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This question asks for recommendations on good ways to pass on a Sci-fi magazine collection. It was closed as 'unclear', which seems pretty goofy to me, since there was nothing unclear about the question. Why was it closed with that close reason?

Note: It was flagged after closing, and so I changed the close reason to off-topic, as it seemed to me that it fit under either that or 'too broad'.

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I looked at the Tour and at the FAQ before I posted the question. I could not find anything in either of those places says that questions are restricted to content.

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  • Plot, character, or setting explanations Historical or societal context of a work Behind-the-scenes and fandom information Story identification Franchise/series reading or viewing order
    – Valorum
    Jan 12, 2014 at 21:14
  • Those are examples of OK questions. This fell under neither those nor the examples of bad questions. Getting no guidance from the examples, I went back to the definition, which is "for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts" and "about science fiction and fantasy"
    – user21374
    Jan 12, 2014 at 21:46
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    I understand you think it shouldn't be here. But it looks to me, from a newbie perspective, that this is a narrower view than what is stated by the site originators.
    – user21374
    Jan 12, 2014 at 21:47
  • I'm relatively new myself but I very much doubt that the intention of the site is to be used as a sci-fi version of freecycle. Simply because something isn't explicitly barred doesn't means that it's explicitly acceptable.
    – Valorum
    Jan 12, 2014 at 22:37
  • I see the conflict thusly: You and several others believe I'm polluting the commons with topics you see as off-topic. I thought I was having a nice conversation with other users when some intruders told us to go away. I don't see any way to resolve the conflict except by one of us leaving. I decline to put any more effort into this. Goodbye.
    – user21374
    Jan 12, 2014 at 22:50
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    "I thought I was having a nice conversation" - that's the reason for the question to be closed. As the about page states at the very start: This site is all about getting answers. It's not a discussion forum. There's no chit-chat. As someone who owns Analog, you are likely to have enough on-topic knowledge to participate in Q&A that the site is designed for, so feel free to stick around and ask or answer SFF questions.
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Jan 13, 2014 at 3:38
  • There are certainly ways to "resolve this conflict" aside from one of us leaving... unless you're saying "I'll do things my way, regardless of what the expected format/community expectations are", which isn't really a very good approach to problem-solving.... it's too bad; I agree with DVK that you probably could have gotten some enjoyment out of this site if you were willing to look at it as something other than a discussion forum (which it explicitly is not).
    – Beofett
    Jan 14, 2014 at 15:51
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I found it puzzling that the question was closed as well. I believe that if it was reworded to make it less localized to the OP then it would be a great question.

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  • That's kind of the intent behind changing it from "Closed" to "On Hold". If the question can be salvaged, it can be done while "On Hold". If the attempts to reword it are sufficient, the question then gets re-opened. "On Hold" was felt to sound less... permanent.
    – Beofett
    Jan 15, 2014 at 13:57
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I flagged it for closure on the grounds that it wasn't a question about science fiction.

There wasn't an "OP is trying to sell/donate his unwanted crap" button so I picked the next best thing.

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  • Amen. I was kind of torn between unclear and "opinion-based" and "offtopic because it's not about SciFi content". I chose unclear because I couldn't figure out what the OP is trying to achieve in the first place by asking.
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Jan 12, 2014 at 19:06
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    While I'm not sure calling it 'crap' is really merited, the question would have been fundamentally the same if it were "how should I get rid of my National Geographic*/*Sports Illustrated*/*Knitting Weekly magazines?". The only difference I saw was the suggestion that a previous question here was looking for specific issues of that magazine, but I don't see "you can give them to user bcs" being terribly helpful to other visitors.
    – Beofett
    Jan 14, 2014 at 15:49
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I'm a bit late here, but I would have probably VTC'd as "Too Broad" or "Primarily Opinion-Based".

The FAQ states these under What types of questions should I avoid asking?

  • every answer is equally valid: “What’s your favorite ______?”
  • your answer is provided along with the question, and you expect more answers: “I use ______ for ______, what do you use?”

There are some possibilities in the question and the OP is asking for more, all of which will be equally valid. There is no "correct" answer.

These in particular we've had a lot of issues with in the past, which is why our custom close reasons include one that specifically mentions these types of things (although phrased in a way that would make it not really apply here). These "list questions" are written in a way that invites more and more people to continually post more and more "Hey, what about this?"

If it was rewritten, maybe it could be made on-topic. I personally don't see it, though.

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