According to the help center, we have some specific topics that are considered off topic:
- Help identifying a particular piece of wood (for example, by looking at a picture)
- Product or vendor recommendations
- Help finding woodworking plans
- Critiques of a specific woodworking project or design (not to be confused with general design considerations)
However, the custom close reasons available are few and fairly generic:
I get that the first item covers everything listed in the help center, but that's not especially helpful for either the people voting to close or for people whose questions are closed.
I propose that we either modify the first off topic close reason to briefly list the close reasons from the help center, or (better) create a separate custom reason that lists them. Telling someone that his/her question related to a table saw isn't about woodworking just doesn't make a lot of sense. I'd like to have a reason like:
- As explained in the help center, questions about wood identification, product/vendor/plan recommendations, or feedback on a specific project are considered off topic.
What's more, it'd be helpful to expand the help center off topic list to explain why these particular items are off topic, even if it's a catch-all statement about these kinds of questions leading to debate or extended discussion rather than definitive answers.
