As I already mentioned, [some questions provide too much detail](https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/831/49), making it a multi-thread open-ended requests for life advice.

However, in some cases the question lack enough details, and people are confused or ask for more details. Especially things dealing with social relations, norms, ethics, etc: levels of sensitivity varies by persons, laws varies by countries, different people have different first- or second-hand experiences, etc.

I am clueless when I see `offensive`, `inappropriate`, etc. So do many other readers, what end up in long comment ping-pong, people questioning if the issue is serious enough to call it. Or maybe actually OP downplays it and the behavior is not "a bit inappropriate" but deserves "Don't walk. Run." or legal actions? 

For example, compare

> 
> What to do if advisor, when talking with me, holds my arm and I feel uncomfortable?
> 
> 
> 

with 

> 
> What to do if advisor, when talking with me, behaves inappropriately and I feel uncomfortable?
> 
> 
> 

The first will start an idle discussion. The second won't.

Let us remember that Academia.SE has way more subjective questions than StackOverflow (or, say, MathOverflow). And the SE system works the best for clear, answerable questions. StackOverflow won't work with:

> 
> this library gives undesirable results, but let me not go into details.
> 
> 
> 

The only exception I can foresee is privacy (but, I guess, more than often a *different but of similar calibre* example can be given). Otherwise explicit situations or verbatim phrases are the best (with, possibly placeholders to mask obscene words).

And as examples, questions which without explicit examples would end in guessing games (but, as they are, attracted good answers):

* [What to do if assignment is against student's religion?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17815/what-to-do-if-assignment-is-against-students-religion)
* [Why do many talented scientists write horrible software?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17781/why-many-talented-scientists-write-horrible-software)

This meta question was started because of [Should professors intervene if a student is wearing offensive clothing in their classroom?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17739/should-professors-intervene-if-a-student-is-wearing-offensive-clothing-in-their)
and being a sort-of follow-up of [People denying the situation in the questions instead of answering](https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/834/people-denying-the-situation-in-the-questions-instead-of-answering).

In any case, IMHO, the most important factor is not my feeling about providing examples, but:

* it is clear what is the question?
* do they attract good answers?
* do they minimize overhead (in people asking comments)?

What do you think?