-15

I saw that there are a lot of similar questions. But I noticed that only recently moderators started closing questions bypassing the usual voting, one moderator is enough to close it, like this one.

So my question is only about this feature. Doesn't it give them the ability to constrain the discussion on the forum according to their opinion?

Improve this question
6
  • 7
    Elected moderators (the ones with the ♦ symbol) have binding close votes. That’s one of the privileges the community elected them for. Why do you assume that this question was closed only “according to their opinion”? The question was closed according to the site’s rules, defined in the help center. You can still contest any close vote, so the feature is fine as it is.
    – Sebastian Simon
    Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 13:08
  • 6
    If what moderators did was not in agreement with the site rules, then they would be removed as moderators.
    – OrangeDog
    Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 13:08
  • 4
    A few of the related questions: Please don't allow a single mod the ability to close a question, Should moderators close questions for reasons other than obvious violation of the rules?, Policy concerning unilateral closing of questions?
    – ColleenV
    Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 13:13
  • While we mods sometimes want to vote a question for closure without a binding vote, most of the time they are entrusted to close unilaterally based on the site policy and to close it as quickly as possible. The same for mod's binding reopen votes.
    – Meta Andrew T.
    Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 13:28
  • 2
    If you believed that it was closed wrongly, vote to reopen it. If you believe the mod is abusing their power, raise it on the per-site meta or send a support ticket to stack exchange CMs. Bringing the issue to the main meta achieves nothing. (Also, the reason your question was closed was explained to you in the comments, I don't understand your problem with it.)
    – Ekadh Singh
    Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 14:19
  • The Stack Exchange sites are not forums (fora?). They are think tanks.
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Commented Mar 17, 2022 at 19:02

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
18

We aren't forums, and we generally avoid discussions.

Questions are asked, answers given, and...

Fundamentally - mods are trusted to be able to close questions unilaterally, and to basically make those decisions. It is a lot of power, but there's 2 checks against it - that the community can vote to reopen, and the question can be discussed on meta.

I notice there's some discussion in comments about the question - 2 close votes (though I can't see how many re-open votes) and so on. There's reasons given - and keeping questions on topic is a valid use of a mod closure, though practically the community on my sites beat me to it.

Improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .