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While reviewing the Close vote queue today, I ran across a question that I answered myself a couple of months ago. Pre-Meta Effect, the question has been flagged by four different users as "unclear what you're asking".

The description for that close reason states:


Obviously, since there is an accepted answer, someone (in this case, me; in other cases I've seen, other posters) has been able to understand "exactly what you're asking" and provide an accepted solution. Given that, does this close reason actually apply here?

I'm fairly new to this queue, and I was already wondering this before I ran across the post I linked here. I've been skipping over them in the review queue, since I didn't have a settled opinion, but now would like to know if there is a community consensus. My question isn't really about the specifically linked item, either - that was just the catalyst that made me ask about the close reason.


Should we vote-to-close questions with accepted answers with the close reason "unclear what you're asking"?

Possibly related, but at best a secondary question - is there any benefit in leaving hard-to-understand-but-successfully-understood questions open to improve the chances of other, equally hard-to-understand users with similar problems have of finding / using them?

marked as duplicate by gnat, Martijn Pieters, IronMan84, codeMagic, davidism Nov 21 '14 at 16:23


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    A potentially useful quote from Boltclock: " 'unclear what you're asking' is for questions where you just can't figure out what the asker is trying to say, either as a consequence of poor language skills on the asker's part, or just plain vagueness in the question." Wouldn't that, by definition, not apply to a question where someone did figure out what the asker is trying to day? – AHiggins Nov 21 '14 at 15:31
  • Post your comment as an answer, it looks good to me – Carl Onager Nov 21 '14 at 15:35
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    @gnat, thanks for the link - I didn't find that, guess it's what I deserve for doing a quoted search for a phrase containing a contraction :) – AHiggins Nov 21 '14 at 15:49

I believe that in general, questions like that should be closed if they really are unclear. As per the question @gnat linked in the comments, we are trying to build up a repository of programming knowledge here. If someone either through divine intervention or taking a lucky shot in the dark was able to provide an answer to the OP's problem, great. But that doesn't help anyone else out. If the rest of us can't understand it, the answer will never help us. We won't find it to link up dupes. Anyone else on the internet coming here for help will have a hard time finding it, let alone understanding it. It either needs to be fixed or die.

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    I half agree. If there is an accepted answer, that answer should be considered along with the question, and may make its meaning clear. – Patricia Shanahan Nov 21 '14 at 15:47
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    @PatriciaShanahan No. The question should be clear on its own merits; I shouldn't have to read the answers to know what the heck they mean. – Anthony Grist Nov 21 '14 at 15:48
  • What's unclear about the example they posted? It has a sufficient problem statement, as well as both input and desired output to make it clear what they're hoping to achieve. It may or may not be easily searchable, but I wouldn't say it's unclear. – Anthony Grist Nov 21 '14 at 15:51
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    @AnthonyGrist I didn't look at the example they posted. I feel that if the question is unclear (answer or no), it needs to be closed. Editing to make that more clear. – Becuzz Nov 21 '14 at 15:56
  • @Becuzz Ah ok. It sounded like you were referring to the specific example, which I felt was a bad one to illustrate this particular point. Generally I agree with everything you've said. – Anthony Grist Nov 21 '14 at 16:00
  • @Becuzz, since my question isn't specific to the answer, I appreciate your objective response. Do you think that the close reason is still appropriate to use, though? I'm still thinking in terms of the definition by Boltclock I linked to in my first comment on the post. – AHiggins Nov 21 '14 at 16:18
  • @AHiggins I think it is completely appropriate. Like the definition you quoted says it is for "questions where you just can't figure out what the asker is trying to say". Just because one person figured it out doesn't necessarily make it ok. If you vote to close and it goes to the review queue, the community will figure it out. If enough people can't understand it and agree with you, it isn't useful to keep around. If enough people can understand it then they should vote to leave it open and nothing will happen. – Becuzz Nov 24 '14 at 15:31

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