We've had complaints in the past that too many questions were closed by moderators. And as the site grows, we have more questions in need of closing. We have a growing number of users who can cast close votes. So, shamelessly ripped off from Ninefingers's post on Cryptography Meta, I give you:
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asked Feb 6, 2013 at 23:36
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
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$\begingroup$ I decided to feature this because I think more people need to engage in community moderation. Help us keep the site great! $\endgroup$– Raphael ModJan 25, 2014 at 19:54
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$\begingroup$ "We've had complaints in the past that too many questions were closed by moderators. And as the site grows, we have more questions in need of closing." these two sentences do not go together. the 1st seems to refer to complaints by users that they dont want their questions closed. the 2nd refers to how to encourage the mass user base instead of mods to assist in closing questions. ie non sequitur.... would like to add answer on opposite side/balance of why to avoid closing questions, but maybe would be deleted so will refrain for now =( .. note se mgt has adjd this for improvements... $\endgroup$– vznFeb 1, 2014 at 0:09
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$\begingroup$ There is a third option, and this is the one advocated here: closing by community. $\endgroup$– Raphael ModFeb 8, 2014 at 14:21
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2 Answers
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Rationale: why do we close questions?
There are really two ways to do moderation. If you've been on any of the .moderated newsgroups you'll be well aware that to get a post on there, it needs to undergo a review process first and be accepted. The aim is to keep problem discussions from arising.
SE is slightly different - it works the other way. Anyone can ask a question on SE and closing a question is the equivalent of putting that question back into review/improve mode. It's a feedback mechanism designed to react to problem cases only, so the usual business of asking and answering good questions can just... happen.
Why do we close a question?
The philosophy of SE is that each site handles questions on problems you face or things you are trying to understand. The don't ask section of the help center gives you a good overview of things that don't work - to summarise:
- Some questions invite arguments or extended debate that suck up time when members could be helping other people.
- Some questions are too broad, too narrow or have other content problems.
- Some questions belong elsewhere.
These have been worked out over time and with a lot of experience from Stack Overflow and are, broadly speaking true. Sometimes, exceptions are made - it is always a case-by-case thing.
Is closing like deletion?
No. Actually, deletion is a different concept on SE. Closed questions are put "into improve mode" if you like, and are still visible for anyone to improve. That's the idea. Deleted questions are different — they have a red background and are invisible to all but high reputation users. So deletion is different and solves a slightly different problem.
What are the requirements for closing a question?
If you have 500 reputation (3000 on a non-beta site), you can vote to close any question for the reasons above. More on that in a moment.
If you do not have this level of reputation, you will find that under the flag menu, you have an option "this question does not belong here". That will raise a flag for users who can vote to close.
Why can anyone vote to close/reopen?
Firstly, anyone with sufficient reputation can vote to close or reopen (or flag as such, with lower reputation) because it is your site. This is really important - it's about expressing what you feel works and doesn't.
Ok, so how does it work?
Ok, the important piece. Voting to close works like this:
- Underneath the question, there will be a close link. When you click on this, you will be presented with a list of options from which you can pick a close reason most appropriate to the situation.
- If other people have voted, you will see blue numbers against the reason they chose.
- The exact duplicate page takes you to a page that allows you to specify a question to close as an exact duplicate against.
- The "off topic" page will present you with two options - one to migrate here, to meta, and one just off topic. At the moment, only moderators can send questions elsewhere, so feel free to cast a vote here and flag if you have a target in mind - we are collecting statistics to build a "migrate to" list, but that is not implemented yet.
- The other options are straight out closes.
- Once you pick your option and click "close", your vote is registered. You cannot retract it at this stage, but nobody else, including moderators, will know it was you who voted.
- If five people agree, the question will be closed. You've seen the effect of these before.
- Your name, and the name of other closers, will appear on the bottom of the question.
How does vote to re-open work?
A closed question has a "reopen" link underneath it. If you click this, a dialog box will ask you if you are sure - click yes and your vote will be registered to re-open the question.
Below, you can see an example of the re-open link with two votes registered for re-opening (out of five).
What happens if I make a mistake?
Don't worry! You can retract your close vote by clicking the “close” button again. This is useful, for example, if the question has been edited since you voted to close. Note that you cannot use this to change the close reason (if you retract a close vote, you can't cast a new one).
Furthermore, unless five people agree, or a moderator agrees, the question won't be closed.
Why are some questions closed with fewer votes?
Moderator close votes complete the required vote count immediately, no matter how many people have voted. This applies for both close/reopen votes.
Furthermore, closure as duplicate can be faster for two reasons. If the asker agrees that their question is a duplicate, they can validate the closure immediately. This shows a final duplicate close vote from “Community”. Also, if a user with a gold tag badge in one of the question's initial tags votes to close or reopen as a duplicate, this takes effect immediately; in this case a gold tag badge icon appears after the closer's name.
I've seen a closed question and I disagree. What can I do?
Well, one option is to use your re-open vote! You can also always raise a discussion here on meta to seek clarification on why a question is closed and hopefully either a resolution will be reached, or you will get an explanation for the closure.
My name appears on the bottom. Isn't this going to cause problems with other users?
Actually, surprisingly few closed questions generate any response at all.
However, if you experience difficulties as a result of closing a question, you can and should contact a moderator via the flag mechanism (which is anonymous). We can then take any necessary action.
How do I find questions I might need to close? What about re-opens?
In the review queues, specifically the close votes queue and the reopen votes queue. These queues are open to everyone who has the close vote privilege. For each question, you get to decide whether to close/reopen or not; enough “no” votes take the question out of the queue. An edit from the queue is a vote to not close or reopen.
answered Feb 6, 2013 at 23:36
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
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3$\begingroup$ "I've seen a closed question and I disagree. What can I do?" += Improve it so others can see it's value, too! $\endgroup$– Raphael ModFeb 7, 2013 at 7:04
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$\begingroup$ I take it you copied an updated post from another site? I had replaced some screenshots with newer ones (as seen here), which have been outdates since then, too. In any case, the pictures in the current version don't represent Computer Science well. $\endgroup$– Raphael ModMay 28, 2015 at 13:13
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$\begingroup$ @Raphael Yes, sorry, I updated on Information Security Meta (because someone there had been led astray by statements that were no longer true) and decided to copy the changes here but didn't pay attention to your screenshots or to the review queue links. $\endgroup$ May 28, 2015 at 20:54
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There are some useful guidelines that can help you decide whether a question should be closed.
Anything that is clearly offtopic or incomprehensible should be closed immediately.
Bad-subjective questions have no place on any SE site. Refer users to Chat for discussion.
Many (bad) basic questions can be closed as duplicate of one of our reference questions (or the whole list). These are good write-ups of general nature that should help the asking person to solve their problem and/or come back with a better question.
We don't disallow questions on homework or exercise problems, but we have two demands: display of own effort and a specific question.
Homework policy
The return of the homework question
What to do when the answer is already part of the questionSometimes, questions are little more than a request to proofread a solution attempt. This is either out of our scope (original problems) and should be done by proper peer review, or the job of TAs (exercise problems).
What to do when the answer is already part of the question
Questions about correctness of a solution
How to deal with questions about crank-heavy topics?Questions that ask for lists of things rather than single answers are generally disliked on the network. Never mind that you find some on any site; most were created in early days because they attract many readers, but we have learned to stay clear.
If you close, please post a comment explaining why; only then can the user learn what to change. You don't have to do much typing in many cases: we have a repository of standard responses for common cases of close-worthy questions.
