Is this question too broad?

Question

I have been much more active on Stack Overflow than here, and realize that the question closing guidelines may vary a bit. I'd like some help making sure I understand this site's definition of "Too Broad".

I recently came across this EESE question, and flagged it for closure as too broad. However, a few months back, I answered this EESE question and didn't flag it. Looking back at it now, it seems just as broad as the one I flagged.

Are one or both of these questions too broad by EESE's standards? If not both, what makes one Too Broad and not the other one? Should I have avoided answering the second one to discourage overly-broad questions?

Note: I have read through this MEESE question, and don't think either of my examples fit the criteria described in the accepted answer for a question to not be "too broad". Am I being too critical of my example questions?

Answer 1

The first question, https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/179429/4512, is one of the poster cases for a bad question, since it's no question at all. I voted to close on account of this not being a show and tell site, and downvoted to kick the OP in the butt for dumping crap on us.

If something related to this were properly asked, then it could easily be too broad. To me it reads as too complicated, which usually means too many things would have to be considered in the answer to be a good fit here. Too broad is the closest close reason we have, and it usually fits too complicated pretty well. Another could be unclear, since I find myself reading it then thinking "Huh? What did he say", and reading it again. Actually at that point I just vote to close as unclear and move on.

The second question, Connecting PC and embedded system via USB, is at least a question. This one also reads too complicated to me, but from the first pass reading it seems that maybe someone with more patience and specific knowledge of what the OP is talking about could possibly write a useful answer. Then seeing it has a answer, and that had 4 upvotes, I feel the best thing to do is just leave it alone and move on if you don't want to delve into it. That's what I did.

If this question didn't have any answers, then I could see the point in closing as unclear, since it refers to this USB3300 thing without any definition or link to a datasheet, mentions "ULPI" without definition, and the general hand waving level seems a bit high. At first glance it doesn't seem to qualify for too broad as it appears something reasonably specific is being asked about. However, without really understanding the question, that may be a incorrect conclusion.