I agree with the more exhaustive proposal initiated by kelalaka that a bulleted list might be helpful. However, I think we should keep it contained to the most common issues we encounter and leave the exhaustiveness to our Help Center. So instead my below suggestion focuses on our four close reasons as these are by definition the most off topic isues we get.

The community is here to help you with questions about cryptography. Provide details and share research with your question.

While drafting your question, please note that we do not define questions about cryptography as broadly as some might expect, in particular:

• Questions about analyzing a specific piece of data are rarely helpful to other people and are thus off-topic.
• Questions about cryptocurrencies which are not about the underlying cryptographic mechanisms are not about cryptography. Specialized sites (like Bitcoin or Ethereum) have different, possibly broader scopes.
• Questions about implementing cryptography are not about cryptography, they belong on Stackoverflow with one exception.
• Questions about assignments must include attempts and where they got stuck.

If your question passes the above considerations it will most likely be on-topic, if however you want to be extra sure, you can browse our on-topic page, our main site for similar questions, our meta site or even ask on our meta site.

I agree with the more exhaustive proposal initiated by kelalaka that a bulleted list might be helpful. However, I think we should keep it contained to the most common issues we encounter and leave the exhaustiveness to our Help Center. So instead my below suggestion focuses on our four close reasons as these are by definition the most off topic isues we get.

The community is here to help you with questions about cryptography. Provide details and share research with your question.

While drafting your question, please note that we have some rules for questions some might not expect, in particular:

• Questions about analyzing a specific piece of data are rarely helpful to other people and are thus off-topic.
• Questions about cryptocurrencies which are not about the underlying cryptographic mechanisms are not about cryptography. Specialized sites (like Bitcoin or Ethereum) have different, possibly broader scopes.
• Questions about implementing cryptography are not about cryptography, they belong on Stackoverflow with one exception.
• Questions about assignments must include attempts and where they got stuck.

If your question passes the above considerations it will most likely be on-topic, if however you want to be extra sure, you can browse our on-topic page, our main site for similar questions, our meta site or even ask on our meta site.

I agree with the more exhaustive proposal initiated by kelalaka that a bulleted list might be helpful. However, I think we should keep it contained to the most common issues we encounter and leave the exhaustiveness to our Help Center. So instead my below suggestion focuses on our four close reasons as these are by definition the most off topic isues we get.

The community is here to help you with questions about cryptography. Provide details and share research with your question.

While drafting your question, please note that we do not define questions about cryptography as broadly as some might expect, in particular:

• Questions about just analyzing data are rarely helpful to other people and are thus off-topic - though questions about specific techniques are welcome.
• Questions about cryptocurrencies which are not about the underlying cryptographic mechanisms are not about cryptography. Specialized sites like Bitcoin, Ethereum or the others are likely willing to accept those though if they are about their cryptocurrency.
• Questions about implementing cryptography are not about cryptography but about the implementation, they belong on Stackoverflow - the exception being questions about side-channels and their mitigation.
• Additionally, questions just stating a (school) assignment are also off-topic, help us help you with as much information about where you got stuck as possible.

If your question passes the above considerations it will most likely be on-topic, if however you want to be extra sure, you can browse our on-topic page, our main site for similar questions, our meta site or even ask on our meta site.

I agree with the more exhaustive proposal initiated by kelalaka that a bulleted list might be helpful. However, I think we should keep it contained to the most common issues we encounter and leave the exhaustiveness to our Help Center. So instead my below suggestion focuses on our four close reasons as these are by definition the most off topic isues we get.

The community is here to help you with questions about cryptography. Provide details and share research with your question.

While drafting your question, please note that we do not define questions about cryptography as broadly as some might expect, in particular:

• Questions about analyzing a specific piece of data are rarely helpful to other people and are thus off-topic.
• Questions about cryptocurrencies which are not about the underlying cryptographic mechanisms are not about cryptography. Specialized sites (like Bitcoin or Ethereum) have different, possibly broader scopes.
• Questions about implementing cryptography are not about cryptography, they belong on Stackoverflow with one exception.
• Questions about assignments must include attempts and where they got stuck.

If your question passes the above considerations it will most likely be on-topic, if however you want to be extra sure, you can browse our on-topic page, our main site for similar questions, our meta site or even ask on our meta site.