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I have read your page "What if I disagree with the closure of a question? How can I reopen it?" because I find the "put on hold" decision about the page "Can we predict that a atome/ion/molecule is carcinogenic" totally unfair.

But the only conclusion I can get from your page is that a random user/editor like me has NO WAY to get heard from any "high-level/trusted editor".

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  • $\begingroup$ One more example of the clumsiness of this website!! I have NEVER thought this question would become public. I thought it would sent to admins. $\endgroup$
    – SteffX
    Jul 19, 2018 at 17:36
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    $\begingroup$ There is no way to send a message only to "admins", so you just shouldn't assume the site is clumsy when you don't know how it works. $\endgroup$
    – M.A.R.
    Jul 19, 2018 at 17:56
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    $\begingroup$ This does not necessarily need to be visible only to admins, though. Voting to close and reopen is a community-driven process. Any ideas to improve it or any criticism at it should be heard and decided by the community (they actually are). Mods/admins rarely make binding decisions in the close queue either. $\endgroup$
    – Gaurang Tandon
    Jul 19, 2018 at 18:30

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I don't know from where you get the idea that there's nothing you can do. You can:

  • Edit the question so it's in the best shape it can be. That includes grammar and formatting. Or,
  • Leave a comment explaining why the question should be reopened (and that is what at least one user has done under that question). Or,
  • Ask people in chat to consider reopening and/or explain to them why. Or,
  • Come to meta and challenge the closure decision, which you kinda sorta have. But you could have done it in a much better way. Or,
  • Flag for moderator attention and explain why it should be reopened.
  • Or a combination of the above.

These are more or less mentioned in the help page you've linked. And, 'course, after 3,000 rep, you can be one of the five people to reopen the question.

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    $\begingroup$ I would add that - while it may vary on a case-by-case basis - well-written reopen requests for specific questions by new users are generally well received. Example. $\endgroup$
    – Gaurang Tandon
    Jul 19, 2018 at 18:31
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    $\begingroup$ In terms of flagging for moderator attention, only speaking for myself here and on this site, but I do not normally go against the community and re-open, especially if a question has already gone through a round of the re-opening process. $\endgroup$
    – jonsca
    Jul 19, 2018 at 22:36
  • $\begingroup$ (On another site, we have a small userbase that isn't as active in the open/closing process) $\endgroup$
    – jonsca
    Jul 19, 2018 at 22:38
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    $\begingroup$ Extra mod insight: I do reopen unilaterally, but only on very rare occasions - only for extremely clear cut cases, typically where an edit has substantially improved the quality of the question. Otherwise, for close/reopen cases I would generally consider a meta discussion to be the final word on the matter. We obviously read meta, so posting on meta automatically gets the word out to us. $\endgroup$
    – orthocresol
    Jul 19, 2018 at 23:00
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The help page you linked seems to offer a clear explanation of what you could have done.

  1. Left a comment, explaining the merits of the question. You tried to answer the question, but you didn't really argue that it should be reopened.

  2. Edited the question to make these merits clearer. Doing this automatically puts it in the reopen queue.

  3. Flag the question for moderator attention (which is what I assume you wanted to do based on your comment). This is okay, but it probably would be easier to consider the first two options, as the there are far more users who can vote to close/reopen then the mods.

  4. Obviously not in this case, but in future, build up the reputation and vote to reopen it.

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    $\begingroup$ Golly! You were one computer restart ahead. $\endgroup$
    – M.A.R.
    Jul 19, 2018 at 18:25

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