One of the off-topic closing options on Stack Overflow is the following:


But I feel like I have not seen this option used quite often on closed question, whereas I have seen a lot of questions involving simple typographical problems, including some I have answered myself. So I was quite curious about this: how often is this flag reason used on Stack Overflow?

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    I agree that this is hidden in "off-topic" category and many beginners don't know about it. I personally use it as how it is described. – Tatsuyuki Ishi Apr 14 '17 at 9:05
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    I have days I use it several times a day. – Martijn Pieters Apr 14 '17 at 10:14
  • We don't have frequency information on the 'off-topic' close reasons. The Community Managers, however, do have that information and would step in if an off-topic reason wasn't being used. – Martijn Pieters Apr 14 '17 at 10:28
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    Also, I can imagine that this specific close reason more frequently ends up with the question being deleted quickly, which is why you are perhaps not seeing this as much. – Martijn Pieters Apr 14 '17 at 10:29
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    Example deleted question: stackoverflow.com/questions/43386738/strange-js-code-behaviour (closed as typo, OP had forgotten a ;). Examples of closed, but not yet deleted questions: Uncaught TypeError: document.getElementById is not a function even if it works on other pages (typo in DOM method name), Remove strange line on the side of the button (HTML structure was malformed). – Martijn Pieters Apr 14 '17 at 10:34
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    @MartijnPieters the 10k tools have a close stats page with frequency information. – davidism Apr 14 '17 at 11:46
  • @davidism: ah, I didn't scroll down far enough on that page, and missed that the stats are right there. – Martijn Pieters Apr 14 '17 at 11:48
  • Here's what I see happen pretty often: OP posts question where the issue is a typo. A kind user explains the typo in a comment. OP thanks them and deletes the question. But I also see a lot of users immediately turning the comment explaining the typo into their own answer. It's really in the OP's best interest to delete a typo question because they get answered before they get closed. – BSMP Apr 14 '17 at 20:02
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    All of the close "reasons" are utterly silly and pointless. (Nobody has ever, for any reason, looked at, cared about, or considered a close "reason".) There's only one reason to close questions, "they are crap". The idea of giving a (wholly titular) "reason" is just a social norm, politeness. Certainly "duplicate" is a different system and that's fine. There should just be two concepts: "duplicate" and simply "close". No reason to have a polite "titular reason" for a "close". – Fattie Apr 15 '17 at 14:57
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    @Fattie: some of the close reasons are entirely valid and purposeful. Some questions are valid, but belong on another stackexchange site. For example, questions about database administration are not "crap", they just belong on dba.stackexchange. I think the close reasons help distinguish valid questions from "crap". So I do not concur with your assessment, categorically dismissing all close reasons as "utterly silly and pointless". – spencer7593 Apr 15 '17 at 15:11
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    hey Spence - you're right about "move to another site", sure. Sorry, I forgot that. I'm afraid that - other than those two special mechanisms - all the other "reasons" are just polite ways to say "your question is crap, it's out of here" :) – Fattie Apr 15 '17 at 16:40
  • It would sometimes be nice to have "this question is just too dumb to be on this site" as a reason. Because sometimes... I loose even more faith in humanity. – junkfoodjunkie Apr 16 '17 at 12:43
  • @Fattie don't forget, these are votes to close before the question has actually been closed. If the OP sees 2 votes for a particular reason that is more informative than "question is crap" and gives the opportunity to improve it, or where to re-post it. – Weather Vane Apr 16 '17 at 14:26
  • @WeatherVane only 1kers can see close votes on their own posts. – Braiam Apr 16 '17 at 20:21
  • I use this close reason from time to time. More often, I use it when the OP's sample code does not exhibit the purported problem, but often enough I use it when the problem arises from a code error that, by its size and nature, can plausibly be construed as a typo. In the former usage, this close reason provides a good counterpoint to the "present a MCVE" reason. – John Bollinger Apr 16 '17 at 21:17

Users with 10k rep have access to various tools, including a page with statistics about the close reasons. https://stackoverflow.com/tools/question-close-stats?daterange=last30days

In the last 30 days, the "not reproducible / typo" reason has been used to close 753 questions, 2.54% of the total closed questions in that time. 81 were edited afterwards, 10 were reopened, and 3 were reopened after editing.

If you come across a question that fits the close reason, please flag to close it, even if it has answers.

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    I suspect that deleted posts do not count towards those stats. No evidence one way or the other right now however. – Martijn Pieters Apr 14 '17 at 11:49
  • Someone with enough patience could go through the "recently deleted" tab and see how many are closed. – davidism Apr 14 '17 at 11:51
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    'recently deleted' only shows a fixed number of posts, and on SO that means you only get posts up to 1 hour old.. – Martijn Pieters Apr 14 '17 at 11:53
  • @MartijnPieters luckily, we don't get more than 8.5k questions... stuff just starts breaking since then. Otherwise, the 1 hour would be a diminishing value. – Braiam Apr 14 '17 at 12:40

how often is this flag reason used on Stack Overflow?

Much less often than it should be.

This has been discussed extensively; my own contribution is here, but that was not well received.

The reason it is not used as often as it should be is that (1) it is buried in the second level of close reasons, under "off-topic", a structure that apparently cannot be changed for reasons of consistency with other SE sites; (2) some people hesitate to use it due to the narrow way the description is framed.

  • Well, it should only be used for questions caused by typographical errors or problems that can no longer be reproduced, which is adequately portrayed by the description. It isn't used as often as it should be, but not for the reasons you mention. – Tiny Giant Apr 16 '17 at 16:00
  • @TinyGiant What do you think the reasons are? – user663031 Apr 16 '17 at 16:08
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    Some people would rather get reputation from answering off-topic questions rather than closing them. Some people don't like to use their close votes at all. Some people don't have the reputation to close vote so they flag instead (or try to answer the question to get more rep), which just adds more questions into the close vote queue that is already piled high and lacking in reviewers. This is true of all close reasons, not just that reason. – Tiny Giant Apr 16 '17 at 17:44

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