This post received 5 downvotes very quickly from the time I posted it. My account was blocked from posting any more questions shortly after. It also had several "close" requests. So, I figured I was probably outdated on the standard for writing SO questions. I went looking and found this help center article:


inspire answers that explain “why” and “how”

tend to have long, not short, answers

have a constructive, fair, and impartial tone

invite sharing experiences over opinions

insist that opinion be backed up with facts and references

are more than just mindless social fun

I believe that I met these requirements fairly well. What did I do wrong?

Well.... your last sentence which is effectively your question.... "What do they mean by better security?". "Better" is usually a very subjective term. Your better might be different than my better and it would be different than the next guys. Now when dealing with security, "better security" is usually less subjective, but the word itself is still not good for an objective question. –  psubsee2003 Jun 3 at 19:18
It appears to be an opinion based question –  Joe W Jun 3 at 19:20
And another thought.... the close votes are all for "Too Broad". I don't know Objective-C or Swift to be able to say this with any degree of certainty, but it is possible the close voters feel that possible answers would be far too long for this format to answer "better security". Ultimately, you may want to try to focus that last sentence a little. –  psubsee2003 Jun 3 at 19:20
Thanks for the tips, I will try to be more specific in the future. Now, I guess I'll go find another forum to ask questions on, one that is not bogged down with super hi-rep tyrants who love to down vote but hate giving feedback as to what people are doing wrong. I know I can earn question privileges back, but my life is too busy to wait until my "positive contributions outweigh those questions which were poorly received." And honestly, I'd rather be somewhere that has users who like helping people learn. PEACE. –  Isaiah Taylor Jun 3 at 19:31
A few downvotes is no big deal. Getting downvoted all the way back to 1 rep is extreme. –  Andrew Medico Jun 3 at 19:40
@AndrewMedico I didn't lose very many reps, I don't really care about reps, I lost the right to ask a question. –  Isaiah Taylor Jun 3 at 19:52
@IsaiahTaylor It wasn't the one question that would cause the question ban, it means that you have other questions that were not well received, downvoted and closed. I'd suggest reading What can I do when getting “We are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account”?. –  bluefeet Jun 3 at 19:54
-1 on this Meta question for a vague, non-descriptive title. –  Cupcake Jun 3 at 22:00
@IsaiahTaylor: I guess if you feel we're all "super hi-rep tyrants", you probably shouldn't be here. There are millions of questions that were asked and answered here by all us "super hi-rep tyrants", so apparently the people asking those questions were able to post questions sufficient to get past we "tyrants". Good luck wherever you end up, though. :-) –  Ken White Jun 3 at 22:15
Short answer: Is too broad and also opinion based. –  MelanciaUK Jun 4 at 11:04

2 Answers 2

Over the last two days, we have been getting several questions of the form:

I heard this claim that Apple made at their announcement for their shiny new language, and I want someone here to substantiate that claim.

How does that sound?

  1. Very discussion-based
  2. Where's your code?
  3. Primarily opinion-based.

You have a lot of faith in the Stack Overflow community's ability to answer such a question in a meaningful way, especially given that the language is effectively two days old.

That's not what I was asking. I was asking a very specific question about the security features in an existing languages and how they compare to a new one. –  Isaiah Taylor Jun 3 at 19:24
Nevertheless, I think my points here still stand as valid. I too think your question is too broad. It's probably a better fit on Programmers. BTW the first sentence in your question body is "Apple claims that Swift is more secure than Objective-C was. How is this?" How is that materially different than the excerpt I provided in my answer? You asked "Why the extreme negative response?" I'm answering your question. –  Robert Harvey Jun 3 at 19:25
There does seem to be at least one user on SO, maybe a few, with more than a day and a half's worth of knowledge -- presumably someone who was a tester for Apple. That said, most of these questions are of exactly the type you describe, and are a real stretch for SO. The user I've pointed out is answering very straightforward, factual, code-based questions. –  Josh Caswell Jun 3 at 20:13

Might have gotten a better reaction if you posted as "Apple claims Swift is more secure than ObjC. What specific aspects of the language make that so?"

It's still too broad. –  Robert Harvey Jun 3 at 20:13
As evidenced by the accepted answer, it really isn't. We're talking about a language with a pretty small surface area - not a gigantic API framework. –  Robert Levy Jun 3 at 20:19
Yes, but there's no way to know when a question like this gets asked whether the answer is very specific or a laundry list. And a green checkmark doesn't necessarily demonstrate efficacy. Your refinement doesn't really change the nature of the question. –  Robert Harvey Jun 3 at 20:20
What's wrong with a fact-based laundry list? –  Robert Levy Jun 3 at 21:18
Nothing, if it doesn't require a book chapter to write, and the laundry list is not spread out over several answers (which is what inevitably happens). –  Robert Harvey Jun 3 at 21:33

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