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I have a lot of trouble asking questions on Super User, and I just can't get it right. Can someone please help me out?

My question is https://superuser.com/questions/841437/want-to-print-to-tablet-connected-printer-via-browser

1) I've been told to edit the question to make it better. I can't do this as it's been deleted. What do I do?

2) I can't comment on the question as it's been deleted. How do I communicate with the other commenters?

3) The comment: "What you'd like to do will be dependent on 1) hardware and OS, 2) your ability, and 3) the printer driver compatibility. Therefore, your question is still too broad as defined by the help center; there is no way for us to definitively answer your question "yes" or "no" without knowing those things. You can reword your question with details and then request it be reopened. – CharlieRB" was left. My question specifically says that I can use any Android or Windows tablet and any browser so I don't see how narrowing it down to a specific tablet model will help.

Yes - my ability is not defined, but my question asks if X is possible, not if I can do X.

This is the question in case you can't see due to it being marked as deleted:

I have a specific computer hardware and software problem that I want to resolve, and it has a yes or no answer. I wish to give a client a tablet (either Windows or Android) and a USB connected printer and I wish to be able to print directly to the printer via the browser on the tablet, over the web.

If I had a PC instead of a tablet I know I can open Chrome with the --kiosk-printing switch to allow a webpage to print to the printer without user interaction on the PC. But to reduce costs and save space, I wish to use a tablet instead of a PC.

Please note that I wish the printer to be connected to the tablet via USB. Again, as a cost saving measure, the printer won't be WiFi, Bluetooth or Ethernet capable.

With all these cost saving measures you may have guessed that I'll be supplying more than one of these setups.

Can someone please tell me if such a system is possible? Can I simply get a tablet, connect a USB printer and open Chrome with the --kiosk-printing switch in the same way as one could on a PC?

Or would I have to go down the route of a native app on the device that will handle the print requests?

Yes, it's possible or No, it's not possible?`

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    Your question includes a lot of extraneous detail, which makes it appear broader than it is. The question is: "I wish to be able to print directly to the printer via the browser on the tablet, over the web. Can I simply get a tablet, connect a USB printer and open Chrome with the --kiosk-printing switch in the same way as one could on a PC?". If you clean that up, I would think it would be within the site's definition.
    – fixer1234
    Nov 18, 2014 at 8:43
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    Thanks. I added all that detail in attempt to not being told-off for being too vague! Your phrasing is nice and succinct though. I appear to be blocked from asking questions (because the mods failed to read my question properly). Is there any way to get my account unblocked? Nov 18, 2014 at 10:27
  • "I wish to give a client a tablet (either Windows or Android) and a USB connected printer and I wish to be able to print directly to the printer via the browser on the tablet, over the web." This statement is confusing. I am not 100% sure what you want to do exactly. It sounds like you just want to allow wireless printing which would dependent upon your printer if it supports Android tablets, for example, HP has an Android application for that. Windows supports wireless network printers out of the box for the most part.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 18, 2014 at 12:09
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    @Mr.Flibble - You don't get blocked for a single bad question. If you are banned from asking questions it means you have a pretty long history of asking low quality questions that were rejected by the community. Out of 15 questions I can see plus the questions that have already been deleted, less then 50% of them even have a positive vote.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 18, 2014 at 12:12

1 Answer 1

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There are a number of problems with your recent questions which have caused them to be deemed either too broad, shopping recommendations or simply off-topic here.

The last two questions you have asked were:

  1. Want to print to tablet connected printer via browser
    This was put on hold by me as it showed no real research effort, Android (outside of android-x86) is off-topic here, and that there could be hundreds of different answers. It really was too broad a question.
    You say that you were asking if it was possible, but the only true answer that fits is "definitely maybe" as there are thousands of tablets out there all with different software support and compatibilities. It's impossible to give a definitive answer that fits your question. You need to do some research, find something that mostly works and then come back with a "I have this, it almost works but..." question, not a broad "Does anything support feature X?".

  2. Have camera, PC. Need to detect car speed
    This is a shopping recommendation. "Find me software to do X" which is off-topic per the help centre which states "... [the site] is not about... asking for a product, service or learning material recommendation"
    This question received a number of downvotes before closure.

You also have a number of other historical closed or migrated questions which is a worrying trend as it suggests that you have not taken the time to consider whether your questions are truly within scope or on topic for the site.

As to the block that has been placed on your account there is nothing a moderator can do to help you. It is an automatic quality of content block that has been placed by the system itself. What you need to do is either help out on the site by posting good answers in order to raise your reputation as this may influence the block, but I (along with other moderators) do not know how the blocking mechanism works to know if this is certain to help. Deleted questions, migrations and downvotes all likely play a part.

You need to read and take on board the message that was displayed when you were blocked from asking a question. It should lead you to some help pages telling you what you can do.

I would hope that rather than being outright blocked you are simply rate limited, see: Why is the system asking me to wait a day or more before asking another question?.

If this is the case then what you should do is wait and, in the meantime, take on board what the help centre has to say. In particular, you should check up on what is on topic and the information on problems with your account.

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    Thank you for taking the time to answer me. I find it very hard to work out which SE site to choose for a particular question! I read the on-topic info which said -- If you have a question about computer hardware [it is] computer software,[it is] or personal and home computer networking and not programming and software development, [it is not] video games or consoles,[it is not] electronic devices, media players, cell phones or smart phones, except insofar as they interface with your computer,[very unclear whether a tablet is a computer...] So after reading that it looked like my Q was OK Nov 18, 2014 at 14:57
  • But I gather that it is not. Do you think that there are any SE forums that would have been suitable for either of my questions (this one or the car speed detection one)? Nov 18, 2014 at 14:58
  • @Mokubai - Even if he posts answers that won't help him post new questions though or am I mistaken about how the question/answer block system works?
    – Ramhound
    Nov 18, 2014 at 15:23
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    There is a website dedicated to Android devices. There is a website dedicate to iOS devices ( well Apple products in general ). Superuser would be a great question about a Linux or Windows tablet with a specific question with very few answers. You could ask how to connect a specific printer to those products, that would be on topic, but you would have to be specific you can't ask broad questions. You also would likely be told to read the manual for that printer if you did.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 18, 2014 at 15:26
  • Thanks. I'll try the Android SE then. Nov 18, 2014 at 16:15
  • The only way to become unblocked without contributing positively to SU (it seems that only answering questions is covered by this) is to get the question disassociated from your account, and only Stack Exchange staff can do that. Disassociation is never done without good reason.
    – AStopher
    Nov 19, 2014 at 19:22

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