There are a few things to keep in mind here.

First of all, there is a distinction between closing a question and deleting a question. When a question is closed, no one can post any new answers to it but everyone can still see it. When a question is deleted, no one can post any new answers to it and no one with less than 10K rep can see it.

Note that deleted questions are typically kept in the database, so they do not result in any space savings that I know of.

The bigger problem is the one addressed by Jeff in his latest Stack Overflow blog entry (The Trouble With Popularity). To the question "Why can’t you just not look at these fun posts? Why do they have to be deleted?" he has the following to say.

1. Broken windows. Every ‘fun’ post users see is an open invitation for them to participate in the fun by adding their own fun question or answer. The stuff spreads like kudzu! Pretty soon the entire site is overrun with nothing but that kind of fun. And even if you grandfather a few in, you’ll enjoy neverending requests asking why their fun question or answer has to be removed, while this one over here is allowed to remain.

2. Opportunity cost. Every minute spent participating in an entertaining ‘fun’ post is time that someone could have spent asking or answering a substantive question, something practical that solves an actual problem for hundreds or thousands of people. Entertainment, within reason, is by no means a bad thing — but I experience almost physical pain when I think about a brilliant topic expert spending 10 minutes on one of our sites deciding which hilarious cartoon is their favorite.

The basic problem is that every "fun" question becomes an incremental definition of the community that spawns it. The Stack Exchange network is a place to learn through high-quality questions and answers, and the "fun" questions undermine that mission.

There are a few things to keep in mind here.

First of all, there is a distinction between closing a question and deleting a question. When a question is closed, no one can post any new answers to it but everyone can still see it. When a question is deleted, no one can post any new answers to it and no one with less than 10K rep can see it.

Note that deleted questions are typically kept in the database, so they do not result in any space savings that I know of.

The bigger problem is the one addressed by Jeff in his latest Stack Overflow blog entry (The Trouble With Popularity). To the question "Why can’t you just not look at these fun posts? Why do they have to be deleted?" he has the following to say.

1. Broken windows. Every ‘fun’ post users see is an open invitation for them to participate in the fun by adding their own fun question or answer. The stuff spreads like kudzu! Pretty soon the entire site is overrun with nothing but that kind of fun. And even if you grandfather a few in, you’ll enjoy neverending requests asking why their fun question or answer has to be removed, while this one over here is allowed to remain.

2. Opportunity cost. Every minute spent participating in an entertaining ‘fun’ post is time that someone could have spent asking or answering a substantive question, something practical that solves an actual problem for hundreds or thousands of people. Entertainment, within reason, is by no means a bad thing — but I experience almost physical pain when I think about a brilliant topic expert spending 10 minutes on one of our sites deciding which hilarious cartoon is their favorite.

The basic problem is that every "fun" question becomes an incremental definition of the community that spawns it. The Stack Exchange network is a place to learn through high-quality questions and answers, and the "fun" questions undermine that mission.

There are a few things to keep in mind here.

First of all, there is a distinction between closing a question and deleting a question. When a question is closed, no one can post any new answers to it but everyone can still see it. When a question is deleted, no one can post any new answers to it and no one with less than 10K rep can see it.

Note that deleted questions are typically still kept in the database, so they do not result in any space savings that I know of.

The bigger problem is the one addressed by Jeff in his latest Stack Overflow blog entry. To the question "Why can’t you just not look at these fun posts? Why do they have to be deleted?" he has the following to say.

1. Broken windows. Every ‘fun’ post users see is an open invitation for them to participate in the fun by adding their own fun question or answer. The stuff spreads like kudzu! Pretty soon the entire site is overrun with nothing but that kind of fun. And even if you grandfather a few in, you’ll enjoy neverending requests asking why their fun question or answer has to be removed, while this one over here is allowed to remain.

2. Opportunity cost. Every minute spent participating in an entertaining ‘fun’ post is time that someone could have spent asking or answering a substantive question, something practical that solves an actual problem for hundreds or thousands of people. Entertainment, within reason, is by no means a bad thing — but I experience almost physical pain when I think about a brilliant topic expert spending 10 minutes on one of our sites deciding which hilarious cartoon is their favorite.

There are a few things to keep in mind here.

First of all, there is a distinction between closing a question and deleting a question. When a question is closed, no one can post any new answers to it but everyone can still see it. When a question is deleted, no one can post any new answers to it and no one with less than 10K rep can see it.

Note that deleted questions are typically kept in the database, so they do not result in any space savings that I know of.

The bigger problem is the one addressed by Jeff in his latest Stack Overflow blog entry (The Trouble With Popularity). To the question "Why can’t you just not look at these fun posts? Why do they have to be deleted?" he has the following to say.

1. Broken windows. Every ‘fun’ post users see is an open invitation for them to participate in the fun by adding their own fun question or answer. The stuff spreads like kudzu! Pretty soon the entire site is overrun with nothing but that kind of fun. And even if you grandfather a few in, you’ll enjoy neverending requests asking why their fun question or answer has to be removed, while this one over here is allowed to remain.

2. Opportunity cost. Every minute spent participating in an entertaining ‘fun’ post is time that someone could have spent asking or answering a substantive question, something practical that solves an actual problem for hundreds or thousands of people. Entertainment, within reason, is by no means a bad thing — but I experience almost physical pain when I think about a brilliant topic expert spending 10 minutes on one of our sites deciding which hilarious cartoon is their favorite.

The basic problem is that every "fun" question becomes an incremental definition of the community that spawns it. The Stack Exchange network is a place to learn through high-quality questions and answers, and the "fun" questions undermine that mission.