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Why are we supporting generic CSS and JS issues when such questions are closed (and deleted) on Stackoverflow due to really bad quality.

A styling issue (CSS) question was asked on SO, received 7 downvotes and was closed due to really bad quality (the OP deleted the question), yet the question here received an upvote and an answer.

Should we handle such questions as this really are telling anyone that if they asked really poor quality generic CSS/JS (and PHP for that matter) questions on SO and they questions get closed due to bad quality, they can get support on WPSE.

Our policy states that any generic PHP/JS/CSS questions are off topic, so why handle them any different and create unnessary and misleading presidents that we do support them. Our policy is already such a mess as no one can really agree on third party plugins and themes (and now really just depends on user discresion), do we really want to have issues with users coming back later (as is the case with plugin recommendations and third party software) and say that "But you have answered these type of questions, why are they suddenly off-topic now" whereas they where never on topic from the start.

We can always have better quality questions moved to Stackoverflow where they belong than closing them here.

To conclude, we are opening a can of worms that no one is prepared to eat when the sh*t hits the fan. We either stay with our policy and treat any generic PHP/JS/CSS questions as we have treated them in the past, or we decide to make those subjects on topic, support them and see own back ends later when everything explodes into a crappy mess (YUMMY)

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  • I'm curious, is this type of post considered generic? wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/98915/…
    – jgraup
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 2:36
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    That is borderline, definitely. I think this was never closed because the issue was resolved using WordPress (using the build in loop counter $current_post*) instead of a generic CSS, and that is the difference. Even when that question cycled through as active when you posted an answer, it never received any close votes (when you get to 3K you will be able to see close votes) so my thought is that the community is happy with the question and the answer and don't see it as generic CSS. But this is just my opinion. If you have issues, you can always post a new question for discussion :-)
    – Pieter Goosen
    Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 4:32

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Personally, I come here to help people out. If it doesn't take much effort to answer a JS or CSS question then odds are I probably will ( albeit as a comment more than likely ). After that I'll vote to close so they at least have a solution or direction to follow AND it eventually gets closed so users can't point to it.

If we're gonna get strict then let's get strict. I think we tread lightly on topics because of all this "grey area" and it's gotten a lot of people frustrated.

I don't think it's inherently bad to answer these types of questions but I do think it's important to point out that the types of questions are Off Topic and will get closed. It's equally important to flag the question and if it does have upvotes, balance it with a downvote. That's my 2¢

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    if this isn't the appropriate place, we should migrate the question somewhere that is rather than answering
    – Tom J Nowell Mod
    Commented Dec 13, 2015 at 18:37
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    @TomJNowell I think the migration process (and the close process) takes too long. It could be stuck in queue for days or weeks before it actually gets moved somewhere so it can be properly answered and then the question may not even be relevant to OP anymore and it just provides more noise on w/e stack we moved it to. I would say a very high chance of the JS/CSS questions have really already been answered in some form on Stack Overflow so taking the long amount of time to migrate it there in the end isn't helping anyone. Of course, I don't have stats or anything that's just what I feel.
    – Howdy_McGee Mod
    Commented Dec 13, 2015 at 18:42
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Ehm, do we? Could you please talk in specifics? Questions about it that were handled, more importantly volume of such questions?

As you point out yourself they are explicitly not in scope. I had personally seen a zillion of those closed over time. Nothing gives me impression of them being supported.

Our policy is already such a mess as no one can really agree on third party plugins and themes

Our policy is perfectly fine and had been stable for quite a while. Individuals might disagree with parts of it here and there. That doesn't compromise policy as a whole.

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  • Those are easy questions to answer so people answer them
    – Mark Kaplun
    Commented Dec 11, 2015 at 16:52
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Our policy is clear when it comes to generic questions.

[…] do we really want to have issues with users coming back later (as is the case with plugin recommendations and third party software) and say that "But you have answered these type of questions, why are they suddenly off-topic now" whereas they where never on topic from the start.

That is the only real problem I can read here. And users only have that kind of problem from time to time because they

  • did not read what's on topic
  • not enough people care about handling incoming questions during a day

And that's pretty much it. If you think I am mistaken, please come up with some kind of stats. Thanks.

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