The new (well, not that new now) Insufficient Context close reason has a problem. People see the name and think it is about the text surrounding the code. The text context for the code. But the close reason links to Not real code. If we are going to use Insufficient Context as a close reason for "Not enough description of what the code does," we should change the close text:
"Lacks concrete context: Code Review requires concrete code from a project, with sufficient context for reviewers to understand how that code is used. Pseudocode, stub code, hypothetical code, obfuscated code, and generic best practices are outside the scope of this site."
It should at minimum link to something that explains why we need explanation of what the code does.
- Example question closed for insufficient context where comments explain that the problem is that it needs more explanation.
- Another example question with comments asking for explanation rather than more code.
We have several options:
- Rename lacks concrete context to "not real code". But that doesn't solve the problems that caused the rename in the first place.
- Rename lacks concrete context to something else. But what?
Add "missing explanation" to the lacks concrete context close explanation. E.g.
"Lacks concrete context: Code Review requires concrete code from a project, with sufficient explanation for reviewers to understand how that code is used. Pseudocode, stub code, hypothetical code, obfuscated code, and generic best practices are outside the scope of this site."
But where does the new link go? Is this the right text?
Enforce the existing distinction. But note how this former moderator instead criticizes my enforcement rather than telling the person misusing the term that that's not what the term means.
If moderators and high reputation users are not going to support the distinction, then we should eliminate it.
I don't really care whether that particular question is Unclear what you're asking or Lacks context. That's beside the point. I was responding to a comment that said:
Note that your question lacks concrete context now for review. Please Explain what that code is purposed for in detail please (edit your question).
If we are not going to enforce that distinction on comments like that, then we should get rid of the distinction.
Note that I'm not talking about getting rid of the "Unclear what you're asking" reason. It would still be there, just less used. But if people aren't going to use it anyway, then we should acknowledge that and fix the site text to match how people actually use the site.
It is confusing for new people to come to the site and have their question be closed for one reason when the closers really mean a different reason. It's especially so because we link to help text that explains the wrong reason.