Recently there was a question asking about generating all subsets of a set using a stack and a queue, which was closed (and now deleted it seems) as not a real question for no good reason, since it didn't fit into any of these conditions:
It's difficult to tell what is being asked here.
No, it was clear what was being asked.
This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form.
Not ambiguous, not vague, not incomplete, definitely not rhetorical and could easily be answered if one knew the solution.
Now, the exact same thing has happened with this question:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2791982/a-shortest-path-problem-with-superheroes-and-intergalactic-journeys/2793746#2793746
I am interested in hearing a logical argument for why that question is either ambiguous, vague, incomplete, rhetorical or cannot reasonably be answered in its current form.
It seems that (the same bunch of) people like to close questions that they think are homework questions, especially when they think people want to be served the solution on a platter, which is also not the case:
Any suggestions or ideas of how this problem might be solved would be most welcomed.
Most of the time the people asking these questions are very reasonable and appreciate even the most vague idea, yet their question is closed.
Let's go further and assume that it IS a homework problem. So what? When I registered here I didn't see any rule that said not to post homework problems, nor do I see such a rule now. What is wrong with posting homework problems that makes people hunt them down with a passion to close them without even reading the entire question body?
This site is full of questions asked by people who get paid to know the things they are asking, yet their questions are considered fine. How is solving someone's homework problem worse? In some places (like where I live), computer science is a mandatory high school subject, and not everyone is interested in it. How is helping at least those people worse than doing someone's JOB?
Not answering homework questions is fine and it's everyone's choice, but I consider closing them to be an act of power abuse, selfishness, and an insult to the fellow community members who are also interested in a solution or want feedback on their proposed solution.
So my questions are:
- Why do questions like the above get closed for reasons that do not apply? Why do you close them? Why don't you?
- Why doesn't a vote to reopen a question reopen it automatically? Needing 5 votes for a reopen takes too long, and it's not fair because one reopen vote basically cancels out a close vote, making it 4 close votes (or 5 to 1, which is the same as only 4 people wanting to close the question), which isn't enough to close the question. I think a question should only be closed when CloseVotes - ReopenVotes >= 5.
I'm hoping this will stay up, but I realize it probably won't. In either case, I think this is worth saying and discussing, since it IS community-related.
