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Today, while working through the Close Votes Review queue, I was distracted for a moment and clicked to close a question for the wrong reason.

So I opened the question page and rescinded my close vote.

A message popped up saying that I would not be able to vote to close the question again, which is exactly what I wanted to do.

So my question is, why are users disallowed another close vote after rescinding an earlier close vote?

EDIT1

Firstly, thanks to our mods for the migration.

The linked possible duplicate question certainly does cover much of the same ground, and more. Like this question, it has generated lots of interesting discussion, but no definitive answer. The slight difference in this question is that I was seeking to correct an error.

The system disallows such repeat votes. It seems to be a design decision. It doesn't matter which of the questions is answered, but it would be good to hear the definitive design rationale for the policy decision.

EDIT2

A question linked to by the "possible duplicate" does contain the answer I seek: Closure vote - Changing closure reason.

The answer boils down to open to abuse.

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  • Sorry that I didn't keep a link to the question; it's not clear from the history which it could be either.
    – andy256
    Commented Jan 16, 2015 at 3:15
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    The way I understand this is that you only ever have one close vote per question. If you use it (even if you later rescind it), that's it. That protects everyone in a way. You have a limited number of close votes per day (rescinding won't give you back a vote either), so you are forced to use them wisely. If a question you close vote gets reopened, you can't vote to "reclose" it. Basically you only have one close vote, ever, per question. But perhaps the mods have more insight into the whys and wherefores.
    – anongoodnurse
    Commented Jan 16, 2015 at 7:17
  • To add to medica' explanation, I'd also say that sometimes a user edits an OP's post which may greatly modify the original question. Sometimes this alone justifies my withdrawing a close vote; however, if the post is rolledback (for whatever reason) I am unable to reuse that vote, so the popup acts like a reminder or warning.
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Commented Jan 16, 2015 at 11:13
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    @Mari-LouA Not really a warning, since the popup only appears after you’ve retracted your closevote and can’t do anything about it anyway. There is no warning of any kind to let you know beforehand that retracting a closevote means no more closevoting on the question.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jan 16, 2015 at 19:07
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    @Mari-LouA Turns out you’re right. Must be something else that I have it confused with, then, or perhaps this is something they’ve changed since I found myself in that situation last time (which is probably more than half a year ago).
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jan 16, 2015 at 19:33
  • So far, what I'm getting from this is "There is no persuasive rationale for not being able to vote to close a question more than once".
    – Erik Kowal
    Commented Jan 17, 2015 at 3:16
  • @ErikKowal That's a different matter - it would produce voting wars. I think there could be a good argument for being allowed to revote if you cancel your own earlier vote though.
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Jan 17, 2015 at 4:14
  • Questions like this should be made at Meta Stack Exchange.
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Jan 17, 2015 at 4:14
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    @ErikKowal - not at all. There is a very persuasive reason: undue influence. If a question you voted to close gets reopened, you cannot vote to re-close. It would be unfair to the OP. As a community, you get one vote per question (and answer) up to the limit. That's it.
    – anongoodnurse
    Commented Jan 18, 2015 at 0:37

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