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The first time I came here to ask a question

Windows 7 with low color depth?

enter image description here

It was deleted without even a HINT of a comment as to why it didn't fit, how to improve it, no help to edit it to be better, or anything -- just deleted by a mod. Not simply closed, but deleted.

I don't see anything obvious in the FAQ that it was such a terrible question. That summary action is quite rude.

I won't be back to superuser.

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I suppose this is a little pointless, since the OP has decided he hates us :(, but I think its rather evident that the question wouldn't have been a good fit for SU with someone familiar with it.

There's really two parts to why the question wasn't a good fit for the site

"I am looking for a place to find Windows 7 Themes" - Its no different from a book recommendation type question - you're eliciting a list (which dosen't fit the Q&A format), for external resources which might go down at the whims of the owner. A good question has self contained answers.

"tips to build such a theme" once again, this will end up being chatty and open ended.

So, as per the FAQ, with a slightly more critical reading

"You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page"

I'm not sure how it would be possible to fix the question without a massive edit that would change the context, scope and intent of the question. I'd definately have closed it. If I didn't mind completely changing the scope and context of the question, but not the intent, I'd consider the end result needed is optimising my desktop for fast RDP, rather than focusing on low colour depth, and ask a more general question, suggesting colour depth as one aspect of what I was trying to do. This would help avoid the xy problem

I'll probably drop the mod in question a line, but this was a question which someone familiar with the site would have closevoted.

However, this sort of discussion is well suited for root access.

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  • I highly suspect that, in practice, this question would not have resulted in a long list at all. There are probably only a few really good options; a (short) review of these options by someone with experience in this same problem/issue is what I would expect as a good answer. I have seen tons of similar questions on Superuser that were not only kept open, but received positive feedback and a few decent answers, and were a success to anyone involved, and also to future readers.
    – Cerberus
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 0:02
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    That still dosen't fix the fact that his primary request was for a site with themes. Thats definately not the sort of answer we'd condone. I edited in (possibly while I was being downvoted) an alternate, more general suggestion on how better to ask that question - which would probably lead to better answers.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 0:05
  • If a single theme is widely praised around the Internet, that would be a fine answer in the spirit of the question. But I see no problem with questions that ask for the opinion of an expert on where one can get a few really good theme(s) for this specific purpose. An random question of the same kind, which is widely appreciated: superuser.com/questions/221818/… It asks for a few good options, which make use of the fact that other people have already scanned the Internet to the same end.
    – Cerberus
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 0:51
  • Well, the question got undeleted, but I've voted to close, consistant with my answer. I REALLY do hope the OP didn't ragequit over this.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 3:54
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I'm the mod that closed it - for some reason it got deleted, I have no idea what happened. I think I mixed it up with something else, as a poor answer that needed deleting. We process varying flags (and many at times), so sometimes mistakes are made. I have undeleted, please accept my apologies.

However: this question is a bit on the "not constructive" side, since you're looking for a recommendation. However, I'll leave this to the community at large to close, if they so choose. @JourneymanGeek is correct, I support his answer fully.

Thanks for bringing this up on Meta and to my attention!

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    I appreciate and understand that it was a mistake to delete it. I thank you for the clarification. Note that my complaint was never that the question might be borderline (although I tried to give a the use case to describe what the actual goal is, in case the specific question was not optimal). My only real complaint was the deletion without any comment or hint as to why. If the question still doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. That is okay.
    – SAJ14SAJ
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 20:15

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