Why am I getting so many closed and deleted questions recently? [closed]

Question

Am I really that bad in writing? Am I really getting worse and worse?

I am a part of The Community (I am proud that I can write it in capitals; there is no sarcasm in here) for at least 10 years. I've been acting more or less actively in these years. But, in general (and in theory):

• my knowledge of the rules and on-topic / off-topic areas
• my understanding of how things are working in here
• my ability to formulate correct and on-topic questions

should get better as time passes by. We call that "experience".

It seems it is not. Not in my case. Why? In general:

1. A "couple of years ago" I had no more than 2-3 closed questions per year.
2. "Today" I have one closed question per 2-3 weeks.

Looks to me like a 1000% increase.

I must be doing something wrong. Can you help me understand what?

Are mods "taking things over"?

(the following is a joke in most parts!)

If I am not doing anything wrong and if on contrary--s experience suggests--I am getting better and better then maybe the explanation is a conspiracy theory?

Maybe there are more and more mods that have a secret agreement to make much too harsh decisions and to close as many questions as they can. To purge Stack Exchange of everything that is at least 1% not as perfect as it should be? Purity is perfection?

No, of course not!

I may think that mods are making more and more harsh, bad and wrong decisions for the community, but the facts are totally different.

It's not about mods, it's about my misunderstanding.

It seems that for at least 11 years mods are encouraged into taking decisions as fast as possible. Even though they may seems aggressive. It seems that they are expected to remove everything that should be closed in the blink of an eye.

So, at least from technical perspective, nothing is wrong and the mods are not taking over. They find my content wrong and they're closing it.

Why is my content wrong?

Throw a D6 and get ... seven?

Could it be just a coincidence? Could it be that I just had a (really) wrong time or (many) bad days and simply had a period of wrong questions". Could it be that I am not that bad in writing? Could be that I do not have a decline in quality of asking?

Hard do believe, but still ...

If it is not them then it is me

1. If my experience should gain through time.
2. And the number of closed questions should be less and less as time goes.
3. If the mods are not taking over.
4. And if this isn't a coincidence?

Then it must be me. It must be that my questions are getting worse.

Can you help me track the problem? Can you help me fix it? Can you tell me what to avoid in what I am currently doing or what to do more that I am currently doing not enough?

Edit: I am getting closed questions on many pages (SF&F, Movies etc.) By no mean the case is specific to Web Apps or one single community. I would definitely and certainly handle this on particular website's meta, if my problem could be narrowed to just a single page or community.

Answer 1

Maybe its just me, but asking a great question's gotten harder over time - especially on the technical sites - or maybe its just my own standards. Quite often the question's already there, but the answer might not quite be perfect. And generally the standards of 11 years ago are very different from the standards of now.

"I get more questions closed" or "I get more questions downvoted" means nothing without taking into account the questions and the feedback. The 'Why' and 'How many' are important too.

Looking at your specific examples - (and minor rant - I don't know why in the situations that come up on webapps, that people think more is better, its not the first time, and folks treat edits as meta - that content as a meta post might be more educational), I feel like to an extent the 'proper' loop of 'saving' a closed question is forgotten - and that the local meta is a great place to workshop and communicate with the community over how to de-duplicate the post. You shouldn't be waiting for a moderator to.

In a healthy community, making a case for the post's distinctiveness, and maybe some more 'serious' changes might help recover the post.

I'd love to sugarcoat it or say it in a less... harsh way but the 'cores' of many communities have gotten diminished. We've a lot less active voters and a lot of folks drifted away. There's not really as much of an active core of folks doing voting and other curation tasks, and I feel like some moderators feel they need to pick up the slack.

As a moderator I'd rather be doing most of my work on my meta and chat and not sweat the little things - there's exceptions but there's more fun things than dupe hunting to me. Helping save 'good' posts is fun. Could the approach to your problem be changed - maybe using filters and so on.

The argument I would have for a quick closure when needed is that it saves people time if its irrecoverable, closures are reversible. With less active communities, some moderators may feel its the best thing.

Answer 2

Please bear with me. With due respect and in the most kind and friendly way that I'm able to write this answer I think that it should be said that posting a question here for asking for help and guidance is perfectly fine, for sharing your unhappiness, disagreement, unsatisfaction, frustration and other feelings derived from your participation, how your posts have being handled / received or the SE network also it's perfectly fine. Posting a question here asking for individualized treatment and refrain others from participate is not.

There are measures to handle improper beharior. If you find something against the Code of Conduct and or the site workings you could flag it and the community (regular members and mods) will handled it. You might also use the link Contact to request assistance from the Community Managers / Staff. For details see What if I see someone doing something bad?.

Please bear in mind that Stack Exchange sites help and moderation is done by volunteers. Each generously give their time, skills and knowledge according the possibilities and will.

I wonder how much of what you are sharing in your post might be derived from gaps between expectations, aspirations and actuality.

Treat each community individualy. Instead of expecting to be served, become part of the community. While history is helpful and contributors from the past deserve respect and gratitude, stuff is done today by the active community members. If you require clarification, ask for it. Patience and kindness usually are helpful to solve most disagreements.