Since the recent change to Close-Votes the number of votes in the Close review queue has been growing dramatically. This has been discussed. Most of these discussions center around whether there is any hope of reducing the queue to zero, like the other review queues, or somehow increasing the capacity to work through the backlog so it's at least stable. While I agree with these general desires I also want to have a better understanding as to what is creating the situation.
As I see it:
- A question gets asked
- Some number of them are marked as closed and enters the queue.
- Some number of those are reviewed four more times and either closed or left open, and the question leaves the queue.
What I don't understand is whether the ratio of the second point over the first point has changed, or the third over the first or second. These metrics are more important to understanding the system health than the absolute number of questions in the close vote queue:
- Are there more bad questions? (third over first)
- Are questions being marked to close more readily? (second over first)
- Are questions being marked to close more often than they're reviewed for close? (third over second)
Is it possible to get access to these numbers somehow? I think that they could inform the discussion on what to do (or if anything need be done) about the close-vote review queue. (For instance, it may be appropriate to disentangle when you can vote for something to be closed from when you can review something to be clsoed.)