This is related to my other question, https://software.codidact.com/posts/291064. In that I argued we shouldn't close vague or confused questions, so that other people can post an answer if they want.

The current process is that if someone closes the question, you can't answer at all. You could technically try to abuse comments to post an answer, but that goes against the normal way of using the site. You have to flag for reopen, wait for it to be reopened, and post your answer then.

The problem I see with this are:

1. Reopening takes a while, usually a few days. By then, I may forget about it, or lose the motivation to answer, or no longer have the time to answer. If our goal is to make it as easy as possible for experts to share knowledge, this goes against that goal.
2. Reopen flags are not a very transparent process. When I flag to reopen, I have no idea what's happening with that flag. I think on SO you would get a notification when it gets approved/rejected, but I don't think we even get that here. More importantly, what if the mod reviewing my flag does not understand why it should be reopened? Are they going to message me so we can discuss it? How do I even know if anyone looked at the flag? When you complain about a closure, often people say "fix the question and flag to reopen", but the reopen honestly feels like a rain dance.
3. Reopen flags are insular. I can't easily see who else flagged to reopen and when. I can't message them so we can work together on fixing the question. Best I can do is start a comment thread and hope they see it - I don't think comments on a question you flagged currently generate a notification.
4. The several-day embargo on answers while you wait for a reopen flag is just too much, IMO. No offense, but a lot of these questions are not that important - especially the ones that end up closed. They're small, simple things - sometimes you see one, you have a few minutes to kill, you figure "what the hell, might as well help the poor guy". I'm not going to create homework for myself by saving my answer somewhere, marking it on my calendar to review it a couple of days, and if reopened post it then - I have plenty of other homework as it is. My claim is that I'm not the only one, and as a site we're missing out on plenty of decent answers and helped newbies with the current closure system.

What can be done to streamline the "bad question-closed-improved-reopened-answered" loop, if anything at all? If you feel it is already perfect, "nothing" is a valid answer - I just don't want to debate that in this question, since I feel like it could be done in the other one already.

I'm not asking about:

• Questions that are bad beyond being fixable (obviously they should stay closed and be deleted)
• Question that can be fixed, but the original asker disappears and never bothers to address feedback
• Questions where you feel it would be bad to answer at all - if the question shouldn't be answered for whatever reason, closing and preventing answers is obviously the correct action

posted 8 months ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

8mo ago

matthewsnyder‭

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