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I asked a question which I had accepted an answer to: How to split filenames for their first word in Python?

Now, I understand why PolyGeo placed it 'on-hold' as it is pretty much a software-oriented question, my apologies for that. But since the question has been answered, is there much point in it being flagged?

One could argue that if a question like "What's the best cooking oil to fry marshmallows in?" was asked and accepted an answer on GIS:SE, then I completely understand why that would be flagged and migrated. But since my question does involve using and processing shapefiles which are GIS-based, I am just wondering if there are any benefits in flagging this and other questions of a similar ilk.

  • In addition to providing precedents, if the question is still open it can have answers added to it at any point in the future and bumped up on the active page. Once closed, that can't happen and there is a notification on the page of why it's closed/considered off-topic. Sidenote story, ironically enough when I first started here I had several answers (as only ones on the question) that generated no upvotes and consequently didn't have enough rep to comment anywhere for weeks. A single new question/answer pretty much fixed that for me, but within hours it was marked as off-topic. – Chris W Apr 26 '15 at 20:48
  • @ChrisW Are you suggesting that votes on closed questions do not count? That voting will not be affected is one of the assumptions that I make when closing questions like the one being discussed as off-topic as a softer response than migrating or deleting. – PolyGeo♦ Apr 26 '15 at 21:42
  • @PolyGeo Not at all. You can indeed still vote on questions and answers that are already posted even if the question has been closed. My anecdote was just pointing out the irony that while I had a number of on-topic and accurate answers already, the question that got me not only my first rep but enough of it to comment and other privileges all in one go ended up being closed as off-topic shortly thereafter. I wouldn't really consider migrating to be a hard response. In fact it would actually keep things a bit cleaner with questions on their right SE, though you lose the 'not here' signpost. – Chris W Apr 26 '15 at 23:19
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If we don't flag them then the next person who asks a software question points to it as precedent. I closed a similar java question yesterday - just because your file is a shapefile doesn't make it geographic.

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    That's a fair point =) – Joseph Apr 23 '15 at 10:41
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    That was my reasoning too - if *.txt had been substituted for *.shp there would not have been a hint of GIS but the same question would result. Answers and votes do not affect the closure case. – PolyGeo♦ Apr 24 '15 at 7:16

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