I submitted a question asking the difference between two content types used in HTTP requests and the when/why to use one over the other. My question was closed as off-topic, as it is allegedly "not about programming or software development."
However, I think that my question matches the description of what StackOverflow considers to be on-topic. Additionally, I have seen many other questions of a very similar nature that were received very well by the community, for example:
- application/x-www-form-urlencoded or multipart/form-data?
- Difference between multipart and chunked protocol?
- What's the difference between 'multipart/related' and 'multipart/form-data' and when should I use each?
- What determines whether a file should be application/octet-stream vs text/plain?
- Why to use multipart/form-data over application/octet-stream?
This leaves me feeling confused. I am of the opinion that my question indeed relates to programming and that the community has already established that these types of questions are de facto acceptable, but three anonymous individuals seem to disagree.
I just want to a) better learn the community standards, b) improve the way I write questions, and c) find the answers I need while still contributing something of value to the community.
What do you think?