Why was this question closed with "This question does not appear to be about Vi and Vim family of editors?"
How much money has been raised for needy children in Uganda from Vim?
- It's about Vim
- it's a specific question
- It's not opinion based
Why was this question closed with "This question does not appear to be about Vi and Vim family of editors?"
How much money has been raised for needy children in Uganda from Vim?
I was the 5th voter, and I was thinking two things at the time:
Carpetsmoker's year-by-year find pretty much gets around my main concern, so rather than argue for it to be closed again, I'd suggest putting something like "as of 2015" in the question title to lock it to a certain time period.
In my opinion, it should not have been closed.
:help license
does, the Vim website does.Our "What types of questions should I avoid asking?" 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
The question is answerable, not chatty, not open-ended, and states a problem (finding out how many Vim users donated to ICCF).
I agree this is not a
"practical" question in the meaning of "being able to be put to use", but I do think it's interesting. And since it ticks all the other boxes, I think that's "good enough" to be considered on-topic. Blindly following rules has rarely done anyone any good.
A 5 minute search reveals:
So it seems that this sort of question isn't out of the ordinary on other similar SE sites. None of these questions are closed, and all have high votes on the question & answers. These sites aren't overrun with these questions either, from what I can see.
I did not cast a vote to close myself, but just because I did not notice the question.
Yes, it is about vim, and yes it is not frivolous and not opinion based, but it is still off-topic, because, simply, it has nothing to do with text-editing using vim.
Also, the topic of whether charityware is a viable source of revenue, would be on-topic in a q&a site about software licensing. Or would we accept the same kind of question for any software tool relevant on SO?
hg log
)
– Martin Tournoij
Feb 10 '15 at 14:54
nvi
). On the other hand, "How do I capitalize vim" is IMO off topic and "why does nobody use vimballs" is barely saved by the answer but feels opinion based.
– l4mpi
Feb 10 '15 at 16:01
I posted a comment on the question itself, before find this discussion.
While it is an interesting topic, I would maybe discuss it in chat -- especially since OP has the rep for that. There, people can talk about the editor in terms of opinion -- do they like the charity it is supporting? Do they donate themselves?
As others mentioned, the question was not about the functions of vim, but rather its use as a donation tool (for lack of a better phrase). I am sure there is another SE site this question can be moved to, but vi/meta does not work. It does not refer to the software's function nor the SE site's maintenance.
The "worst" part of the question is the title. It screams off-topic if you are not aware that Vim donates to charity. I am not sure of a better title myself.. Maybe:
Given that Vim is charity-ware, how many users actually donate to its causes?
That tells readers what kind of software vim is. Personally, I did not know until yesterday it was charity ware, as I simply install it via command line on Linux. No need to check the official website. But a title like that draws (possibly) a direct connection to vim and its "features." (Ones outside of configuration, like use in the "real world" so to speak.)