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Why do we have a protect button for closed questions? If the question holds answers which are highly upvoted and are most viewed, then it makes sense. But why do we provide protect links on questions which are closed and not answered? Now we cannot answer closed questions either, so why protect in this particular case?

I've come across many old questions which are closed as well as protected, but are very popular. Can't we have a feature where we cannot protect questions with no answers, or closed questions with no answers?

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Update :

I guess we cannot answer on closed questions anymore, so I thought why protect when even a 100k user cannot answer a closed question, but we can debate on this as what if the question was opened again, but in this case I don't think question would re-open

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    What is wrong about protecting (closed) questions with no answers? What is the harm it's doing? There might be no point, but at least it keeps the UI consistent.
    – Bart
    May 14, 2013 at 12:17
  • @Bart Agreed from UI point of view, but I always mark SO kepping some restricting to comment for 15 sec, reopen dialog box for 3 sec, so why waste a call on this too, I know this case is far from rare, but if logically we speak, protecting a question which has no imp is no good
    – Mr. Alien
    May 14, 2013 at 12:21
  • But you can access those features a potentially infinite number of times on the same question. You can only access the protect feature once on a question, and you can't really rate limit one.
    – animuson StaffMod
    May 14, 2013 at 12:29
  • @animuson Do you mean to say I can't protect a question again after I unprotect it? I guess no, I protected it back
    – Mr. Alien
    May 14, 2013 at 12:33
  • @Mr.Alien: Only a moderator can unprotect a question.
    – animuson StaffMod
    May 14, 2013 at 12:34
  • @animuson I am unprotecting question, see if you want, I unprotected it, I guess I can because I've 20K+ and you are on 15 so may be you are missing something here
    – Mr. Alien
    May 14, 2013 at 12:35
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    @Mr.Alien: Ah, I forget that a user can unprotect questions that he/she protected, but not those protected by others.
    – animuson StaffMod
    May 14, 2013 at 12:37

1 Answer 1

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A question does not have to be closed forever. If you want to protect it from now on to the future and don't want to wait for it being reopend, then this is actually a nice feature.

Besides, there are many other GUI elements that are not always needed. Like vote buttons on deleted questions...

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  • But what if I protect such question, leave it there closed, no one re opens, guest visits the page, than protected loses it's meaning here, there will be no thanks, me too answers on that post as the question is closed
    – Mr. Alien
    May 14, 2013 at 12:41
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    And what is the problem in that scenario? I see none whatsoever.
    – Bart
    May 14, 2013 at 12:42
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    Who knows if the question gets never reopened? You can't say that for sure.
    – juergen d
    May 14, 2013 at 12:42
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    @Mr.Alien: You might be interested in Don't display “protected” notice if the question is locked or closed
    – animuson StaffMod
    May 14, 2013 at 13:01

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