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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.

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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?


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.

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  • How do I power? -"purchasing a pd usb-c hub" Mar 30, 2019 at 21:18
  • You are just not getting any of the points. 1) You were wrong about it being tech-support: If you know what a Samsung S8 and a USB-C Multiport adapter is, then "How do I power such setup" is asking for help what kind of device do I need that replaces the current USB-C Multiport adapter. There is no way to charge a phone that doesnt involve hardware. What kind of technnical support will allow to charge a phone while you are using it's only data/charging port? Only HW can do that. Mar 31, 2019 at 3:04
  • 2) Sorry for calling you the language police. But when you can't read between the lines and you literally translate "How do I" into "tech support" (beside being wrong as explained in #1) and you don't vote to close, you don't comment, but instead close directly, you are being rude. The police, about language. Mar 31, 2019 at 3:04
  • 3) You are wrong about the scope of this site: I already stated why I was on-topic. Not all questions must end in a specific product recommendation. It's a ridiculous narrow scope and the quoted meta discussions support my question. You answered "I asked for some clarifications that were necessary to be able to answer the question".You are trying to answer another question,that I didn't asked. You wanted to answer with a specific device. I just wanted to know which subcategory of 'usb-c multiport adapters' do transfer power, which I found out later that would be the ones with a PD port afaik. Mar 31, 2019 at 3:06
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    And you say: "you still haven't addressed what kind of video connection you want." then you give two options, and you clearly state that one of them doesn't exists. Why not be nice and assume that I meant the only possible one? Is it enough to close a question? And the answer (hdmi out btw) is actually irrelevant to the answer I was looking for. Once I know I need a PD port, then I can google and decide for myself. Mar 31, 2019 at 3:06
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    @GerardoGrignoli, the new version runs into one of the disputed areas of on-topicness. I think that "what sort of thing should I buy?" questions should be on-topic, but that's a minority opinion here.
    – Mark
    Apr 27, 2019 at 6:59

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