koobas.hobune.stream
When should Questions be closed (by power-users)?
SpikeX brought up a good Question, about if/when the 3K+ power-user should close a bad Question.
However, it was inside an Answer to an entirely different Question (bad SpikeX! :), so I decided to move it out here. Note that I've made both Q/A into wikis, this is purely a discussion of issues, not really a single Question/Answer. Vote however you want, there are no rep changes.
Anyone is welcome to post an Answer here, not just 3K+ power-users. Although only they can close Questions, I think the issue affects most people, and they should be able to voice an opinion. Nothing here is binding, of course, since the power-users can close what they want. :)
So, to cut/paste the original Questions:
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1. When is it appropriate to close a question?
2. Should we close questions that have been community-bumped (unanswered), but someone has clearly answered the question?
3. Should we close questions that aren't questions, or don't belong here (Spam, too vague, not Unity related, etc)?
Eh, like I said, I figured the whole "How can we improve UnityAnswers" fit in with my question, which is why I posted it in the other thread. I also thought it would sound selfish if, suddenly after hitting 3k rep, I posted something asking how I can use the new feature I just got, and I didn't want to be that guy. ;) So thanks for settings this up for me. I'll be sure to track it and see what other people say.
Cool, I really didn't want to hijack your Answer, but it really does belong in a separate Question - that other Question/thread is getting a bit tangled up.
My answers: taking #3 first - definitely. Questions that are exact duplicates, or completely off-topic (asking for cheat codes, etc.), do not remotely help UnityAnswers.
For #2 - that's a bit trickier. Some Answers may not be right. But I would say, for Questions that the poster has not been on-line for 30 days, it might be reasonable to: A) put a comment on his Question, asking for some kind of response, then B) after another week, closing it if no response.
Question #1 is too vague and ambiguous, and doesn't belong on UnityAnswers. :) Okay, seriously, I think #2/#3 cover most of it. My policy would be to be very lenient, only closing things that obviously deserve it. Others may disagree.
Update: #4 - Inappropriately wiki'ed Questions. I have noticed at least one person making their Question into a wiki - and when I looked at their previous Questions, they had several downvoted. Should we discourage making wiki Questions that really aren't wiki-type?
Let the flame wars, er, discussions, begin.
Agreed on #2 and #3. I'd say that if a question is deserving of one of the not-a-question, write-my-code, duplicate-question or other similar tags (and optionally is at, say, -3), they're safe to close.
Bold and to the the point, "I Believe the question should be
[closed]
Answer > when the *interest in the said Question, from anyone who has a sincere interest in the Answer*
, No longer speaks up.
Should we also close questions with obscene and ridiculous formatting? :) - $$anonymous$$idding. ;)
I realize that this is probably more geared towards rules instead of examples, but I think by pointing out potential good candidates for closure, people could maybe extrapolate some patterns.
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/3388/animation-crossfade-not-working - Self-answered, but not marked as answered. Not really adding any knowledge to the community at large, so it really isn't even useful as a reference.
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/11764/activating-a-separate-animation - Hostile user, and the community doesn't really seem like answering the question. If it were an interesting question I'd be willing to give a pass, but this is really basic stuff.
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/11652/how-do-i-get-a-deleted-asset-back - Another hostile user. While there might be some good information there, the fact that the conversation got so derailed means that it probably would be better off not being updatable.
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/11817/good-place-to-find-city-map-images - Kind of an interesting topic, but not really related to Unity. Probably shouldn't be here.
I think, as of right now, there aren't enough power-users active enough who are willing to close questions. And again, this points right back to the other thread, that our problem here is that we lack the sheer number of users that Stack Overflow has, and thus, the entire SO model falls apart on us.
I've been voting to close bad questions, since now I have an idea of which ones deserve to be closed (this one just for example), but we need 5 "Close Votes" in order to actually close the question, and so far I haven't seen more than 2 on any given question.
I think this is an inherit problem with the Stack Overflow model, and there isn't a whole lot we can do about it at this point, except wait for this site to gain speed. Meanwhile, I'm still going to vote to close bad questions, and if you're reading this and have over 3k rep, you should, too. ;)
The StackOverflow models works great - for StackOverflow. :) We may have a while till we hit critical mass. Still waiting to hear back from HiggyB.
