Why is it so hard to ask for hardware recommendations on Hardware Recommendations?

Question

This question got closed without feedback and with only 3 views, 5 hours after it was posted.

I tried editing the question several times to get it reopen, even when I wasn't sure what was wrong with it. I tried to word it as "which hardware device" instead of "how do I" (I originally thought that the buying part was obvious). No reopen happened.

I tried flagging the question, only to found out that the same moderator declined the flag. He did not provided justification as to why it was a technical support request and shifted to unclear what you are asking, but refused to reopen it. He asked for obvious clarifications that implies that he didn't understood the question in any of its revision. I provided such feedback and he ignored it.

Why moderators that are in doubt, tend to close questions that are on-topic? He may could have commented something like 'Is this a question about a purchase decision?' instead of just closing the question.

I believe moderators should try to step out a little bit and help users fit their questions into the moderators expectations. Specially for a site like HardwareRecs that has ~12 questions per day.

Here are my justification as per why the question is on-topic.

From: Is a scope of "product recommendations" + "pre-purchase inquiries" agreeable?

What's our scope? The purpose of this site (as I see it) is to help folks in making purchase decisions, whether it is in finding the right product given a definitive set of requirements, or (updated) to ask what you should consider to help assure your purchase will work for you. Fair enough?

Also says:

A sensible scope would be “purchasing decision about computing hardware”, or “pre-purchase questions about computing hardware”. This includes questions like

1. Does this particular model fit this use case?
2. What model would best fit this use case?
3. What criteria are important for this use case?
4. What benefit does this characteristic offer?
5. In this class of scenarios, when does this characteristic matter?

Or from: What is required for a question to be 'high quality'?

A question on Hardware Recommendations has one of two goals:

• A request for a product recommendation, OR
• A request for information that will lead to a product decision

My question is about which "specification" should I look for, that allows certain kind of devices to meet my requirements.

Answer 1

Your original question:

I got a Samsung S8 with a totally broken screen. Repair cost is at 80% of a brand new one, so eventually I bought a another phone. With a USB-C multiport adapter I can attach an HDMI monitor and USB mouse and keyboard, turning it into an android desktop computer. The problem is: How do I power such setup, so I don't have to unplug the setup to charge the phone every day?

"How do I power X" just... is asking for technical support. There's no way of looking at it where it's not. So, I closed it.

I tried editing the question several times to get it reopen, even when I wasn't sure what was wrong with it. I tried to word it as "which hardware device" instead of "how do I" (I originally thought that the buying part was obvious). No reopen happened.

And by "several times", I believe you meant "once" - with an edit summary of "reworded for the language police". I didn't reopen your question at this point because I didn't see it had been edited - closed edited posts are not automatically put back in front of moderators, they're put back in front of the community, which supposedly is there to help close and reopen posts at the relevant points. So, you flagged it.

I tried flagging the question, only to found out that the same moderator declined the flag.

Who declined a flag is not shown to users at any point. You're guessing here. You happen to be correct, but they do say things about making assumptions.

He did not provided justification as to why it was a technical support request

See above.

and shifted to unclear what you are asking, but refused to reopen it.

which it had become, for the reasons I pointed out in a comment:

"You're looking for... what, exactly? A hub that you can plug into a PC? With a USB-C charge lead for an S8, a USB-A mouse, and... what video outputs? USB-C HDMI isn't a thing - do you mean a USB-C port and an HDMI port? If you can clarify what kind of device you're looking for and specify what outputs it needs to have, we may be able to reopen this question."

He asked for obvious clarifications that implies that he didn't understood the question in any of its revision. I provided such feedback and he ignored it.

Hardly. I asked for some clarifications that were necessary to be able to answer the question, to which you responded by making another edit that didn't actually address the questions I asked - with another caustic summary, I might add.

In particular, you still haven't addressed what kind of video connection you want. "USB-C video/hdmi out" isn't clear about what you want - do you want some type of video-over-USB-C? An HDMI connector? USB-C HDMI - which doesn't exist?

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TL;DR: You went about this the wrong way. Constructive discussion about why and what can be done is always to be preferred. Clarify the question about video outputs, and your question will be at a point where it can be reopened.