What are reasons our community has found for closing questions?

Question

Over the years, this community has decided what kind of questions should be on- or off-topic for the site.

Some of these decisions have been integrated into the Help Center and into the Close/Flag reasons. While we have control over some parts of the help center and the close reasons descriptions, not everything can fit comfortably in there.

What are the different reasons that a question would be off-topic here that are not listed in the Help Center or in the Close/Flag reasons and what's the meta discussion that has lead to these decisions?

Also, could I get more information about those close reasons that are currently listed?

Like any other reasons, if there is a way to edit the question and bring it on-topic, this should be done instead of voting/flagging to close it.

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Note that this question/answer is really meant to be a summary; it's kind of a directory to find at a glance discussions of why we'd vote to close.

Answer 1

The question is asking for legal advice.

We're not lawyers and this is not a legal advice site. Meta post

The question is asking if product X has feature Y, or if Y is doable with it.

It's a "what technology to use" in disguise, it doesn't age well, etc. Meta post

The question is asking what technology should be used to do X.

They're not very useful for future visitors, and are most of the time very broad, making them unanswerable with a 'definitive' answer. Meta post

The question is asking how game X implemented feature Y.

Similar to "what technology to use". Not only does it have the same problems as that question type, but it also suffer because often nobody out side of the dev team for game X knows how game X did it. Meta post

The question is purely about programming, and is not asked in the context of a video game.

While game developers can answer these questions, there is a better audience on SO to answer it. And we prefer questions geared toward game programming. Meta post Note that generic questions in the context of game development are fine. Meta post

The question is asking for a 'list of x' (even a 'list of one x').

Although the consensus was that it was OK at some point in the past, moderation policies have shifted to "list of X" questions not being useful. Meta post (Maybe this question should be closed because of this reason??? :P)

The question is a recruitment advertisement.

Stack Exchange sites are not for recruitment. Meta Post

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If you know a reason that is commonly used in the "off-topic/other...", please, by all means, add the missing them to this list.