Why was my post deleted?

Hello!

Two days ago I asked a question about a graphic object in Kotlin/Android.
I got a message that the post was deleted by the community because it was ‘off-topic’.

Why is a post about ‘Graphic object in Kotlin/Android’ in this forum ‘off-topic’ ?

If something is unclear or information is missing, you can ask. Why this censorship without a hint or reason what is wrong with my post.
It is OK, if someone cannot or does not want to answer my question, But deleting it takes away the possibility for others to help me.

I am over 70 years old and still like to learn something new. Therefore I would be glad about hints what was wrong with my question…

Greetings from a somewhat irritated
Jan

Sorry to hear that your question was deleted.

Would you mind quoting the question here? It’s hard to tell what potential reasons it was removed for without being able to read it.

Thanks for the feedback.
The question was quite simple:

How do I create a vector graphic object (for example a circle with size, color, XY-position) and create multiple instances at runtime?
I think this is a legitimate question in this forum.

I can create this graphic in XML. I have found many examples in books and on the internet. But either the graphic is defined in XML or powerful graphic packages or game machines are used.

A simple example or a reference to the right book or online example would help me a lot.

Thanks Jan

No. It’s specific to Android, not Kotlin.

1 Like

Why has this forum a [Android] tag, if Android questions are not allowed?
I found a lot of Android problems with solution in this forum.

Jan

It’s ok when BOTH Kotlin and Android concerned, but not Android-only.

Your question is valid but doesn’t relate to Kotlin. I think instead of being deleted it would have been been better for others to reply explaining you likely won’t find a good answer here and instead recommend a book or other resources or sites to look for tutorials.

For example, I heard Google started a new tutorial series for Android recently. Here’s their courses: Cursos de treinamento  |  Android Developers

Your question is focused on doing something in Android. Kotlin and Java are interoperable and before Google made Kotlin the primary Android language, everyone called the same methods in both Kotlin and Java for their apps. This is still the case for most beginner Android questions.

I suspect you will get half your answers in Java when searching it up online. The courses Google provides go over Kotlin specifically. However if you find a StackOverflow answer with an example in Java, it will probably work almost line for line in Kotlin as well.

2 Likes

Many thanks for the friendly and enlightening answer.

If such an answer had come immediately, I would have accepted it of course. But to simply delete a question without comment was very rude to me. But I belong to an old fashioned generation.

So I will look for a solution elsewhere. Thanks for the hints!

Thanks again
Jan

I guess what happened was this. Someone flaged you post as “off topic” for one of the moderators to take a look. Normally this wouldn’t delete your post but I think people who post for the first time a treated a bit differently. If someone who is active enough on this forum flags a post of a new user it will be deleted imediately. This feature is there to stop unnecessary spam by bots.

3 Likes

Now that I think about it… I’ve flagged at least one post years ago.
There was a second post I considered flagging more recently as off topic but I can’t remember if I did or not.

What I do remember is that the post in question had only a the subject for the very general question with a wall of code or stacktrace without any context. If this was your question and I forgot that I flagged it; @Janus, sorry for the confusion.

I much prefer to reply over flagging any posts. The only reason I remember the post in question is because I almost flagging it due to being a wall of code and zero context to a unrelated question. The only reply I could think of at the time was, “What? Can you restate your question from scratch?”

I often end up passing on those types posts without replying but ideally it would be nice to have some generic link to advise on how to properly format their question.


For future readers who find a post of theirs was removed for being off topic:

Please check you’ve described your question. It also may be worth trying to google your question if it’s something that has a direct answer–otherwise we can help you find the right question to search or point you to the right place :slight_smile:

If your topic body is mostly code or a stacktrace, make sure you’ve described what you’re trying to doing. Try to narrow the code you’re posting to only relevant sections if possible and add more later if needed. We can also help you narrow your code down but at least give it a first pass. Point out which line is triggering the the error if possible.

For example, instead of this post:

SUBJECT: Error calling method

I get an error with this code:
[Long unformatted copy/past of code]

Error: [entire unformatted stacktrace]

Do the following alternative:

SUBJECT: Error passing list to vararg method

I’m trying to pass a list as an argument to another method that accepts a variable list of arguments but I’m getting a from the following line:
[A small few lines of code where the error is thrown and the relevant lines around it]

I’ve tried searching Google but I’m not sure what to look up. I checked the doc on vararg and I believe I’m doing everything correctly. Any ideas for me to look into?

The second has a more descriptive subject, an explanation of what the user is trying to do, a narrowed snippet of code of the lines triggering the error, and the error at that line. It also shows some evidence for what the poster needs help with by revealing their level of experience and what they’ve researched. The poster even specifically asks for any leads not just completed code or a raw answer.

This format of question usually gets quick and helpful answers :slight_smile:


@Janus, your question doesn’t perfectly fit the mold of an error related question, but here’s an example of how I would format it:

SUBJECT: Advise for drawing vector graphics on Android

I’m in the process of learning Android with Kotlin. I’m trying to work with vector graphics using objects but I’m having some trouble knowing where to start.

I’ve seen several examples online that use either XML or third party game engines and graphics libraries. I’m successfully able to create graphics in XML but I was hoping to do graphics with objects instead.

Is there a simple recommend way of drawing vectors with objects? Or any tutorials that could help?

In this format it’s clear what you’re trying to do, what you level of experience might be, what you’ve found so far, and what is still unknown.

1 Like