What does too localized really mean

Question

Can some one please explain, further than this post What does "too localized" really entail? why too localized mean a post needs to close. My understanding of it is that the question probably won't be answered (due to not having enough expertise/experience in it etc) which I understand but not as to why it must be closed down. Just because some thing is very narrow or appeals to a limited audience (today) doesn't make it's irrelevant and just because it isn't answered or popular today doesn't mean it can't be tomorrow.

My opinion here is based upon the definition on why to use the Too Localized vote:

"This question is unlikely to help any future visitors; it is only relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet. For help making this question more broadly applicable, see the FAQ."

To me, this vote reads as 'the question is too hard to answer' which puts a negative connotation on the entire site and down-values the experts who willingly give their knowledge and time.

I think marking it as too localized is a good thing to let the OP know the answer is unlikely to come soon, but to not have it answered at all may not be good, unless the sites do this to 'protect its reputation'; closed votes may be better than unanswered votes (and please don't ready negativity into this question, I'm a fan of these sites and spend well over 90% of my time answering other peoples questions).

Any one willing to shed their ideas on this will be great, as always I'm happy to be wrong but do feel that this area of the site is not strong, although I certainly have no solution. May be I'm thinking too much into it, which ironically would mean as a question/discussion it's probably too localized!

Answer 1

To me, this vote reads as 'the question is too hard to answer'

No, that's not what it's about.

• If something's hard to answer for you, then don't answer it, but don't vote to close.
• If something cannot be answered at all due to logical flaws or false presumptions, then you leave a comment pointing that out and vote to close as Not a real question.
• If something cannot be reasonably answered within the boundaries of our site, because it'd take a book to explain, it should be closed as Not a real question.

Any question that can be answered and, by doing so, would be a useful question for visitors searching for a similar problem should not be closed as too localized. Unless there are other problems with it, of course. And even if there's a chance that a single person might find the same question useful, it probably shouldn't be closed.

Too localized has multiple dimensions:

• Time – the most powerful graphics card today will not be the same as in three months from now. Being too localized to time is also one reason shopping recommendation questions are off topic.

• Space – the fastest internet service provider in Fairbanks, Alaska isn't really something that concerns more than a handful of people. That's what's probably meant by "geographic area". Could be seen as too localized, but then again how many people do in fact live there? Wouldn't someone looking for that also land here, looking for a solution? This is a tough one, although we'd close this as a "shopping" recommendation. Similar concerns apply to languages: Are languages too localized?

• Situation – this is probably where we close the most questions as "too localized". Did your problem occur because you had a typo somewhere? There's no way someone else will have exact the same typo and land in your situation. The same for shopping recommendations: Your individual configuration of hardware makes your question localized to your machine and no one else's. Or do you work in a company and you're trying to solve a problem with your internal software nobody else has access to? Too localized, definitely.

Just because some thing is very narrow or appeals to a limited audience (today) doesn't make it's irrelevant

Of course. It's the definition of "narrow" and "limited" that makes the difference here.