longer be reproduced” and “does not seek input and discussion” close reasons to all meta sites

Meta Stack Exchange and Meta Stack Overflow have two very useful off-topic close reasons in the closing dialog. I'm talking specifically about these two: This question does not appear to seek input ...
9
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0answers
69 views

Don’t tell people with no account at every possible point to join Meta

We get a lot of crappy questions on Meta from people who don’t in any way understand it, most of the time thinking they’re on Stack Overflow. If we want to decrease the chance of this, what if we didn’...
11
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3answers
152 views

Examples of questions on Meta.SE that would merit a Very Low Quality (VLQ) flag

In this answer responding to a user asking about why their Very Low Quality (VLQ) flag was declined on a blatantly off-topic question here on Meta.SE, Tinkeringbell ♦ mentions, The VLQ flag IS NOT ...
8
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2answers
264 views

Is the VLQ flag appropriate for blatantly off-topic questions here on MSE?

The endless stream of blatantly off-topic questions never ceases to flow into MSE, which is a topic that's been brought up many times. I've written a userscript that automatically casts a close vote, ...
-25
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1answer
226 views

What REALLY defines on and off topic? [closed]

So I'm getting fed up of my questions - which I consider to be genuine - getting voted as being Off-Topic, for reasons that don't make sense in comparison to other questions. For example, my latest ...
-5
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2answers
148 views

When there is a mismatch between the question title and question content - is an answer off-topic?

I am addressing the situation when there is a mismatch between what the question title asks for, and what the question body asks for. Given the mismatch, any answer can address either the title or the ...
-10
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1answer
83 views

Feature to detect if a question is about programming and thus off-topic

What if we had some sort of warning that users' questions seem off-topic, especially on MSE? It seems to me that a large majority of the blatantly off-topic questions here should be on Stack Overflow. ...
-5
votes
1answer
120 views

What is the point of “primarily opinion based” for networks that do not deal with exact science?

I am asking this my self for some time and I cannot figure it out: Many good questions generate some degree of opinion based on expert experience, but answers to this question will tend to be ...
4
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0answers
40 views

Guide new users away from Meta [duplicate]

There are a lot of blatantly off-topic posts put here on Meta. These are apparently people who somehow got to this site without realizing their questions about things like programming aren't supposed ...
-5
votes
1answer
70 views

MSE should handle questions about a single SE site when they're asking for external input

A fairly old question about how we do things on Ask Ubuntu just got closed with the site-specific off-topic close reason that you have on MSE: This question's topic is only applicable to one ...
3
votes
0answers
63 views

How were the off-topic close reasons previously displayed? [duplicate]

I just came across this question on English.SE. The banner says it was closed by a moderator as "general reference", which is not one of the 5 standard close reasons (duplicate, off-topic, too broad, ...
-5
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2answers
162 views

My questions keep getting closed; how do I improve? [duplicate]

Often when I ask a question it gets closed, but I don't understand what makes it too broad or off-topic and people aren't explaining it in comments. I'm getting frustrated; I want to contribute ...
8
votes
0answers
188 views

What's with the uptick in blatantly off-topic posts lately?

Generally, we tend to get around a few blatantly off-topic questions here on this site because...reasons. However, yesterday and today (UTC), I noticed that the number of off-topic questions had ...
11
votes
1answer
223 views

Are “unofficial” fun or swag questions allowed?

A recent question about possibly applying a historical lock to old swag/fun posts led me to think about how on-topicness is defined for swag/fun questions. Right now, all or virtually all of our fun ...
-12
votes
1answer
241 views

Migrating Comments to Chat Off Topic(words of warning, short)

Apologies for the rough edit, but it's too much work at this point to put it back the way it was. and the original post really was too long anyway. The reason for this post basically boils down to the ...
12
votes
1answer
173 views

Where to ask about Stack Overflow for teams

When should questions about Stack Overflow for teams be asked here on Meta Stack Exchange and when on Meta Stack Overflow? The tag wiki excerpt is not really useful, as it doesn't specify when a ...
5
votes
1answer
56 views

When should I vote to close as “off-topic -> does not appear to seek input and discussion from the community” vs “unclear what you're asking”?

Two of the close reasons here on meta, "Off-topic -> This questions does not appear to seek input and discussion from the community" and "Unclear what you're asking", seem to mean essentially the same ...
3
votes
1answer
92 views

Is sharing ideas fine on meta sites? [duplicate]

In my experience, sharing ideas (which are opinion-based and not really questions by nature) is fine in meta sites. The posts can be: Announcement posts. For example, in Net Neutrality and Stack ...

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