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Someone has asked a perfectly reasonable and appropriate question on SO but it has been put on hold for being too broad. It isn't too broad at all, and I could provide the answer if it wasn't on hold. I'd happily answer the question by adding a comment if I had the commenting privilege but unfortunately I only have a reputation of 46 at the moment.

I know I could edit the question, but there's really nothing to improve on. It's a simple, straightforward question with a simple, straightforward answer, if only I could provide it.

Is there anything else I can do?

Sorry, should have linked the question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25987793/header-text-change-in-moodle-if-you-are-login-or-log-out

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  • 2
    Link the the question? – bjb568 Sep 23 '14 at 18:43
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    You really should edit that post. I'm slightly tweaking out with how many wrong things there are that can be fixed. – gunr2171 Sep 23 '14 at 18:57
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    As gunr2171 said, if you edit the post to clean up the wording and make it a little clearer, it will automatically be reviewed in the Reopen Votes queue for reopening. If the community thinks it's worth it, it will be reopened. – Brad Larson Sep 23 '14 at 18:58
  • Fair enough, will do. – Tony Sep 23 '14 at 19:01
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    I'm rather dissapointed that you're actually upset at being unable to answer such a terrible question. Just find a quality question to spend your time answering. – Servy Sep 23 '14 at 19:03
  • I accept that the wording of the question isn't great, but it seems fairly obvious what the OP wants to know. Cheers. – Tony Sep 23 '14 at 19:06
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    Oh, and while we're at it, you really couldn't find anything about that question to edit to improve it? The question is full of all sorts of things that can be edited to improve it; it'd still be a low quality question even after editing it, but there's certainly a lot there to fix. – Servy Sep 23 '14 at 19:27
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    @Tony I would encourage you to read my answer here. The question itself has nothing to do with with this issue, but the answer might provide you some clues as to why the question was closed. Effectively, just because you can provide an answer doesn't necessarily mean you should. A bad question is a bad question, and not all questions are appropriate for Stack Overflow, even if you can provide an answer. – psubsee2003 Sep 23 '14 at 19:45
7

At your rep level, you don't have many options. Once you get enough rep (3K), you'll be able to vote to reopen the question.

Until you get to that point, the only think you can do to get questions reopened is to

  1. Edit it so it shows up in the Reopen review queue where users with the appropriate privileges can vote to reopen it. This is your best bet. You say that it is a simple, straight-forward question, but it is possible that it is not clear enough for most users. You can try to make an edit that will help clarify the question to make sure it is as clear and straightforward to us as it is to you. This is by far the best option and the one you should use 99% of the time.
  2. Bring it to the attention of higher rep users in chat or on meta. Usually chat is a better location as we don't need someone to ask a new question here on meta every time they need a question reopened. The Meta Effect (which can apply to chat as well) can be quite powerful to get questions closed or reopened, but I do caution you that it can be rather harsh and if the community does not agree with your interpretation.
  3. Flag it for moderator attention by clicking "Flag" under the question, selecting "Other" and explaining why you feel it should be reopened. "I can provide an answer" is not a valid reason. But I should stress that this should only be used as a last resort and only if you feel the community has not treated the question fairly. And usually moderators will defer to the community, so it usually rare when a mod will override the communities decision unless they think it is being treated improperly.
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    OK, thanks. I'll go for option 1. – Tony Sep 23 '14 at 19:05
  • @Tony, you are confident editing this question will make it a Good Stack Overflow Question? I've tagged it as "Favourite" (of the kind "will check on it later", that is). – Jongware Sep 23 '14 at 19:36

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