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I refer specifically to this question: Netgear GS724T - all lights are always on - although this is just one specific example, I see this repeatedly day after day on different questions.

netgear gs724t all Lights are always on

I have a netgear GS724T connected to a TP-Link switch. When I turn on the Netgear all Lights Stay always on. Tried reset to Factory defaults but no change.

The Lights also stay on when it is not connected to the TP-Link switch.

Any idea?

Now, I'm not saying that this is a good question, or that it should remain open. But if we're going to go to the effort of re-doing these close reasons, please, think twice about what you're choosing:

Let's break this down:

Questions seeking installation, configuration or diagnostic help must include:

the desired end state

Well, this is pretty obvious from the question. He wants his switch to work and not light up when nothing is plugged into it. Spending a microsecond reading the question makes this information implied.

The specific problem or error

This information is provided in the body of the question

sufficient information about the configuration and environment to reproduce it

This information is provided in the body of the question

Questions without a clear problem statement are not useful to other readers and are unlikely to get good answers.

He provided all the relevant information and a pretty obvious diagnosis could be made.


So please, think about the close reasons you're using. Throwing the wrong close reasons on questions is not going to help the site regardless of which side of the current professional/everyman debate.

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  • Which close reason should have been used ?
    – user9517
    Nov 24, 2014 at 6:26
  • 1
    A diagnosis of "Use your vendor support?"
    – Magellan
    Nov 24, 2014 at 6:35
  • @Iain I made a conscious decision not to post my opinion on the close reason, because I do not believe it should have been closed. I was going to throw an edit on it, but when I first saw it I was just heading out of the office, and when I wrote this post I was about to make dinner, so didn't have the time to edit it into a more well formatted question. Nov 24, 2014 at 8:23
  • 1
    @Magellan You could diagnose 90% of the questions on this site as "contact the vendor", but for whatever reason people choose not to. And the answer is less "contact your vendor" as "your device has failed" and the next step is to contact the vendor. Nov 24, 2014 at 8:25
  • 1
    Ok cool but if you're going to try to educate people you should tell them what's right as well a what's wrong (or vice versa).
    – user9517
    Nov 24, 2014 at 8:28
  • @Iain I want to keep this post unbiased in that regards. That way it can still be relevant in the future. Keeping it simple. Nov 24, 2014 at 8:30
  • 3
    You can always make your own ideas an answer. Nov 24, 2014 at 12:39
  • 2
    Please don't delete vote the referenced question, so that people with less than 20k rep can actually see what's being discussed. Nov 24, 2014 at 20:41
  • @ShaneMadden it's small enough that I've edited it into the question. Also there were delete votes on it, but they seem to be gone... Nov 24, 2014 at 21:03
  • @MarkHenderson I undeleted it. Nov 24, 2014 at 21:04
  • Oh so you did! Just saw that in the revision history. Damn. Nov 24, 2014 at 21:04

1 Answer 1

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That's not the reason I picked, but that reason does include:

and sufficient information about the configuration and environment to reproduce it.

With all due respect, the poster didn't even include enough information in the question for me to be certain there was a problem at all.

I have a Netgear GS724T "Smart" switch. When I power it on, all the lights come on. I have tried a factory reset, but this has not changed the behaviour of the switch.

Has this switch failed, or is this a config issue I can resolve?

I don't know about any one else's switches, but when I power my switches on (and we have Ciscos, HP Procurves, HP H3Cs, Dell... whatever the name is), all the lights come on. This is actually how I know they're powering up, and the lights all work.

I suspect, but do not know, because it was not stated that the problem this person is having is that they come on and stay on, indicating that the switch freezes near the start of the boot process.

I feel it's perfectly valid to say that someone has failed to provide sufficient information when they haven't even given enough information to be certain there is a problem. And given the whole 7 seconds worth of effort put into asking that question, I think it's being ungenerous to closers to expect a careful deliberation in selecting a close reason for a question the asker couldn't be bothered to expend any appreciable effort on.

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  • The title of the question stated that the lights are "always" on. Unfortunately this was not repeated in the body of the question, even after my edit. I can see your point regarding the amount of effort put into the question. Nov 24, 2014 at 19:52
  • @MarkHenderson So it does. I've thrown a reopen vote on it accordingly. Nov 24, 2014 at 20:02
  • 4
    There's at least a little irony in assuming the OP put less than 7 seconds into a question because you thought it lacked info... that you didn't have enough time to see in the title, no?
    – Jaydles
    Nov 24, 2014 at 21:14
  • I don't think the title is the right place to put that kind of information. It should really be in the body but that's an easy edit if you notice it's required.
    – user9517
    Nov 24, 2014 at 21:29
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    @Jaydles You seem to have have a very low irony threshold. I don't find it the least bit ironic that I missed a single word in the title of the post, that wasn't present in the body, yet was the crucial detail about the problem, no. Nov 24, 2014 at 21:37
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    @Jaydles is that more or less 'irony' than a SE employee berating a regular (better still, a volunteer who is prepared to give up their time to be a site moderator) for missing a single word in a title despite SE showing a complete lack of interest in this site and missing several novels-worth of words written on here themselves?
    – Rob Moir
    Nov 26, 2014 at 8:51

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