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I'm currently in an awkward situation on UX: there's a post in the Close queue I don't quite feel I should close yet, but I don't think should get the "do not close" action either; I'd like to leave it up to the community. Logically I should "Skip" this item, but if I do that, I'll lose track of it. I also tried the trick to view other items in the review queue and no luck, it keeps giving me the same item.

What I'd really like is to be able to do is skip those items and come back to them later. Maybe have a button once I've hit the bottom of the queue and let me review the rest if I want:

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This would just dump all "skipped" items back into the queue if they're still eligible for review.

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    Thou shall judge fast!
    – fuxia
    Nov 2, 2012 at 18:37
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    Yes please. I'd like this as well
    – ChrisF Mod
    Nov 13, 2012 at 19:42

2 Answers 2

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I don't think we should encourage folks to second-guess themselves under normal situations. The UI already encourages taking action over inaction - if you opt to skip, we shouldn't nag you about it, particularly with an empty queue when you can't do anything else.

However, I do recognize the need for moderators - human exception handlers - to go in and handle exceptional cases where there simply aren't enough reviewers to finish the job. I'm marking this completed because there is a way to do this for the close queue now, though it's somewhat impractical for lengthy queues (because I would prefer that it not become a crutch).

You'll have a link directly to this list upon reaching the end of the queue:

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    How does this encourage...anything? If it's only shown when the queue is empty, most people will never see it unless they need it.
    – Ben Brocka
    Nov 2, 2012 at 21:44
  • @Ben: believe it or not, most of the queues spend a good deal of time empty!
    – Shog9
    Nov 2, 2012 at 21:54
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    What's the timeframe for the mod-specific fix? Aside from the exception thing, mods not wanting to unilaterally close everything (there has been a lot of flak given to them about unilateral actions) will probably have a lot of trouble with the queue and may not be able to use it properly. Nov 24, 2012 at 14:12
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My answer is more of a rhetorical question; where would they go? I've thought the same in the past and think this option would be useful but there are only a few options.

If the queue is minimal then even if you elected to come back chances are it would be gone unless you kept clicking refresh. If the queue is large then they have to either be placed at the front where you have to click through old "skips" every time you start reviewing something or they have to go at the end where you'll never find them again.

The only way I see it working is with a kind of favourites tab for the review system. I don't believe it would be used often enough for it to provide anything that the current favourites system doesn't.

It may well be of more use from a mod perspective. Maybe having the ability to see recent reviews for all users as well as the stats on them would be better? It could be mod / high rep only.

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    Putting skipped items at the end does no harm compared to the current situation. On sites with long review queues you may never see them again either way, but on sites with shorter ones this would be helpful. As a reviewer I want to be able to distinguish between "skip for now" and "punt". Nov 2, 2012 at 18:14
  • I would think it would just remove the "skipped" mark from those posts, so that they get mixed in with the queue as normal. And maybe only have it do this for the posts which were skipped in the current review session, so you don't see those you skipped previously. That way the number of posts coming back would be minimal.
    – ughoavgfhw
    Nov 2, 2012 at 18:28
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    @monica, my point is that it's pointless to put it at the end of a queue. Either it'll be removed immediately or you'll never see it again. It might work for the sites with hardly any reviewers but it's not something that'll work for the whole network. I'd argue that extra functionality is needed. Nov 2, 2012 at 18:32
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    For SO this might matter, but for most sites (where one could feasibly empty out the queue) posts, especially in the close queue, often aren't cleared out fast enough. I'll often have maybe 10 or less posts to review. If I skip 5 of those and process the rest in 5 minutes, it really doesn't matter how you put them back in the queue, just...do it.
    – Ben Brocka
    Nov 2, 2012 at 18:35
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    Yes, what @BenBrocka said. On smaller sites I ussually see single-digit numbers of items in the review queues, and there are Custodian badges I haven't been able to earn yet because the queues are always empty when I go to them. On large sites "skip" may as well be "punt", but on smaller sites things are different. Nov 2, 2012 at 18:53

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