Should this question be closed as unclear for not having a question sentence?

Question

I'm hoping to understand more of the SuperUser culture.

My Notepad is not responding when trying to save

In my review, this question does not have a question sentence and is unclear what the OP is asking. Does he want to recover his files (as answered by 2 answers)? Does he want to find out why this happen?

As such, I think this should be closed as unclear.

However, I want to know if other users think this question is implicitly asking for why the Notepad froze and is clear enough to be kept open.

I want to gauge how far is "unclear" defined in SuperUser, compared to other sites.

Answer 1

If it were an active question I would request clarification, but the question has been abandoned by the author, so there really isn't a point in doing so now.

However, I want to know if other users think this question is implicitly asking for why the Notepad froze and is clear enough to be kept open.

The title of this question is the following, Should this question be closed as unclear for not having a question sentence?, but the question you linked to actually does have a sentence that ends in a question mark.

By the way, my CPU Usage stays at 35% - 45% (after playing a game), I wonder if there's anything to do with the Notepad freezing?

Of course, it is clear If one were to answer that question, they would be answering the reason the program was freezing.

In my review, this question does not have a question sentence and is unclear what the OP is asking.

The question actually does have a question sentence, while I might agree the question should be clarified, somebody familiar enough with the application could in theory answer the question. If anything the question is "too broad", which can be a justified reason to the close the question, since the author is unlikely going to clarify the question now that 4 years have elapsed.

Answer 2

There's "enough" of a question there for me, but for the next person to come along? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

"Unclear" is one of those things that is quite opinion based. What might seem unclear to you could be perfectly understandable to someone else. It depends quite a lot on your background, your understanding of the problem, and occasionally how you "hear" the question phrased in your head.

But there's a good thing here. You really don't have to care an amazing amount, because we have a close/flag reason of "unclear what you are asking" that needs four other members of the community to agree with to put the question on hold. It's not just up to you to close things.

Even at low reputation you can flag to close rather than cast an actual close vote, that flag should put the question into /review, where other users will look at it and decide whether it really deserves closure.

So, if you think the question is painfully unclear, then use the close flag.

If you just think it needs clarification then leave a comment, and maybe the close flag. Your choice.

You can always retract the close flag later if you want. Though do bear in mind that you will not be able to re-apply the same flag.

Answer 3

Today, January 13, 2018, I voted to close this question as unclear.

“Unclear” can be a subjective thing and to me it is actually quite clear that original poster wanted to better understand why Notepad was freezing. That is clearly the question.

That said this question is from January 14, 2018. It will officially have it’s 4 year birthday tomorrow! So knowing this, seeing the activity on the question, seeing the—frankly—vague and generic answers that were posted already, it’s safe to say this question is as dead as a doornail, will never elicit a final, answer and as such, is “unclear” because the original poster has abandoned it and let it sit in this state.

Were the downvotes there from 2014 or did they come later on? Who knows at this point. But at the end of the day, an old question which seem to be focused on an immediate need at the time it was posted and has not been answered in the time since is basically a bad, unclear answer and should be closed and eventually deleted.

That said if this exact same question were posed today, I would ask for clarification but not immediately flag it as “unclear.”