Close all the typo questions [closed]

Question

Update 2013/03/06: I've been playing around in the Data Explorer (first time I've used it) and put together a basic query to help identify typo related posts a little better, improvements welcome:

https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/edit/101573

select a.Id as [Post Link], a.Body
from Posts q
inner join Posts a on a.Id = q.AcceptedAnswerId -- only check accepted answers
where len(a.Body) < 200 -- posts less than 200 chars can be a giveaway
and q.ClosedDate IS NULL -- only search open questions
and (
      lower(a.Body) like '%typo%'
   or lower(a.Body) like '%spelled wrong%'
   or lower(a.Body) like '%spelled incorrectly%' -- add more...
)

---

This simple search yields an impressive amount of "too localized" questions related to typos by the OP:

https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=body%3Atypo+is%3Aanswer+isaccepted%3Ayes

There's been a lot of activity on this query, so I suspect much of the work left to do is in the "middle" of whichever way you sort the questions. There are several which do not qualify, and the more the bad ones get deleted, the harder it is to find more.

and these ones:

https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=body%3Aspelled+wrong+is%3Aanswer+isaccepted%3Ayes

https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=body%3Aspelt+wrong+is%3Aanswer+isaccepted%3Ayes

https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=body%3Aspelled+incorrectly+is%3Aanswer+isaccepted%3Ayes

https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=body%3Aspelt+incorrectly+is%3Aanswer+isaccepted%3Ayes

These are really easy, and almost all of them are a clear case of "too localized". I'm sure there are more variations of this query I didn't think of yet.

Most of the accepted answers are like this:

✓   You had a typo, "passwrod" should be "password".

---

OMG u r right!!! I feel so stupid!!! – CarelessUser May 10 '11 at 13:03

It might even be so bad where a moderator can just go in and just start deleting them outright, but I realize the mods are very busy (and as far as I understand, some mods are reluctant to get involved due to their deletes being permanent).

How can we help?

Would you all care to help me clean these questions up by closing and deleting them? Almost all of them are clear cut cases of too-localized useless questions. There are a lot, which is why I'm asking for help. I will do what I can in my spare time.

Here's one thing I just started doing that seems to help. Whenever I see a 3K+ user who has answered one of these questions, I'll post this comment:

There's a [campaign to clean up Stack Overflow](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/167342) by removing these typo-related questions - we could really use your help! Would you mind pitching in a little by casting a close vote on this question?

So if you're reading this because of a similar comment, thank you!

If you haven't already, join us in chat!

Notes/Guidelines:

• Obviously don't close/delete without reviewing first. The posts I'm targeting (strictly typo-related) generally take about 2 seconds to assert their uselessness which I think will make this an easy cleanup. Of course if the question/answer has other relevant content not related to a typo it might not be a candidate for removal.
• If you have "delete" privileges - use them. This will make the process much easier once questions start disappearing.
• Do not flag as this makes more work for mods, please simply cast close votes.
• At the time of posting, the search returned 2,490 results.
• Good question in the comments: Is there any way to filter closed questions from that list? The fact that the query searches for answers prevents using closed:no.
• This may be debatable, but some questions are about clarifying possible typos in documentation and online resources (example). If you have doubt, err on the side of leaving it open in these cases. However if you find that the typo has been fixed in the original resource, go ahead and close the question as it is no longer applicable.

Answer 1

SE Chat room to help coordinate voting

Now with live backlog courtesy of Gordon, David X. Random and PeeHaa!

Syntax to point out questions that you think should be closed: [tag:cv-pls] (url)

It seems difficult to coordinate the voting on this; we seem to be needing a tool. (the Google doc is more of a crutch really)

The PHP chat room has an automatic close vote tool. It works like this (AFAIK):

• somebody posts a link to a question in the chat and marks it [tag:cv-pls]
• a cron job harvests the chat room frequently and adds any questions that haven't been closed yet to the backlog.

They even have browser add-ons. Holy crap!

I wonder whether this could be used for this purpose as well? In a separate chat room, of course.

I guess it would depend on how easily a copy of the entire cv-ring system could be set up that targets a different chat room ID, and uses its own backlog list. (Glancing innocuously in @Gordon's and @DaveRandom's direction)

Answer 2

This is good.

In order to not add to the moderator woes of drowning, not waving, if you're at a level only to flag, don't.

There are plenty of users with close vote rep that can help wash out this debris.

Getting rid of these questions will allow for better search results and an increase in quality overall.

A typo is not the same as a logic problem and seeing results turn up for the former when yours is clearly of the latter is indeed a cycle of bother.

Answer 3

What a great idea! I'd love to see "It was a typo" questions cleaned up. There's nothing inherently wrong with them when they're asked, of course, but once solved they can't even really help even the OP again, let alone any future readers. They are red herrings for search, a kind of problem symptom wheel of misfortune, and they don't have a lasting place on SO.

Three points that I'd like to suggest watching out for (to elaborate on your first bullet about reviewing):

Some answers in this list use the word "typo" incidentally, or to mention something that isn't the core problem: Combine two shell commands into one output in shell and Regular expression to get url parameter are the two I've just run into. I'm editing these as appropriate when I come across them to remove them from the search. (One that can't be edited is Hide the toolbar which shows class functions, which is referring to the title of a menu item in an IDE.)

I'm running across a few questions which have plausible-appearing alternative answers: https://stackoverflow.com/q/4805619 and https://stackoverflow.com/q/9612878 are examples. I don't have the domain knowledge to decide whether these answers are useful in themselves, or whether they represent valid solutions to the problem presented in the question. I'd suggest caution here; do your best to determine whether the question should maybe be kept around just as a way to preserve that answer. The answers will appear in search results, after all.

There are also two I've seen where the typo was not generated by the OP, but was from a tutorial or documentation: https://stackoverflow.com/q/11730071 and https://stackoverflow.com/q/10535330. I voted to close the second because I couldn't find the listed code on the linked page. In general, though, I'd say if the typo comes from an external source, and that source still exists, someone else may very well end up with the same question -- "Is this wrong?" -- and that seems to be a perfectly reasonable thing to have on SO.

That said, round 'em up, deputies!

A further thought: might it be a good idea to start working from the end of the list (that is, the oldest posts)? I realized that my close votes have expired partly because, in the default "relevance" sorting, newer posts seem to show up first. Whenever someone goes through your search link, some questions with existing close votes will be buried on the second or third page. There's no way that I know of, unfortunately, for the link to go to the "last" page -- only numbers seem to function.

Working from the last page sorted by "newest" is awkward, of course, but I think it might focus the power of this fully armed and op... I'm sorry -- concentrate our effort and increase its effectiveness.

Suggestions for handling this kind of coordination are welcome have not only been suggested, but implemented by the inimitable Pekka.

Answer 4

I've had good luck finding typo questions using:

• "It was a typo"
• "I had a typo"

• "There was a typo"

• "You have a typo" (while not self-answered, still localized. There are 831 as of this edit)

If we get ten to fifteen people to grind through those phrases, that should knock a few hundred out.

Added 2/27/13

• "I forgot" (4,782 answers, this should keep people busy for a while)

Answer 5

_{Image © Allie Brosch. Used by tentative permission.}

Answer 6

I don't have enough rep yet to vote to close: I flag ones that need flagging, but I won't be bothering the mods over this. I suppose people with closevote privileges may as well go ahead.

Answer 7

As I was doing the review queue by filtering to "too localized" for a while (now I switched to "Off topic") I realized how many times I had to open the actual question just to see that the current best answer was actually "hey you made a typo". Having the close vote queue showing the best answer at least for questions that have at least one "too localized" flag would be very helpful in sorting these questions out.

On the other side the close vote queue is getting bigger every week...

Answer 8

There's a fine line to walk here. Do we want to drive away first-time users by deleting their question before they see an answer? Do we want to punish the people who answer such questions by taking their points away?

Has anybody quantified how much noise people trip over because this stuff is left behind? Not how much is out there, but how much it affects search results etc. I think the downvotes that such questions get is enough to push them to the bottom of the barrel.

Once you put a pitchfork in someone's hands, it's hard for them not to join the mob.