Please note: this is not a duplicate of How Do I Opt Out of Privileges?, which asks to give gold tag badge holders the ability to cast normal close votes in case they're not sure of their vote. I understand why that request was declined, and while it is true that implementing that request would solve this problem as well, the reasons I'm proposing are totally unrelated to the reasons given there and the declining reason.
Recently, I've been seeing users complain when their question gets closed immediately, without warning, by a gold tag badge holder. Unlike votes from normal users, where users are shown a notice to consider the proposed target and edit if they don't think it's a duplicate, users aren't shown this option.
Now, users can edit their post, which will add it to the reopen queue, but new users don't really know about this. They can also leave a comment @reply to the user who closed the question, but their name isn't shown as one of the possible users to ping (unless they commented).
I'd like to propose a new system that can be used at the discretion of the gold badge holder (meaning they can opt for a standard binding closure if they like), to simply propose duplicates to the author. In my mind, this would:
- Leave a standard "Possible duplicate of [link]" comment
- Insert the normal notice at the top for the author only, with the link, an option to close it themselves, and an option to edit
- Put the question into the Close Votes queue, where other users can review it to see if it should be closed, in case the original closer doesn't come back
- Give gold badge holders the ability to bindingly close later on should they choose
This can be implemented as a standard close vote, or (my preferred way) a recommend closure flag, but without a flag (to prevent gold badge holders from inflating their helpful flag count). A recommend closure flag adds the comment and author-only notice and puts the question into the CV queue, which is exactly what my described feature does.
While this is partially accomplished by simply leaving a comment with a link, the link can be hidden if there are other comments, and a duplicate link will get posted if someone later votes to close it as a duplicate. I've seen moderators on Travel do this, but I've also seen a lot of redundant comments from users later voting or flagging to close the question.
I believe this feature will help increase the overall inclusivity of Stack Exchange, since users are sometimes offended by immediate closures, and in some cases think of the closers as simply "satisfying themselves" because they don't know the answer.