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We have number of close reasons, aside from the SE-network-wide ones:

  • Questions seeking recommendations for specific products or places to purchase them are off-topic as they are rarely useful to others and quickly obsolete. Instead, describe your situation and the specific problem you're trying to solve.
  • Questions on the use of electronic devices are off-topic as this site is intended specifically for questions on electronics design.
  • Questions on the repair of consumer electronics, appliances, or other devices must involve specific troubleshooting steps and demonstrate a good understanding of the underlying design of the device being repaired. See also: Is asking on how to fix a faulty circuit on topic?

We regularly ask, especially new users, to understand that such questions are off-topic.

However, we don't have an official ruleset that reflects these, so these users could not have known! I bet that frustrates a lot of first-time users, and we'd probably be moderating less and answering more if our rules actually listed them.

However, what they list currently is:

and it is not about …

  • a shopping or buying recommendation
  • consumer electronics such as media players, cell phones or smart phones, except when designing these products or modifying their electronics for other uses
  • Programming software for a PC

So, situation is this

type of prohibited question "on-topic" help close reason
Product recs ✅ ✅
Electronics usage ✅ ✅
Repair w/o in-depth engineering ✗ ✅
Programming software for PC ✅ ✗¹

So,

is not about …

  • repair of electronics without an in-depth understanding and existing engineer-level troubleshooting steps

is missing.

Generally, the close reasons, which the affected user only sees once it's already "too late", i.e., after they have posted the question, and at least three high-rep users have read and voted on them, are more helpful in constructively aiding a user to write a good answer.

There seems to be consensus on this for more than 5 years, it seems to be possible, but nothing happened – can we finally make this happen? It'd not be a big chance, and with people generally agreeing that close reasons and help should agree, I'd like to ask for moderator action here :)

¹ One could argue that "belongs on another site ➙ StackOverflow" would do that

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    \$\begingroup\$ Could we get this reason "Repair of electronics without an in-depth understanding and existing engineer-level troubleshooting steps" added to the help page here: electronics.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jul 17, 2024 at 16:06
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    \$\begingroup\$ I like it. I would add it to the bullet list in the tour as well, as I believe that's the more common fast "rule check" for new users. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jul 18, 2024 at 19:04
  • \$\begingroup\$ Would this be a good time to clarify policy on references? (i.e. that asking for references is a "shopping" question for some reason) \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jul 21, 2024 at 22:49
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    \$\begingroup\$ @TimWilliams - What do you mean by "references" in this context? I think you mean, for example, people asking for documentation - correct? I don't think you mean "references" like referencing, since that is unrelated to shopping. Please clarify. TY (I'm not saying I would support adding discussions about either meaning of references into this topic, but my response likely depends on what you mean :) ) \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jul 21, 2024 at 23:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SamGibson Yes, asking for documentation, academic articles, citations, etc. relating to a specific topic. It's something that comes up sometimes (e.g. someone just wants to learn more about a topic) and has been discussed here previously and the decision was to put it under the "sales" reason, even if the documents are free/open. Maybe it's a minor thing, but worth asking in any case. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jul 22, 2024 at 1:02
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    \$\begingroup\$ @TimWilliams I think that would warrant a new question post :) \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jul 22, 2024 at 8:17

2 Answers 2

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The on topic help center page has been updated to reflect the request of the additional bullet point.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Excellent! Thank you! \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 1, 2024 at 12:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for doing that, for some reason the mood can edit once page but not the other \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 3, 2024 at 17:59
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I agree that we could communicate better in the help center, it would be better to have that reason listed there.

repair of electronics without an in-depth understanding and existing engineer-level troubleshooting steps

We can't add more close reasons (at least we haven't been able to in the last few years). But the "Programming software for PC" could also be "Questions on the use of electronic devices are off-topic as this site is intended specifically for questions on electronics design" as it conveys the same message so for now I would mark it as such.

Usually programming questions are more suited for stack exchange, sometimes they fit neither site. If they are suited for SE, then they should be migrated.

One thing also that should be noted is when a question is closed, that is not a bad thing, that's how the SE is designed and how we maintain quality. The system automatically sends a message to the user and if they correct their question, they can reopen it. If they would like to reopen it faster and it is on-topic, flag the question for moderator review and we will be happy to take a look at it (or if you feel like a question has been unfairly closed and it conforms with the site rules).

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