This is what killed SO. People were going to the site to get problems solved, not to add to their list of problems.
This is what killed SO. People were going to the site to get problems solved, not to add to their list of problems.
They were incorrect to take the approach that they did.
Last year, my friend's cat died. Imagine if he had gone to Wikipedia to edit the page for Cat, inserting his question in the page text, seeking veterinary advice. I hope you would agree that this would be an abuse of the system which should certainly not be rewarded.
Similarly, on a Q&A site like Stack Overflow when you ask a question, it is simply expected that you think about other people, and what their needs will be.
Specifically: a question and answer are added primarily so that, indefinitely into the future, other people can find them with a search engine, read the question and confirm that it matches what they're trying to find out, and go to the answers. Think about what those users would want the question and answer to look like. Think about whether they would ever be able to find the question with reasonable search terms, and whether an answer to you could possibly also answer them. Think about whether they would expect Stack Overflow to house that question. This is, really, at the root of all the reasons for closing a question.