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Can we reduce the number of close votes required when people really really don't like the question?

Bad question is bad

When a question has a -4 score, should it still require five people to close it? Why not four? Or three, if it has a -5 score?

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  • Hmm, can't see the imaeg. Just me?
    – user1228
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 13:21
  • Just you. I see the image fine.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 13:21
  • I see it too. Hard refresh maybe? :)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 13:22
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    What should happen when a question has four close votes already, and the fourth downvote is cast? What if the downvote is retracted after a question has been closed with four closevotes?
    – John Dvorak
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 13:24
  • Not sure it's a good idea. There is a big herd/mob effect already in place when one user downvote and vote to close then many follow without spending time checking if it's really justified. Don't have stats, but surely there are false positives that require lots of work to be amended. Lowering the threshold would most likely cause lot more false positives.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 13:26
  • OK, what stackapp script are you running there to display the OT, OB etc, and what does it do?
    – JonW
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 13:27
  • It's not so clear what you are proposing. The question you've linked has only 4 downvotes. It's less that the number of required close votes. Do you mean, that downvote should count as close vote, so that 3 users can close the question? If so, it's a bad idea. Close votes and downvotes are separate concepts and let it be so.
    – Cjxcz Odjcayrwl
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 13:29
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    No, because question quality is a different metric from on-topic-ness. They are often correlated, but not the same thing.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 13:29
  • @JonW: stackapps, my account.
    – user1228
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 13:49

1 Answer 1

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No, this is not a good idea, for (at least) two reasons:

  • question quality is a different metric from on-topic-ness. They are often correlated, but not the same thing. Questions can be badly formulated but not off-topic, or of great quality, but still very much off-topic.

    We have plenty of popular questions on Stack Overflow that are closed as off-topic, and plenty of on-topic questions that really should have shown more research before being asked. The former need to be closed just as fast, the latter may deserve being answered, not closed faster.

  • It would give everyone super-close votes. Just vote to close and downvote, and you can get any question closed with just 3 users! We could just as well lower the vote-to-close count to 3 instead.

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  • 2
    Your last point... it doesn't help your argument :)
    – user1228
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 13:52
  • @Won't: right, but then just lower the vote-to-close threshold.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 13:54
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    Why keep it simple? We're developers, damnit!
    – user1228
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 13:59
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    @MartijnPieters You're assuming everyone who votes to close also downvotes. But they don't, and they don't in part for reasons you touch on in the first bullet of your answer.
    – Servy
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 16:36
  • @Servy: I am certainly not making that assumption. Quite the opposite. Where did you get that impression?
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 16:37
  • @MartijnPieters From your second point, which seems to be asserting that allowing downvotes to contribute to close votes will automatically just reduce the required number of close votes. That will only happen if people always downvote when close voting. It is not something that automatically follows if people sometimes close vote without downvoting. This means that the close vote threshold is only lowered for questions that are both off topic and of low quality, while keeping it the same for higher quality off topic questions. Presumably that's the point.
    – Servy
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 16:42
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    @Servy: No, I am asserting that people will quickly learn that adding a downvote will get something closed faster. They will make use of this fact to get it closed faster, even if the question does not, in fact, deserve to be downvoted.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Jun 18, 2014 at 16:43

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