Why do questions get closed?

Good Question.

There are a number of reason’s why GIS Stack Exchange Moderators close questions. The most likely is because the exact same question has already been answered. Please use the the search (top right) before posting new questions.

Exact Duplicate “This question covers exactly the same ground as earlier questions on this topic; its answers may be merged with another identical question.”

A simple search on the GIS Stack Exchange site will find questions or related questions (most with answers already!) which speeds up the user having to wait for responses.

Off Topic – questions are expected to generally relate to geographic information systems, within the scope defined in the FAQ. http://gis.stackexchange.com/faq

GIS covers a large field of topics – but some can be better answered on other Stack Exchanges sites {{insert link/or list of sites}}.

What to do if you disagree?

• post on meta, asking for clarification and the reasoning behind the closure, provide arguments for why in this particular instance should be okay

• ask again, providing more information, better wording.

NOT Constructive

This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion.

GIS SE likes Questions that can be answered – too many variables can delay or even be left unanswerable.

NOT a real Question

It’s difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form.

GIS SE Moderators can debate this one, sometimes it just takes a polite comment/message for the question being asked to contain more content or expand on details.

Too Localized This question is unlikely to ever help any future visitors; it is only relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet.

Can be hard for some to to be generic enough for based on the question for a very local or remote location.