19
votes
A new policy of closure: November 2016
This is not yet a fully-fledged answer, merely a fragment of a thought, but I feel it is important enough for me to drop it here already and come back later™.
Especially for calculation questions, we ...
15
votes
Temporary Suspension of the Homework Close Reason (concluded)
And now I think, it is quite apparent that we need a close reason for zero-effort questions to simply save out time, because the absolute majority of questions that were previoulsy closed as homework ...
15
votes
Let's decide on what we should close as homework
The Problem As I See It
I would argue that the underlying reason for the dynamics on the site leading to this question, as well as more than one other recent meta question (here and here too), is:
...
13
votes
Accepted
Do we need a close reason for stuff that's obviously less than prudent?
This issue has likely been raised before, either on meta or in chat, but I'm on a bus now so am lazy to look for it.
Our stance on this is that, it is much better to have a clear answer saying DO NOT ...
12
votes
Let's decide on what we should close as homework
My stand on those raised points:
These are questions we should decide the ultimate fate of:
Easily Google-able questions
Why does oil float in water?
Questions of this kind ...
11
votes
A new policy of closure: November 2016
I would like to propose the following phrasing:
Questions should ask about one specific concept that can potentially be applicable to future visitors and askers.
To give you an idea of what I mean, ...
11
votes
Temporary Suspension of the Homework Close Reason (concluded)
PSA: Please do not flag homework questions for moderator attention...
...because we will not closehammer them.
We would really like to move away from the current homework close reason, this ...
10
votes
Temporary Suspension of the Homework Close Reason (concluded)
In conclusion ...
Although Wildcat basically already said it, I would like to add a few thoughts and numbers. I have to admit that this illdesigned, untargeted "experiment" did not turn out ...
10
votes
Why was the heroin question put on hold as being a personal medical question?
Questions on illicit drugs have been and are always difficult on this site, which is fine.
I do not share Todd's opinion in points (1) and (2) of his answer, but he made his concerns perfectly ...
9
votes
Why was the heroin question put on hold as being a personal medical question?
I voted to close that question for several reasons. Unfortunately, the menu of options for reason to close are limited so I went with the medical option. Here are my reasons for doing so.
(1) The ...
9
votes
Accepted
The reason "unclear" is unclear
I want to begin by clarifying: it is not ‘“all-powerful” moderators’ (quotation marks present in the original) that close questions. Rather, like practically everything on Stack Exchange with the ...
9
votes
Let's talk about effort, shall we?
This very much isn’t a fully thought out answer, but it was a lot longer than I could fit into a comment. Just my two english cent. . .
Effort as a metric for closure
Broadly speaking, I agree ...
9
votes
Let's talk about effort, shall we?
My own opinion is broadly the same - I think that "effort" is a poor criterion for judging question quality. I have discussed this before. In my opinion, the most important bit is this:
In one of ...
8
votes
Let's talk about effort, shall we?
If we would like to move away from the "effort" angle, then the tooltip that pops up when hovering over a downvote button should be changed.
8
votes
The Homework Close Reason: Another example of over-zealous closure, and a proposal to scale back its scope
I have previously been vocal about my dissatisfaction with the close reason and it is no secret that I want to rework it completely. As a matter of fact, I'd like to even toss in the idea of ...
8
votes
Accepted
Please help me understand why asking about an acid-base reaction was down-voted and closed
It appears the focus of your question shifted between edits from how to dispose of a particular mixture ("How should a Copper Citrate solution be prepared for disposal down the drain?") to ...

Buck ThornMod
- 20.8k
7
votes
A new policy of closure: November 2016
Wildcat's response to #4 fired off a thought: what if the odious aspect of a not enough effort question has less to do with the effort an OP has put into understanding and working on the question, but ...
7
votes
Is "Lack of Research" enough reason to close a question?
To close, or not to close, — that is the question: —
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous research lack,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And ...
7
votes
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's based on false premise
Actually, I can see why one might want to close a question that is based on a false premise. In the worst case scenario, you end up correcting misconception after misconception of OP, and digressing ...
7
votes
Close Votes Aren't Super Downvotes
These ideas are tangentially related, but because they fit well along the tone of this meta post, I'll add them in:
Please don't VTC because a question is poorly formatted
Please don't put put a ...
7
votes
How do multiple users close a question for a reason that doesn't seem to apply?
Bennett, I appreciated your previous detailed meta post, however, this one honestly goes a bit off-track. First, I hope you have read our Help center page on closing questions. If so, you would know ...
7
votes
No alternate SE sites show up as choices when flagging a Question to be "closed as off topic"
Even though this question is answered in the multiple duplicates, I would like to make it abundantly clear: there won't be any migration paths set up. We will do them manually; quoting myself:
...
7
votes
Would a "common reference" close reason make sense? Why or why not?
In principle, I don't agree with it, because of the idea of SE aiming towards being a complete repository of information, blah blah. In practice, I've long given up on being idealistic, especially ...
7
votes
What's wrong with my question?
As this is your first question here, (and there aren't other examples I can use), let's go through this from my point of view.
Considering a solution which is 20% Benzalkonium chloride and 80% water. ...
7
votes
What's wrong with my question?
The post could have been closed for a number of reasons. Closing is done when a question is not particularly useful for any of the listed reasons, often because more information or significant editing ...

Buck ThornMod
- 20.8k
6
votes
Why was this question closed as homework?
This should not have been closed as homework, but rather as unclear because the key details are missing. I also do not think that this question is off-topic in any way. I can remember doing an ...
6
votes
The reason "unclear" is unclear
Just adding to Jan's answer, I'd like to just put it out there that if you disagree about the closure of a question, you can either
Ask somebody in chat (moderators are always around)
or
Post on ...
6
votes
Gaps to Fill Without a 'Homework' Close Reason -- Overview
Here's my perspective on tweaking the policy. I've tried to work it from the very fundamentals, rather than carry-forward the three categories you defined.
To be honest, the current homework close ...
6
votes
Norms for declaring a question off topic with an example
This is less an answer to your question, but some context for others who might wonder where it comes from.
If you do not have the close and reopen privilege (> 3000 reputation), which is probably ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
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close-reasons × 33discussion × 29
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closed-questions × 4
support × 3
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scope × 2
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tags × 1
feature-request × 1
down-votes × 1
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