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I realize that tweeting questions by @serverfault (and other SE twitter accounts) is automated, but shouldn't questions with close votes not be tweeted?

For example this is way OT for SF and has 4 close votes at the time of this writing. It had (I believe) two close votes when it was tweeted.

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I don't know what the algorithm for tweeting questions is, but this question wasn't highly voted, it was very new, it had close votes, and it's from a low-rep user. Maybe it's time to be a little more selective?

If my memory is failing me and this was tweeted before close votes, my premise still stands. The question is about 40 minutes old at the time of this writing and was tweeted about 4 minutes after it was asked. Shouldn't questions be given enough time to be vetted by the community before they're shouted to the twitter universe?

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  • 20
    My subjective impression is that the algorithm is optimized for tweeting bad question just a minute before they are closed.
    – Mad Scientist
    Commented Dec 12, 2011 at 14:58
  • Could what is really happening here be that Tweeting the questions is causing the close votes, by virtue of the additional attention?
    – Andrew Barber
    Commented Dec 12, 2011 at 15:10
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    @AndrewBarber Even if that's the case, this question was tweeted when it was ~4 minutes old. Shouldn't the community be given the chance to close the crap before it gets tweeted?
    – MDMarra
    Commented Dec 12, 2011 at 15:11
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    In either case, it creates a bad impression for the site if bad questions are tweeted, not just because they're then closed but because they're bad questions, and therefore not a good advert for the site in the first place.
    – Rob Moir
    Commented Dec 12, 2011 at 15:27
  • 1
    Possibly related: Are the “greatest hits” in the Stack Overflow newsletter appropriate?
    – Chris Frederick
    Commented Dec 12, 2011 at 19:18
  • 1
    related: Avoid sharing bad questions at Facebook
    – gnat
    Commented Nov 26, 2014 at 22:19
  • -1 the closevotes might be wrong ...
    – Dilaton
    Commented Nov 26, 2014 at 22:44
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    @Dilaton sure, and so might downvotes or answers or upvotes. Why don't we do away with all of it?
    – MDMarra
    Commented Nov 26, 2014 at 22:45

1 Answer 1

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This is now deployed...we won't tweet questions with close votes (with the exception of bounties, which we feel didn't need this check...they survived around long enough for the bounty to start).

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    Even with a single close vote? I've noticed at least on UX.SE a single close vote is reasonably easy to get. By the time you have 3 it's probably a bad question.
    – Zelda
    Commented Jan 6, 2012 at 22:40
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    @Ben - Yes, even a single close vote...better to be safe here, since on some sites it's hard to even get 1 close vote, we'd rather err on the side of caution when publicizing content.
    – Nick Craver Mod
    Commented Jan 7, 2012 at 1:36
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    Makes sense, I don't really oppose it
    – Zelda
    Commented Jan 7, 2012 at 1:41
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    Does it look at flags on the question as well? If not can it and not Tweet anything with a flag. Thank you very much.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 21:59
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    @NickCraver: Yeah, what about flags?
    – Dynamic
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 20:35
  • You guys should probably also check out this one here – wonder how that got tweeted.
    – slhck
    Commented May 5, 2012 at 21:49
  • What if the closevoters are wrong? At least on physics SE there is a bunch of closevoters and batch hunters who regularly overreaches their state of knowledge by going on a closevote spree against high-level technical questions they have no clue about. The bad impact of thouse people should not be amplified by making their bad capricious closevotes prevent that legitimate up to very good questions get shared ... I dont know if other sites know this problem too.
    – Dilaton
    Commented Nov 26, 2014 at 22:42
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    Why is that relevant here @Dilaton? If we assume what you say is true, then the problem is the capricious closevotes, not the tweet script. And that's a problem only the Physics.SE community can solve...
    – yannis
    Commented Nov 27, 2014 at 13:11
  • one (meta) question with a close vote has been tweeted recently (not that I complain mind you:). Consider editing to clarify if this tweeting block doesn't include meta sites
    – gnat
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 21:51

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