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In the review queue there are often old questions with the proposed close reason:

Questions asking for code must demonstrate a minimal understanding of the problem being solved. Include attempted solutions, why they didn't work, and the expected results.

Commonly these are the "give me the code" questions. However, many of them have an accepted answer that provided the code.

Is there any benefit in voting to close an old question of this type? If over a year has passed since a lazy so-and-so requested code and got it for free, do we need to close it?

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    Yep - it helps remove the cruft. The stuff that no one cares about.
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented Oct 9, 2013 at 15:50
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    It also helps reinforce the idea that just because someone asked one a long time ago doesn't mean you can ask one now.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Oct 9, 2013 at 15:50
  • These are usually closed when someone says "But this was allowed!" Closing doesn't delete the existing answers so no harm done
    – Richard Tingle
    Commented Oct 9, 2013 at 16:43

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  1. It indicates to users that these types of questions aren't allowed. It makes it harder for people's questions that do get closed to just start linking to other similar open questions. If all of the other similar questions are closed it makes the message that they aren't allowed clear.

  2. It prevents further answerers from coming along adding more answers. Hopefully they can find some questions of better quality to spend their time on.

  3. If the question is particularly bad it allows for it to be deleted (or more easily deleted) based on either human or automated intervention.

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