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There are certain questions (such as 0.99..=1) that get an extremely large number of answers, even though many are redundant. Since the topic is popular, it's likely that many future posts will be made on threads such as those that do not add to the discussion significantly. Besides, the OP is less likely to find answers useful after so long.

The same applies to big-list questions.

I therefore would like to propose that such questions (on "canonical" topics that any mathematics site other than MO will get at least once) be closed after they have had some time to accumulate a complete set of answers, to prevent them from returning repeatedly to the front page without new mathematical content.

This is an adaptation of MO policy.

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  • $\begingroup$ +1 for yes (and here are the other characters) $\endgroup$
    – Jonathan Fischoff
    Commented Jul 28, 2010 at 5:48
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    $\begingroup$ It is worthwhile noting that if this site grows as much as we would like it to grow, then the front page will clear pretty quickly so be bumped back up won't be as much of an issue $\endgroup$
    – Casebash
    Commented Jul 28, 2010 at 12:41

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Functionality to do so has been added ~ 1 month ago to the engine, moderators are able to "protect" popular questions.

http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/06/new-protected-question-status/

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  • $\begingroup$ This is a great feature. $\endgroup$
    – Akhil Mathew
    Commented Jul 28, 2010 at 13:20
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I think that it is worthwhile noting that StackOverflow has does not have this policy, but I agree that after a certain point adding more answers is mostly pointless. What I would like instead, although I don't believe it is possible, is the ability to restrict further answers to users above a certain reputation. That way if someone did actually think of something worthwhile, then they could add it.

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Wouldn't it be better to downvote the new question, leaving as a comment the link to the old one? It was my understanding that the front page has the newest questions, but I may be wrong.

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  • $\begingroup$ I think you may have misread the question. In any case, you can switch between "newest" and "active," and if you use "active" then old questions can get bumped. $\endgroup$
    – Qiaochu Yuan
    Commented Jul 28, 2010 at 7:32
  • $\begingroup$ OK, I re-read the question. I agree that closing the question does not hurt; but I am still not convinced that newcomers should *add new answers to a long-debated question (provided they find it... I know that StackExchange gives hints of similar questions, but this does not mean that people read them) $\endgroup$
    – mau
    Commented Jul 28, 2010 at 7:59

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