I had a question about a specific code that contained two sub questions. It was suggested to me in the comments that it would be neater if there was a separate post (question) for each question. I did that, and now one of the questions got auto closed as a duplicate of the other. I tried to reopen it, but no avail. What should I have done instead?
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4There is no automatic closing of questions, in this case a gold badge wielder of css has closed the linked question as a duplicate.– cafce25Commented Apr 30 at 17:14
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2"I tried to reopen it, but no avail" - that's because it still needs two more reopen votes to reopen, and it's only been 9 hours. It hasn't received a single review from the reopen queue yet either, because there's a significant backlog– Zoe ModCommented Apr 30 at 17:15
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2Often if you ask the first question well, the answers to the second question will be implied by the answers to the first. Start with one question, if it winds up answering everything, you don't have to worry about bots or people harshing your buzz.– user4581301Commented Apr 30 at 17:50
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7In the closed question, I read: "I have 2 issues that I can't get right: On my phone (Safari on iOS) the Figures increase in size when touched on. I like that, since there is no hover... but they stay permanently large -- I would like another touch to shrink them again (only on the phone)". It isn't clear to me how you've actually "split" the question (since you are still explicitly talking about "2 issues"), nor how they are supposed to be distinguished from each other.– Karl KnechtelCommented Apr 30 at 18:00
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I don't see any comment suggesting you break the question into two separate questions. Your original question also wasn't closed.– Security HoundCommented Apr 30 at 19:44
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1"On my phone (Safari on iOS) the Figures increase in size when touched on. I like that, since there is no hover... but they stay permanently large -- I would like another touch to shrink them again (only on the phone)". This sounds like one issue, not two, and it's a bit broad and off-topic. It's a work order (i.e. "implement this for me"), rather than a specific technical question about your attempt to implement the requirement (e.g. "why is it that when I attempted to implement shrinking, the code throws an Invalid CorgeBaz error?", which would be on topic).– ggorlenCommented Apr 30 at 23:13
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@KarlKnechtel right, I missed that in the edit when I split the two questions. To be clear, the linked question is about hover on/off, and how to deal with mobile phones. The other question is about not scaling borders when increasing the figure in size.– FooBarCommented May 1 at 4:43
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@Zoe thanks, that's useful information. Due to lack of experience with review, I had no idea it would take this long... I was under the impression that simply everyone in the review queue was disagreeing with the reopen -- it wasn't clear to me from the UI that it hadn't reached the queue yet.– FooBarCommented May 1 at 4:44
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@SecurityHound Because both the commenters and I deleted our comments after we dealt with the issue, as to not clutter the question– FooBarCommented May 1 at 4:44
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@ggorlen Exactly, it's one issue, since I moved the other question to the different question. Regarding broadness, I would have understood that as a close reason and try to make it more specific (what I'm running into is a default behavior of mobile phones and thus should be generally useful to readers, it's not specific to me ). What I'm specifically asking here is about closing as duplicate.– FooBarCommented May 1 at 4:55
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1 Answer
Let's try to think about it differently. What if someone solves your first issue by giving you a piece of code and another person solves your second issue by giving you another piece of code?
You will end up having two different pieces of code- each one fixing an issue which is a bad thing for you, and you will ask a third question because none of the code you got is good for your final need.
What you want is one piece of code that fixes both issues. Both issues aren't that big to deserve separate questions.
Either make one clear question about your main goal and list the issues you faced, or start with one question (and one issue), and then when you get a solution, you ask a new question considering the solution of the first question to make sure you end with a piece of code that works well for you.
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That's a fair point, but I do think of these as independent issues that I want to learn about. One is the "can borders be scaled or not, since I'm already putting them at minimum pixel size". Independent from this is the whole "can I in this context steer different behavior for phones and computer, and if so how (do I need js or is css sufficient)" -- the latter is going to be useful in many places for me (but hopefully also for other readers)– FooBarCommented May 1 at 4:47
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In other words, I'm not asking questions here to "get a code for my final need". That would be silly (and in other stackexchange sites I'm on not allowed, this site isn't to do my homework). The questions are to learn about concepts, which I happen to exemplify using the same code.– FooBarCommented May 1 at 4:51
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@FooBar you are not asking to "get a code for your final need" but in the end you "want a code for your final need" (And that's the purpose of any question). Asking for a code doesn't mean "do my homework". You tried something, you failed, you ask a question, we fix your code and you "get a new code". Commented May 1 at 7:26
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Thats presumptions regarding my wants. I am attempting to learn general rules about css -- for example, in the companion question, I did not get at all "final need code". But since I learned about one pattern (resizing figures), I figured out how to resize the text that comes with it (and improved on the answer given). In any case, the companion question is answered and I'm happy to keep the "duplicate" question as-is, without any changes to the example code base :)– FooBarCommented May 1 at 7:31
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@FooBar "That's a fair point, but I do think of these as independent issues that I want to learn about." - careful there, don't make choices on the site from that perspective. The only questions that should be posted on the site are ones that benefit everyone written according to the guidelines the site sets, they should never be designed around what you personally want to achieve or learn. That should remain a secondary goal.– GimbyCommented May 1 at 8:01
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@Gimby Exactly my point: general questions about "how to do A", or "how to do B" benefit everyone, as I have structured it now. Questions about "What is the final code for A", "What is the final code for B", and "How do I combine A and B" -- very specific questions to my use case -- benefit people less.– FooBarCommented May 1 at 8:37