Create a test for members below 3K reputation in order to be granted access to the close vote review queue

Question

Background

We've heard varying reasons as to why the Close Vote Review Queue is not declining. One of those most notable reasons is that the queue is not fun to work on, but the prominent reason that I have heard is that there are not enough people working on the queue which may be because people now feel discouraged that their efforts are futile because the queue is so large. However, if the real reason is because there aren't enough people working on the queue, then let's address that.

Many have tossed around the idea of lowering the reputation limit to enable the close vote review queue for a wider audience. However, lowering the reputation limit would in my opinion negatively affect the quality posts we keep active on the site. However, I do believe that there is a segment of the SO population that has a reputation below 3K that can actively, and successfully, participate in the close vote review queue. These members may include those that successfully flag a lot of posts or those that comment on posts to guide user's towards improving their post, and possibly other members that don't necessarily do either of these, but are capable of identifying posts that are worthy of closure and those that should remain open.

Proposition

Synopsis: Our goal is to get more people to process posts in the close vote review queue. To do this, let's create a test that is based off the established audit system. This test would help us determine which users below a reputation of 3K would perform well in processing the posts in the close vote review queue.

Description: Create a test that users have to pass to be granted access to the close vote review queue. This test would be the segue we need to ensure that users with a reputation below 3K are qualified to process these posts. The questions in this test should perform just as the audits presently perform. It is important to note that the audits serve the same purpose. Namely, ensuring that individuals are accurately identifying posts that are worthy of some form of closure or not, so why couldn't they also be the criteria to determine which members with a reputation below 3K should be granted access to the queue.

The setup for this system would be:

• To be granted access to this test, you would need a minimum reputation of r, (r = 1500, 1750, or 2000, or whatever the mods want the minimum to be).
• The test would comprise of n audits (n = 25, or 30, or 40, or whatever the mods deem a sufficient number for assessment).
• A success criteria, p, would be the percentage of audits that the user must pass to gain access to the review queue (p = 85%, or 90%, or 95%, or 100%, or whatever the mods deem a satisfactory percentage).

If a user passes the test with the minimum success criteria, they would be granted access to the close vote review queue and immediately begin helping, and thereafter, would be met with the same random audits to ensure they continue to perform well. And if we are worried about the quality of posts that are being processed by this segment of the population, perhaps 2 or 3 times a year (whatever we agree upon), the user would have to pass the test again to ensure they continue to meet the necessary standard of quality to continue to have access to the queue. It goes without saying that if the user passes the 3K reputation level, everything is as it currently is.

Some interesting numbers:

• When r = 1,500, there are 19,398¹ people that could take the test. Based on this:
  
  
  • If 1% passed the test, approximately 194 people could provide a maximum of 7,760 additional close vote reviews per day!
  • If 5% passed the test, approximately 970 people could provide a maximum of 38,800 additional close vote reviews per day!
    
    
• When r = 2000, there are 10,065¹ people that could take the test. Based on this:
  
  
  • If 1% passed the test, approximately 101 people could provide a maximum of 4,040 additional close vote reviews per day!
  • If 5% passed the test, approximately 503 people could provide a maximum of 20,120 additional close vote reviews per day!

Conclusion

The audit system is presently being used as a trusted system to ensure users are processing posts in the close vote review system correctly. Using a variation of this established system to determine if users below a reputation of 3K would efficiently and accurately process posts in this queue, would be a great way to increase the number of actors on the close vote review queue.

I understand that this is a very touchy subject and many of us are worried about it, but I think if we keep hashing this out and try to come up with simple solutions we can resolve this. Thank you for your time. Cheers.

Statistics

Users with a reputation >= 1500, and < 3000: 19,398¹
Users with a reputation >= 2000, and < 3000: 10,065¹
Users with the Marshal Badge that have a reputation >= 1500 and < 3000: 99²
Users with the Marshal Badge that have a reputation >= 2000 and < 3000: 70²

1. Data gathered by using this query as of February 19th, 2014 at 4:24pm.
2. Data gathered by using this query as of February 19th, 2014 at 4:30pm.