25

I think we need a button that says Edit and Close added to the Review Close button options. Many of these closed posts will be around forever (and should be, closed should not just be a path to deletion), so they need editing.

If I edit it now it goes away, with the only option being a back click to get back to the review, and then click into the post and edit it. We have an Edit and Reopen button, so this would fit in just fine.

Edit and Close

Improve this question
4
  • This makes a lot of sense. Anything that will help process the close queue more efficiently.
    – Brian Webster
    Commented Mar 4, 2013 at 6:03
  • 4
    While I disagree with your parenthetical remark, I do agree that there's no reason not to allow edit-in-place in the review queues, before taking a final action.
    – jscs
    Commented Mar 4, 2013 at 6:05
  • 2
    @JoshCaswell, a good example is closed as dupe stubs that give more search terms to googlers that will direct them to the answers they need.
    – Lance Roberts
    Commented Mar 4, 2013 at 6:07
  • Okay, so I mostly disagree. :)
    – jscs
    Commented Mar 4, 2013 at 6:08

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
6

I'd like to expand on this idea so that it applies to both the Close and Reopen queues in both directions. Editing, while useful, is not always an indication that the question should be left open or that it should be reopened. As you've stated, there are sometimes cases where editing is just for the sake of editing, but you still want to close the question or you don't want to reopen the question, and it's inconvenient to have to go to the question itself to edit.

I propose that the edit screen in both these queues act similar to improving a suggested edit. Add a checkbox down below the preview so the user can indicate what primary action they want to complete along with their edit.

In the Close Votes queue:

[ ] Vote to close this question also (you will see the dialog when you save your edit)

The box should be checked by default and if the box is checked at the time of attempting to submit the edit, bring up the close dialog so they can also select the reason for closure, then submit both of them at once.

In the Reopen Votes queue:

[ ] Vote to reopen this question also

Similarly, the box should be checked by default, and upon submission of the edit (if checked), bring up the normal "Are you sure you want to reopen?" confirmation dialog for reopening questions.

Improve this answer
1
  • Good Idea, I also sometimes want to edit something in the re-open queue, but don't want to re-open it.
    – Lance Roberts
    Commented Mar 4, 2013 at 14:52
6

Closing is primarily a path to deletion: 60% of all questions on Stack Overflow that have ever been closed are currently deleted. On Programmers, it's 74% (that's the percentage of all questions that have EVER been closed, regardless of whether they were later re-opened, were locked, merged, migrated or are just sitting around closed).

Pretending otherwise ignores reality: the majority of closed questions are deleted. And this is intentional.

I'm always happy to see folks take the time to fix a poorly-asked question, but making superficial improvements to a question that will soon be deleted is a waste of time, and I see no reason to encourage it by cluttering the UI with a "polish this turd" button.

Making the purpose of "edit" more explicit by renaming it "edit and leave open" is reasonable, although that's really too long - perhaps "fix" would suffice?

Improve this answer
8
  • 3
    I think of it more as a cross roads between the road to deletion and the road to reopening.
    – Richard Tingle
    Commented Jan 3, 2014 at 17:27
  • Eh, sure, whatever. But one of those roads gets like 3% of the traffic of the other one. I mean, we're talking 5-lane Interstate Highway and footpath here.
    – Shog9
    Commented Jan 3, 2014 at 17:31
  • 1
    "Closing is primarily a path to deletion" -- I would prefer statements like that to be accompanied with supporting stats. Like, you know, "99,99% of the questions closed in 2012 have been deleted as of Dec 31, 2013". Without such stats, I can only rely in my personal recollection which tells me that barely 1/4 or 1/5 of questions I vote to close at Programmers, get eventually deleted
    – gnat
    Commented Jan 4, 2014 at 21:47
  • 1
    Ok, @gnat: 60% of all questions on Stack Overflow that have ever been closed are currently deleted. On Programmers, it's 74%. To be clear: that's the percentage of all questions that have EVER been closed, regardless of whether they were later re-opened, were locked, merged, migrated or are just sitting around closed.
    – Shog9
    Commented Jan 4, 2014 at 21:51
  • 1
    Perhaps the button then should be removed. One user should not have the complete power to kick things out of the queue so people has to hunt them over the network. This already happened (BTW, apparently users doesn't know that the edit buttom ends the reviewing, and even after casting another close vote the question doesn't get pulled the review queue).
    – Braiam
    Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 15:00
  • 1
    I think the Edit button in the Close queue is not used enough. When editing fixes a post or otherwise clarifies it shouldn't be closed, it's right for it to be dropped from the queue. There are many other posts that cannot be fixed by editing that need people's reviews to get closed efficiently; using the Edit button for posts where it's appropriate helps the Close queue be used for closing posts that need closing. However, Braiam has an important point: it looks like a significant portion of Edit reviews might not actually be attempts to keep a post open. I second the "Fix" name.
    – Eliah Kagan
    Commented Jan 20, 2014 at 23:15
  • In the case of a question that you'd like to vote to close as a duplicate, it might make sense to also clean it up, given that we like to keep some duplicates around as search targets. Is this too much of a special case to warrant an extra button?
    – jscs
    Commented Mar 2, 2014 at 0:35
  • 1
    @Shog9 - Over on Arqade (not sure about the rest of the sites) we don't delete questions closed as duplicate, as they offer another path for people wanting the same info, but phrasing their questions differently. As such an edit to fix typos and grammar, followed by closing as duplicate is a valid path. I've raised this issue in more detail on Arqade's meta
    – Robotnik
    Commented Mar 22, 2014 at 10:59

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .