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Seeing a question with two close votes, but no specific comment, why the close votes were issues, I wonder what is the recommended practice for close votes:

  • Shouldn't there be a comment explaining why a close vote was cast, or at least up-voting an existing comment explaining a close vote?

Specifically I got the impression that on some sites people case close votes when they don't know the answer to a question, while the question seems absolutely valid.

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  • It does seem that "not understanding the question" has some sort of correlation with "voted to close the question", but the line isn't firm or straight. For myself, there are questions I do not understand parts of AND that I vote to close because the parts I do understand lack something and deserve a close vote for what is missing. Generally, a reason must be selected when voting to close. I don't know the system logic behind when this feedback generates a Community comment on the post, but it usually does.
    – music2myear
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 16:54
  • See superuser.com/q/1818353/964771 for an example: I cannot see the reason for the two close votes.
    – U. Windl
    Commented Nov 29, 2023 at 10:04
  • “Shouldn't there be a comment explaining why” - I often treat the close reason as my explanation when I cast a close vote, I found other users, to be extremely frustrated by being told there is something wrong with what they submitted. I avoid negative situations like that in my life. 2 users have voted to close that question as requiring additional information before it can be ans
    – Ramhound
    Commented Nov 29, 2023 at 12:24
  • I cannot see a close reason either! And are you saying that users prefer their questions being closed over asking them to improve their question???
    – U. Windl
    Commented Nov 29, 2023 at 13:31
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    Re your KeePass question: questions about business IT are usually off topic here except for if it is the IT person asking. Your not having admin is not a problem because the solution requires admin rights necessarily, but because someone else is responsible for keeping your computer running and because policies and settings they may have applied to your pc that you or we may not be aware of could be factors.
    – music2myear
    Commented Nov 29, 2023 at 16:06
  • @music2hear If the question is off topic, then it's time to update on-topic, because its says (formatting lost, sorry): "Super User is for computer enthusiasts and power users. If you have a question about … computer hardware, computer software, or personal and home computer networking"
    – U. Windl
    Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 7:34
  • @U.Windl - I am sure many users would prefer a comment explaining the close votes, but I don't provide them personally, due to the fact the close reason is detailed enough. In the end your KeePass2 question, was due to a change by your Administrator, it does not help documentation on that change was sort of sparse. It did not help you submitted several responses as a comment.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 23:11
  • The description you provided, supports our argument, that by you NOT having Administrator control of the system it actually was NOT about personal or home computers. In the end answer to the question, is the software, dropped support for that type of configuration file. You said you had another system where it did work (in a comment), provided no details about which version of KeePass2 that machine was running, and in my opinion not enough information was provided to submit a high quality answer.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Nov 30, 2023 at 23:16
  • So "superuser" is about "personal or home computers" only? I missed that. Also if you see "the close reason is detailed enough", I cannot see it; otherwise I would't have asked the question. For the specific question it seems that a newer version added a severe restriction that is causing the problems. Thus I still think my question is quite a valid one, even if it turned out at the end that the solution would require administrative rights. -- But the question here was about seemingly bad close vote practice.
    – U. Windl
    Commented Dec 5, 2023 at 10:03
  • Superuser is mostly about personal or home computers. There are legitimate grey areas. Personally, I see it more about most or all computers in a personal or hobbyist role OR about computers that are not servers in a business environment IF the asker is the IT person responsible for supporting them. IT people need support too. I was solo sysadmin for years and this site was my go-to. While I asked the server Qs on ServerFault, Qs about the end-user PCs mostly came here. People who are not IT support asking about business PCs is entirely offtopic though.
    – music2myear
    Commented Dec 5, 2023 at 18:27
  • From my UNIX background, my guess from the name would be that the topics covered are problems a typical admin user can solve (as opposed to a plain user just managing his own environment (whatever that should be)). But still I think a user should be allowed to ask about problems only an admin user can solve. One asks, because the answer is not known. The help on "on-topic" is not very precise, however, and moderators seem to be more strict than what the help says is allowable to ask. -- I think deciding between "Super User" and "Server Fault" is not as obvious when asking than it should be.
    – U. Windl
    Commented Dec 6, 2023 at 8:49

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