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At the moment this question is closed as "opinion based". Which is ridiculous. There really needs to be a better scheme for how questions are closed. It's way t

At the moment this question is closed as "opinion based". Which is ridiculous. There really needs to be a better scheme for how questions are closed. It's way too easy for questions to be closed for spurious reasons and the current method of reopening them is too hard. The question is asking for historical information, not an opinion.

kstrauser 6y ago
I generally love Stack Overflow, and have been active on it for ages, but there are a huge number of mods who see it as their life mission to close as many questions as possible. See also: Wikipedia deletionists.
- Twixes 6y ago
  Just… why?
  - weujruerwuwe 6y ago
    Pairing of an ego fed by making "contributions" to the community with an inability to contribute in a way that adds to the knowledge base.
    - indeedmug 6y ago
      It seems like it's wrong that removing contributions would count as a contribution.
      - T-hawk 6y ago
        As programmers, aren't we proud when we can get rid of lots of code?
        coldtea 6y ago
        Not if we randomly yank good code
    - coldtea 6y ago
      Perhaps a good gamification would be to freeze their accounts if they close too much?
      - Qwertious 6y ago
        That means that if spammers spam enough questions for the mods to shut down, the mods' accounts will be frozen and spammers will be able to spam unchallenged. Also, that requires fine-tuning of the "too much".
        coldtea 6y ago
        We're talking about legit, but bad questions. I'd expect actual spam questions to be closed automatically, similar to spam email.
      - numpad0 6y ago
        Did you just describe the systemic dilemma of social media where: - value is judged by how controversial something is, but; - users who “crossed the line” are “not tolerated” and banned?
- opportune 6y ago
  I feel like Wikipedia is different because it actively harms the platform when people put up non-notable content, since it reduces the signal to noise and turns the platform into a way to launder legitimacy/importance. For example your local dentist should probably not have a wikipedia article, and you don't want there to be an arms race of every local dentist trying to get a wikipedia article so that they seem important. The other issue is that many novice contributors write with an improper voice and don't cite their sources - which again lowers the quality of the platform. Stack Overflow is different, as long as a question is on-topic and not a very close repeat I think there is no great reason to close it.
  - im3w1l 6y ago
    > you don't want there to be an arms race of every local dentist trying to get a wikipedia article so that they seem important. I wouldn't mind at all actually. Or maybe I just miss the issue?
    - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
      It would clutter disambiguation pages, would contribute little of value to Wikipedia, and might lead to a wave of advertising spam.
- jrochkind1 6y ago
  What do you think the attraction is? I guess it's one of the easiest things you can do as a mod, so if you want to do a lot of mod things... to the extent SO gives you "points" for it, it might even be engineered (on purpose?)
  - rangibaby 6y ago
    There’s a kind of person who just likes having power over others
  - anaerobicover 6y ago
    Correction, there are no points given for voting to close. Points are only for positive votes on questions and answers (and also, up to a certain number, for edits that are approved by other users).
- enriquto 6y ago
  > but there are a huge number of mods who see it as their life mission to close as many questions as possible You can see this as a good thing, it helps you identify the most interesting questions: those that are closed!
ksaj 6y ago
I agree. The question was interesting and I wouldn't have minded if it was allowed to remain long enough to get some answers. The best answer given is still flawed (eg: his mov example is backward, so he's actually describing movl from gas). So a continuation of the conversation would have been worthwhile.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
nicoburns 6y ago
I've added my vote to reopen. Gotta do something with that stackoverflow reputation!
mhh__ 6y ago
One more subtle thing that annoys me is that there is a cultural difference between the engineering (including software) .SEs and the science ones (particularly mathematics) - the engineering ones aim to be a central repository of problems and solutions, whereas the mathematics ones will often respond to a question with another question. This isn't that bad for a student reading the responses to his or her question, but it goes against the ethos of SE in general.
herpderperator 6y ago
Looks like it's no longer closed :)
ardy42 6y ago
> At the moment this question is closed as "opinion based". Which is ridiculous. The -6 answer [1] also displays one of SO's other ridiculous habits: kinda ignorantly wander in to unhelpfully say the question is wrong and hope for sweet e-points. [1] https://stackoverflow.com/a/44244140/216353 https://stackoverflow.com/a/44244140/216353

kstrauser 6y ago

I generally love Stack Overflow, and have been active on it for ages, but there are a huge number of mods who see it as their life mission to close as many questions as possible. See also: Wikipedia deletionists.

Twixes 6y ago
Just… why?
- weujruerwuwe 6y ago
  Pairing of an ego fed by making "contributions" to the community with an inability to contribute in a way that adds to the knowledge base.
  - indeedmug 6y ago
    It seems like it's wrong that removing contributions would count as a contribution.
    - T-hawk 6y ago
      As programmers, aren't we proud when we can get rid of lots of code?
      - coldtea 6y ago
        Not if we randomly yank good code
  - coldtea 6y ago
    Perhaps a good gamification would be to freeze their accounts if they close too much?
    - Qwertious 6y ago
      That means that if spammers spam enough questions for the mods to shut down, the mods' accounts will be frozen and spammers will be able to spam unchallenged. Also, that requires fine-tuning of the "too much".
      - coldtea 6y ago
        We're talking about legit, but bad questions. I'd expect actual spam questions to be closed automatically, similar to spam email.
    - numpad0 6y ago
      Did you just describe the systemic dilemma of social media where: - value is judged by how controversial something is, but; - users who “crossed the line” are “not tolerated” and banned?
opportune 6y ago
I feel like Wikipedia is different because it actively harms the platform when people put up non-notable content, since it reduces the signal to noise and turns the platform into a way to launder legitimacy/importance. For example your local dentist should probably not have a wikipedia article, and you don't want there to be an arms race of every local dentist trying to get a wikipedia article so that they seem important. The other issue is that many novice contributors write with an improper voice and don't cite their sources - which again lowers the quality of the platform. Stack Overflow is different, as long as a question is on-topic and not a very close repeat I think there is no great reason to close it.
- im3w1l 6y ago
  > you don't want there to be an arms race of every local dentist trying to get a wikipedia article so that they seem important. I wouldn't mind at all actually. Or maybe I just miss the issue?
  - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
    It would clutter disambiguation pages, would contribute little of value to Wikipedia, and might lead to a wave of advertising spam.
jrochkind1 6y ago
What do you think the attraction is? I guess it's one of the easiest things you can do as a mod, so if you want to do a lot of mod things... to the extent SO gives you "points" for it, it might even be engineered (on purpose?)
- rangibaby 6y ago
  There’s a kind of person who just likes having power over others
- anaerobicover 6y ago
  Correction, there are no points given for voting to close. Points are only for positive votes on questions and answers (and also, up to a certain number, for edits that are approved by other users).
enriquto 6y ago
> but there are a huge number of mods who see it as their life mission to close as many questions as possible You can see this as a good thing, it helps you identify the most interesting questions: those that are closed!

ksaj 6y ago

I agree. The question was interesting and I wouldn't have minded if it was allowed to remain long enough to get some answers. The best answer given is still flawed (eg: his mov example is backward, so he's actually describing movl from gas). So a continuation of the conversation would have been worthwhile.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

nicoburns 6y ago

I've added my vote to reopen. Gotta do something with that stackoverflow reputation!

mhh__ 6y ago

One more subtle thing that annoys me is that there is a cultural difference between the engineering (including software) .SEs and the science ones (particularly mathematics) - the engineering ones aim to be a central repository of problems and solutions, whereas the mathematics ones will often respond to a question with another question. This isn't that bad for a student reading the responses to his or her question, but it goes against the ethos of SE in general.

herpderperator 6y ago

Looks like it's no longer closed :)

ardy42 6y ago

> At the moment this question is closed as "opinion based". Which is ridiculous. The -6 answer [1] also displays one of SO's other ridiculous habits: kinda ignorantly wander in to unhelpfully say the question is wrong and hope for sweet e-points. [1] https://stackoverflow.com/a/44244140/216353 https://stackoverflow.com/a/44244140/216353