The following question under the [r] tag poses a rather clear question (although it was closed as being too broad) about how to make a specific plot, it includes an example of the kind of how the plot should look like. The question does not however show that the OP has done a lot of research. The question was downvoted quite a bit.

I would like to discuss wether this question is a good fit for Stack Overflow. I'm torn, on the one hand the question is clear and has a clear answer. On the other hand, the question does not show much preparation (which does not mean that the OP did not prepare).

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    Here's the problem with that question: "I have never used R." Shouldn't we expect some minimal level of knowledge from question askers? – Robert Harvey May 7 '14 at 20:01
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    "How do I use R? Like, all of it?" is Too Broad if anything has ever been Too Broad. – roippi May 7 '14 at 20:09
  • @roippi tHe OP is not asking for people to learn him R in its entirety, but asks how to make a specific plot. That is less broad than you suggest. – Paul Hiemstra May 7 '14 at 20:13
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    The question is really not very clear. Which parts of the displayed picture are actually essential, and which can be changed? Neither of the two answers look exactly like the example. Also, where are the data coming from? What form do they have? – jscs May 7 '14 at 20:14
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    @PaulHiemstra Not in entirety, no, but teaching him enough about R to understand how to create a plot based on some data, given nothing as a starting place, most certainly. – Servy May 7 '14 at 20:27

Looks pretty textbook too broad to me. To really answer the question it requires teaching the user everything they need to know about the language, starting from square one, to get to that point. There's no way that a complete answer to that question would ever fit in an SO answer. The only way to fit an answer into a post would be to post an incomplete answer that the author will have no way of understanding.

The question needs to be narrowed in scope to a more specific problem that the person has in trying to solve this greater problem; one in which a complete answer can be given with no more than a few paragraphs.

The fact that the author of the post appears to have done no real research is not the direct reason that this question is closed. (It is likely why it has gotten so many downvotes.) Of course, indirectly a lack of research is a probable cause for why the person is asking such a broad question. More research into the subject is likely needed for the author to focus it to something reasonable.

Josh also makes a great point in stating that the question really is unclear. We don't know, specifically, what type of data he has, what aspects of his example graph are essential for the question and what are not.

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