The most important metric for "too localized" is "how many people could this ever help?". If the answer is "only the one person who asked the question", it's too localized.

There are some indicators to help determine this:

• relevant only to a very small number of people (e.g. users of a particular SharePoint installation)
• specific to a point in time (e.g. "When will SharePoint v.Next be released?")
• impossible or extremely difficult to reproduce the situation described

It's important to close these questions for the same reasons that we want to remove or discourage anything else regarded as "noise" in the site - we want a site of high quality that attracts and engages people. Sifting through questions that can't be answered isn't interesting or fun.

The most important metric for "too localized" is "how many people could this ever help?". If the answer is "only the one person who asked the question", it's too localized.

There are some indicators to help determine this:

• relevant only to a very small number of people (e.g. users of a single SharePoint installation)
• specific to a point in time (e.g. "When will SharePoint v.Next be released?")
• impossible or extremely difficult to reproduce the situation described

It's important to close these questions for the same reasons that we want to remove or discourage anything else regarded as "noise" in the site - we want a site of high quality that attracts and engages people. Sifting through questions that can't be answered isn't interesting or fun.

We have the "too localized" close reason to remove questions that:

• nobody participating in the site is likely to know the answer to, and;
• even if answered are unlikely to help anyone else in the future.

There are some indicators to help determine this:

• no way to reproduce the situation described
• relevant only to a very small number of people
• problem occurs due to a software bug
• low view count over a reasonable period of time
• no upvotes on the question
• unanswered for at least 3 months

It's important to close these questions for the same reasons that we want to remove or discourage anything else regarded as "noise" in the site - we want a site of high quality that attracts and engages people. Sifting through questions that can't be answered isn't interesting or fun.

If you had a question closed for this reason please be aware that it's not because we don't value it, just that this probably isn't the best place for it. The case might also be that it was a fair question at the time it was posted, but in the time since it hasn't gained any traction. (One way to help gain attention to your question is to edit and update it with new developments.)

Further reading - in chronological order as the definition has been refined over time:

• http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/4818/what-questions-should-be-closed-with-reason-too-localized
• http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/23013/what-does-too-localized-mean-as-a-justification-for-closing-a-question
• http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/87149/should-syntax-error-questions-be-closed-as-too-localized-after-being-answered
• http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/89313/give-an-example-of-when-to-close-as-too-localized

The most important metric for "too localized" is "how many people could this ever help?". If the answer is "only the one person who asked the question", it's too localized.

There are some indicators to help determine this:

• relevant only to a very small number of people (e.g. users of a particular SharePoint installation)
• specific to a point in time (e.g. "When will SharePoint v.Next be released?")
• impossible or extremely difficult to reproduce the situation described

It's important to close these questions for the same reasons that we want to remove or discourage anything else regarded as "noise" in the site - we want a site of high quality that attracts and engages people. Sifting through questions that can't be answered isn't interesting or fun.