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This morning I have asked a question that was put on hold as too broad. So I'm a bit confused as to what is considered too broad. At first I thought it was the fact that I'm not asking for a specific output but before asking I looked for inspiration in what people enjoyed on this site (i.e. the top voted question):

1) Showcase your language. There is no desired output appart from showcasing:

obscure or interesting features

for a snippet of length x.

2) Write program in your favorite language in another language specifies that:

The program desn't have to do anything useful.

Neither asks for a specific output, and both worked quite well, so I'm a bit puzzled as what differs in the question I asked and what can I do to improve it.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Meta.SE has an entire tag for discussions like this. In general "but these older, similar questions were allowed as well" is often not an indication that your question was closed unfairly but rather simply that the community's standards have evolved. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 22, 2015 at 14:00
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    \$\begingroup\$ @MartinBüttner Broken windows don't necessarily have to be old. They usually are, but I think "Showcase your language" stayed open because it was well-written, interesting, and written by an author that regularly pushes the boundaries of what we can do on this site. If Calvin asked it again today, I expect that he would get the same response as he got in January. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rainbolt
    Sep 22, 2015 at 14:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MartinBüttner fair point, we have similar issues on gaming SE. I'm waiting on some more feedback on this question and will try to narrow it so the challenge sill keep its fun side while being accepted here. \$\endgroup\$
    – WizLiz
    Sep 22, 2015 at 14:16
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    \$\begingroup\$ The most voted stuff is stuff generally gets most of its votes from people who don't participate in this site on a regular basis. It's not necessarily representative of what the regular community members think is good. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 22, 2015 at 17:31

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While this is true on other stacks, I feel it more common here to say that Too Broad is subjective. People can (and often do) disagree with the broadness of a challenge, and both sides be "right".

That being said, the banner text for this close reason does a pretty good job of describing it:

There are either too many possible answers... Please add details to narrow the answer set...

So basically, you could just answer any old thing and it would be valid. The only criteria you seem to have are length and "something BTTF related". Personally, I'd say this question is a perfect example of being too broad.


Now, I held back on voting on this one because I was specifically thinking about one of the posts you linked, Showcase Your Language. While I still think that one is a bit more constrained in some ways (and less constrained in others), that question got closed as well. It was later reopened, and has remained open since. Further, at least a couple people who voted to close that one also voted to close yours.

So like I said, it's subjective, and individual people seem to be generally consistent with voting. Since it's only been up for a few hours, many in the community probably haven't seen it yet. Once everyone has time to weigh in, it might (or might not) be reopened.

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