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I noticed that the question As a developer, how can I ask for more freedom when confronted with a tight IT security policy? had been closed as off-topic with a note saying that it wasn't a question. Specifically, the note says:

Real questions have answers. Rather than explaining why your situation is terrible, or why your boss/coworker makes you unhappy, explain what you want to do to make it better. For more information, click here.

It seems to me that that's exactly what this question was doing: asking how to go about trying to improve the situation of overly-restrictive IT policies that hinder the productivity of developers. The question seems decidedly on-topic and is definitely a question (the specific question being asked is even bolded at the bottom of the question.) It does not seem to fit the description of the given close reason in any meaningful way. It is not a question that is specific to one particular situation; it's something that happens in many companies and is relevant to many future visitors. The question itself and several of the answers have rather positive vote scores, so apparently quite a lot of people found it relevant.

I suppose answers will be at least somewhat subjective, but not really any more so than almost every question on Workplace SE.

So, my question is why was it closed (and, if there's not a good reason, can we reopen it?)

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  • 1
    I upvoted and voted to reopen a long time ago. Unfortunately, I can't vote to reopen again.
    – Jim G.
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 0:26
  • 2
    I voted to close a long time ago. Fortunately, I can't vote to close again (this way system lowers the chance of close-reopen wars and of narrow groups of "hyperactive" users to gain too much control on the site)
    – gnat
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 7:52
  • @gnat Yes, I understand and agree with the policy of not allowing the same user to cast a vote to close or re-open the same question more than once. I was wondering why the question was closed to start with.
    – reirab
    Commented Jan 15, 2015 at 15:20
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    I think some people got upset about it and felt better by pressing the close vote button.
    – James
    Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 21:23

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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There's currently a lot of filler in the post. The user is ranting a little bit, and perhaps the reasoning for why the policy is bad could be summed up using less words.

Conciseness helps keep the focus on the question and removes it from the complaints. Perhaps one way to work to get this question reopened would be to gut some of the stuff that just plain isn't needed in order to answer the core question, how do we change a restrictive policy at work.

It's an old question. It has 12 answers though, so the question is would editing to cut out the fluff invalidate any of them. If you think you can remove the excessive information without invalidating answers, go ahead and give it a shot. Editing the post should bump it back into the reopen review queue. Hope this helps!

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    True, but a little filler doesn't mean it should be closed, does it?
    – James
    Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 21:19

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