Processing for newbie asked a very simple question

Question

If a newbie asked a very simple question, He tends to be blamed like this one I want to get data by the current URL, so I have set a post value, but it is set for all pages.

The reason Questions describing a problem that can't be reproduced OR seemingly went away on its own (or went away when a typo was fixed) are off-topic as they are unlikely to help future readers has some truth.

But, newbie often run into some very simple problem like typo or lack of basic understanding, if nobody help them, them will never get out and lose passion for Magento. We are all growing up from newbie and newbie is important for a software growing and promotion. I think we should be more friendly and more inclusive.

And, the specific problem like I given maybe can't be reproduced, but some other newbie might meet a similar problem, and get inspired form the question. So why don't we just let the question be there? Give newbie a good mood and positive feedback, promote them back to use our Magento and our site :)

Answer 1

I also flagged this question for closure. In case of these questions, the new user has been helped out either by comments or by answers, so we didn't send him off and he probably is happy with the help he got. Quite friendly I suppose

Now the question was closed with the reason "can't be reproduced OR seemingly went away on its own (or went away when a typo was fixed)". It is a generic sentence that you can select when closing, but the last bit is the most important in this case: There was a typo.

The StackExchange Q&A's are here to help the person that asked the question, but also to help future readers. If a question won't help future readers, then it doesn't have much value on SE. In this case this typo can be made by anyone anywhere in any imaginable PHP code that has an equation with a variable. People having the same problem, where it is a typo, will never get any help from this question you are mentioning, because the won't search on Google using "current URL", "post value" or "all pages" which this question is about and they won't find this question.

So that is why it was closed. Keeping a question with no value for future readers open because it would be unfriendly to close towards this new user is no valid reason for me and would make a mess out of our Magento SE.

Answer 2

And, the specific problem like I given maybe can't be reproduced, but some other newbie might meet a similar problem, and get inspired form the question.

Not really. Even if someone uses matching search terms, he should not find a questions that is related to a typo.

Closing such questions is right im my opinion.

For the comment:

How can a question based on a typo or lack of basic understanding of PHP get two upvotes? (also counts for the answers b.t.w.)

Bit rude ;) I dont know. Posting this on main StackExchange would give downvotes in minutes :)

Upvoting this question is clearly wrong, but upvoting answers seems legit to me, just because "This answer was usefull", BUT how to upvote such a "low-quality-question-answers" correctly?

"Correctly" in the meaning of that such answers should not have more upvotes for just being right, and other - that are related to "real" problems have less ...

If I see "typo-questions" I try to answer, but also vote to close. If it is a new users (first question?) I do not downvote ... otherwise I do.

Btw ... there are some "funny" typos that are harder to get, they just happen :P