Why is this question about "noun for splitting" off-topic?

Question

This question has gotten two close votes, but no one has made any comments regarding it.

I don't object to it being closed, I've already gotten nice answers.

However, when casting close-votes, it's always helpful (for at least the first voter) to leave a comment with an explanation. (That's what I do when I vote to close.)

I see that the reason used is "Basic questions on spelling, meaning or pronunciation are off-topic as they should be answered using a dictionary."

So is the idea that I could have looked this up in a list of synonyms for "split"?

Answer 1

It isn't.

I don't know why two people voted to close it, but as far as I can tell, they were wrong. The close reviewers unanimously agreed on that.

(Some people would make the argument that this is why close votes don't notify users, as they can easily be wrong if there's only one or two; I'm not so sure about that, but certainly in this case there wasn't really anything for you to worry about.)

Answer 2

Yes that's the idea. Also it would have been a better/more detailed/acceptable question (in my mind) if you had listed some of the synonyms you had found and mentioned why they weren't acceptable, or stated any other problems you might have had with them, such as not understanding their meaning or whether they were appropriate to your context.

Because now, several questions are offering words that don't fit your context at all. Also it usually takes five close votes to actually close a question, so don't worry if you receive one or two. (A moderator can close a question by himself, I think.) Users here have different philosophies and/or reasons for casting close votes, and we have discussions about whether a question is close worthy. This is one of them. Some users don't like certain types of questions and are more likely to closevote for that reason.

Frankly I am not a fan of word request questions in general, here or on ELU, especially if the asker does not indicate what research or effort they have done to come up with the word before posting the question on the site.