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7. "Too open-ended": long answers are welcome on the site, but a question should not require an overly-long answer. A typical "answerable" question on this site can be answered, by an answer which consists of just a few paragraphs with maybe a reference to a canonical literature or a book. The rare question which would requires a 1000-word essay as an answer is therefore off-topic. You can ask broad questions (if a shallow answer is OK), or a detailed question if it's focused on one topic and answerable.

Similarly a question which most likely requires a back-and-forth discussion, perhaps because almost any answer will be seen as unsatisfactory, would also be too long for this site.

For example, "please explore X and tell me everything you can about it", makes for a good homework assignment but not a good (finite) topic for the "Question & Answer" format of Stack Exchange.

6. "Seeded questions": the standard Stack Exchange Help says,

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.

Also this topic includes the following popular answers:

I find seeded questions irksome

And:

I do not mind beginners asking beginner questions. I do not mind experienced people asking beginner questions because they have a gap in their training or education.

But, questions which may be intended to teach other people a lesson are less popular. If a question is to benefit you then please ask it; but not if you ask it only to teach other people.

This is similar to other policies, about answering questions and minimizing controversy:

• Don't preach
• Don't assume a teacher's mantle
• Don't ask questions in order to self-answer them (i.e. questions posted to benefit others)

For example, this question was closed by yuttadhammo and it's a type of question which he regularly closes. The question asked this, after describing an experience,

Crab bucket's question is modified (a sufficiently different, on-topic version of the same question): it's different/better because in particular it identifies a problem to be solved, and it asks for advice (on how to deal with this problem).

For example, this question was closed by yuttadhammo and it's a type of question which he regularly closes. The question asked this, after describing an experience,

Crab bucket's question is modified (a sufficiently different, on-topic version of the same question): it's different/better because in particular it identifies a problem to be solved, and it asks for advice (on how to deal with this problem).