Why was the jaguar armour question closed?

Question

Would a taxidermied jaguar make decent armour?

The question was closed without explanation, and I am making a Meta post hoping to find out why.

Questions along the lines of "would this material make decent armour" have been asked time and again.

• Leaf-based clothing: Practical? Historical? Fictional?
• New Age Armor Materials
• How effective and viable would bronze full plate be?
• How would metal cloth affect armor design?
• Would keratin, spider silk, and bone make good bio-engineered armour?
• If it could be shaped, would chitin from giant insects make decent body armor?
• Human-leather Armor: Effective and Practical?
• How effective would wooden scale armor be in a medieval setting?
• How would aluminium work as medieval armor?
• how well would a magical scale armor-strength cloak work as armor?
• What would be the most practical way to use a dragon's scales as armor?
• Would armour made of spider silk work?

I am having a hard time figuring out why mine is so different from them.

One bit that perhaps confused people is that I mentioned some specific points about what makes the armour possibly suitable or unsuitable. Those being its resistance against the weapons found in the Aztecosphere, the strength of the skull, whether the suit would last long, and how well it would fare in the tropical climate. I gave those to show my research and to invite answers to disagree with any of my conclusions. The core question found in the question title did not change.

I am open to being proven wrong in my assumption that the jaguar armour question is similar to all the other exotic armour material questions. I ask questions, both here and on the non-meta site, because I want to become correct, not because I want my existing opinion proven correct. But I cannot become correct if I am dismissed without explanation. So please tell me how the jaguar question is different from the twelve questions here linked so that I can improve it.

Answer 1

I'm one of the original close-voters, and I'm delighted to be the fifth open-voter

I cast my VTC based on the original question: which was (at least) four distinct questions, and the rules allow for only one. At 9.5K+ reputation, I expected you to have the experience to know better.

To my delight, the question has gone through a series of edits. It's not just a single question, it's now a very well focused and properly conditioned question! Frankly, that doesn't happen very often on this site.

Thank you for presenting a fabulous question and for taking all the proverbial arrows in the back to make it one — and I hope you get equally well qualified answers! (And to help, because it really is rare to see improvement and a willingness to work with the system for that improvement, I've thrown a bounty on the question to get it more attention.)

Answer 2

You can deny it all you want, but you were in fact asking multiple questions! So far, pretty cut and dried: the question was closed for the stated reason.

So, what can you do about it?

First thing is: don't edit your original query to complain about other people's motives. Certainly asking here in Meta is a good starting point. You can edit your Main query with a link inviting people to read your complaint / excuses here.

As I read through your query, I found that you are actually asking six qualitatively different questions. This is nothing to worry about, and lots of querents have made this mistake. That's why closure & editing are fundamental parts of SE. You ask if a material can be effective armour. That's a good question, and you should have stuck with that, because as you noted, that kind of query is well received here. However, you went on to ask five more specific questions that differ considerably from your initial question. You ask about stabbing weapons, you ask about slicing or slashing weapons, you ask about skull protection, you ask about durability of material, you ask about wearer comfort.

While all these questions relate to the armour, they leave your query as a whole open ended, liable to receive many opinions on each point and quite the untidy and unfocused mess. Hence the closure.

As I'm sure you're aware, you do need to be careful how to word the body of a question. Generally less is best. Take a look at the aluminium armour question. Like two sentences and everything that needs to be communicated is communicated perfectly.

Suggestions

You could literally show the picture and edit down the chat to write "Would this make for suitable armour?" and you'd have a good basic question.

In your considerations, don't ask extra questions! Just state your concerns:

"I've done some basic research and am worried that these might affect the utility of this kind of leather armour:

• typical weapons in use include stabbing & slashing blades made from PRS and whacking weapons made from TUV
• given that a tanned jaguar pelt is W mm thick;
• dead bone weakens as it ages;
• there's no access to stable storage facilities;
• the armour will be roughly handled and abused;
• leather is a really good insulator
• the climate of the people who will use this is XYZ"

Something like that and you should be golden!