22
votes
Accepted
Why is the number of required close votes constant?
Votes do not just accumulate, they can "age away" and how quickly actually depends a bit on the number of views.
Moreover, questions with many views often are disproportionately viewed by ...
quidMod
- 41.9k
22
votes
A question quickly closed and deleted
There is a very simple reason why we should not encourage posting about open problems by plain amateurs. If we allow just one, to be consistent we would need to allow a hundred. With the recent ...
- 56.6k
21
votes
Non-experts closing questions
The first obvious issue (which I feel is what may have triggered this post, and has been identified by other users in the comments) is that experts can guess the context from a question, and ...
PedroMod
- 121k
19
votes
Why are questions closed?
It seems that the underlying assumption of the original question here is that questions on the main site are closed because they "don't make sense" to the close voters. This is an erroneous ...
- 27.4k
18
votes
Are we closing short questions too hastily?
Thanks for bringing that specific Question (your first example, about category theory) to my attention (it has now been reopened). There is a dedicated thread for asking for reopen and related ...
- 36.6k
17
votes
Massive rework of a closed question by another user several months later
FYI, I'm the user who posted the edit that is being discussed here. I completely agree with quid's assessment above.
I made the edits because I thought the original question was a good one (even if ...
- 123
17
votes
Accepted
Massive rework of a closed question by another user several months later
I agree that in general it is preferable to ask a new question rather than to do, months latter, a massive overhaul of some question that is not ones own.
There are exceptions, however, and I feel ...
quidMod
- 41.9k
17
votes
Why was this duplicate question deleted?
I've had calc students make the $e^{x^2}=e^{2x}$ mistake before, as non-associativity of exponentiation does not come up very often in lower level coursework. Beings that $\int e^{x^2}$ is often ...
- 26.7k
17
votes
Non-experts closing questions
No question in mathematics is unmotivated or intrinsically interesting. Despite the fact that I, myself, often use the phrase "this is a natural question," no question in mathematics is ...
- 27.4k
17
votes
Non-experts closing questions
Here is a thought. If you, an expert in a topic, see a problem-statement-question that is interesting, and if you know this question is not a duplicate, and if you judge that adding some context would ...
- 116k
16
votes
What should I do if I think I have an answer to an on-hold question?
You ask:
What should I do when I think that I understand and/or have an answer to an on-hold or closed - and, more specifically, "unclear" - question?
You should help to make the question more ...
quidMod
- 41.9k
16
votes
Should I 'recuse' myself on reopen votes for questions I voted to close?
If you voted to close a question and if are asked whether or not it should be reopened, there is no reason for you not to reevaluate it. And if it turns out that the flaws that made you vote for ...
- 423k
15
votes
Accepted
On the irrelevancy of putting good questions on hold and later closing them
You posted Sum of digits, sequence (no theory). You were told, "Please improve the question by providing additional context, which ideally includes your thoughts on the problem and any attempts you ...
- 177k
15
votes
Are we closing short questions too hastily?
This is partially answering a related question (if by harsh, you mean closing a question "too soon"): Yes, shorter questions are subject to harsher judgement.
According to this page, short ...
- 15.6k
14
votes
Accepted
What can be used for checking on posts you downvoted/closed?
Two methods to follow votes are:
The standard method to follow a question in general terms is to bookmark it. This also can be used to this more specific end. When one anticipates that one wants to ...
quidMod
- 41.9k
14
votes
Accepted
Why not allow closing of bountied question by normal users when they are in bounty stages?
It is important to keep in mind that a question cannot be bountied immediately. It first needs to "survive" for some time on the site.
I think there is some point to preventing closures of ...
quidMod
- 41.9k
13
votes
Accepted
Must low-quality questions be updated with edits instead of comments?
Yes, absolutely! All relevant information must be included in the question.
Comments are temporary, and are intended to help improve the question or to leave minor or transient information. Relevant ...
- 3,426
12
votes
Accepted
Statistics of fraction of questions closed per month (posted that month itself)
For such inquiries, SEDE seems like a reasonable tool. I have tried to do some queries - I have no doubt that they can be modified and improved in various ways.
Description of the queries posted below
...
- 52.9k
12
votes
What's the deal with closing "What are some conjectures of your own"?
While this kind of question raises a lot of interesting questions, each of the answers is essentially a question that should be asked on the site, not posted as an answer to a question. For this ...
robjohnMod
- 342k
12
votes
What can I do about my question being deleted?
I understand it may be surprising and unexpected to discover that your question was not well-received. What you might not realize is that this community has specific norms and expectations, ...
- 3,426
11
votes
Accepted
What to do when a specific user's posts are always flagged for a closing?
Assuming that this is a case of one user serially close voting/flagging the questions of another specific user, the main thing to do is to honestly review each question independently when you see them ...
- 51.8k
11
votes
Accepted
Why was specific mathSE posting closed?
The question-post asks three separate questions that are not very closely linked. They are on the same subject but not at all naturally linked.
It is generally discouraged to ask more than one ...
quidMod
- 41.9k
10
votes
Accepted
What is an effective close-vote reason for wrong questions?
If you vote to close the standard reason is "unclear." As "it’s hard to tell exactly what [OP is] asking," in the sense that one cannot know what type of answer they are expecting when they insist ...
quidMod
- 41.9k
10
votes
Accepted
Why was my duplicate and deleted post reopened and undeleted?
That is because it was flagged that the duplicate was inappropriate-- specifically, that the duplicate target was about implicit parenthesis, which was not applicable to your question.
I do think this ...
- 26.7k
10
votes
Why is this question about functions off-topic
It is worth mentioning that close reasons are displayed differently to different users. You should see this: "Closed. This question is off-topic. It is not currently accepting answers."
...
- 52.9k
10
votes
Instead of closing questions first specify what needs to be improved
The basic reason to close Questions is to prevent Answers from being posted until the problem statement is in clear enough form to admit a mathematically reasoned argument that solves it.
So Reviewers ...
- 36.6k
9
votes
Accepted
Best way to "revive" a question (which does not abide by the Math.SE rules)
I have had a number of cases where the question was closed because it was badly phrased but I thought I could understand the intent and could provide a good answer. I posted a comment asking that the ...
- 373k
9
votes
Should questions closed as "unclear" be reopened if they have a reasonable answer that the OP claims "hits the spot"?
Someone could understand it well enough to answer it, so surely someone will be able to make it clear. If it is literally impossible to make the question clear, then it has no place on this site. ...
- 53.7k
9
votes
Why has the Batman question been closed?
Frankly, the question is (in my opinion) terrible. That actual question is "Is this for real?!" which could easily be answered via a little bit of work with a graphing utility (non-trivial work, but ...
- 27.4k
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