What should I do if I am asked to close an old question that does not meet current standards?

Question

I now realize that many of the closure proposals I was voting for are from posts that date back several years (in this case I received a report from someone who flagged a post from 2016 but I can't say who requested these posts to be closed). I'll give you an example.

How should we behave in these cases?

At first glance I would be inclined to keep the question open since they are such old questions that users will no longer answer (I imagine, even if even in this case the fact that no one answers the questions anymore would make it indifferent whether the question should remain open or closed), but if I had to be precise and specifically evaluate the quality of the question (beyond the date) I would be more inclined to close it, also because I don't know the date range within which I can ignore these old, badly asked questions.

Could I have some guidance on how to behave in these cases?

Answer 1

Guidance from meta.se says close them.

I refer you to this question:

I think we can all agree that by Today's standards this question would be closed (with a couple of valid reasons to choose from).

However, things were different back then - well from what I can gather, I see quite a few questions like this from back in the day. This kind of question was clearly acceptable at one point.

So, should I vote to close it or leave it be? And just for extra understanding, what would happen to any rep for that question and the answers if it was closed?

Accepted answer:

View all question with today's standards. If the question fits as per current standards then leave it open; if it doesn't fit then vote/flag to close it. If we keep the questions which don't fit as per current standards, then people will ask why the questions are still open.

This sentiment is echoed several times across many posts at meta.se:

• Old questions closing guidelines
• Should I flag old questions?
• How to flag historic off topic questions
• Is flagging to close old questions best practice?

All questions should be judged by current standards. You should not have to check when a question was asked, or how its date of asking related to the date of institution of some policy, or any such bureaucratic nonsense. You know what the standards are today, you’re reviewing questions today, so apply today’s standards.