I'm not the author of the question, "C# to Java conversion?", but I had written an answer. The question, which is a very specific question about converting a piece of C# code to Java, was closed as "not a real question":


The above close message is totally unhelpful. It is not true that the question is ambiguous, difficult to understand, or any of the other justifications. I guess the real reason was "this question is trivial", in which case Stack Overflow urgently needs more descriptive close messages!

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I probably would have closed it as Too localized. –  Felix Jan 27 '12 at 17:28
One way to justify the selected close reason: "show me teh codez" is not a real question, as far as we are concerned. –  Andrew Barber Jan 27 '12 at 17:46
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2 Answers

up vote 14 down vote accepted

I think that the first comment on that question sorta hits the nail on the head:

What have you tried so far? What does the bg variable represent in this sample? What is your specific question? – Darin Dimitrov 2 hours ago

I actually agree with the close reason. The question is vague. They don't explain what the code is supposed to do (it's sort of clear, but still!), they don't say what the bg object is, and they don't indicate what problems they specifically had with converting the code.

Also, the question was closed over an hour after the above comment was posted. The OP had plenty of time to try and respond to comments / questions, but they did not (in fact they did not comment on the question, or any of the 3 posted answers).

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You're right, this is probably the reason. It's just that the message "it's difficult to tell what is being asked" is so far from the truth it becomes unhelpful: you and everyone else on SO can easily understand what's being asked. I'm actually arguing for another close reason. –  Andres F. Jan 27 '12 at 17:39
@AndresF. It's just my opinion, but I think it is difficult to tell what's being asked, because of the complete lack of context and explanation. Sure "Convert this to Java" is the question, but without some context on what "this" is, it's still vague. I can see what you're saying though. But, I don't think it's a great idea to start adding close reasons (people don't like to look through a long list of choices). –  jadarnel27 Jan 27 '12 at 17:44
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The question was closed because the asker seems to have made no effort to try to answer it on his own, as the two comments mention. Perhaps this could/should have been closed as "too localized" instead, but I find that when a question gets at least one close vote, there is a tendency to select the same close reason.

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