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Hi

Look at the bellow question. It was asked just 2 mins before and was closed immediately. I think the user was not given enough time to edit his/her question. alt text http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/5553/questionj.jpg

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15
  • Why the downvote?
    – Gopi
    Apr 28 '10 at 12:39
  • 4
    Downvotes on meta tend to indicate disagreement with a concept more than a question being bad. See meta.stackexchange.com/questions/47634/…
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Apr 28 '10 at 12:41
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    @Sri because I disagree with the idea. I was around for this question, and really the Series of questions. This user was posting these one right after another, instead of editing or commenting. Also the question was difficult to read and in the style of please-send-teh-codez. There was no reason for the question to stay open as long as it was.
    – C. Ross
    Apr 28 '10 at 12:42
  • @ C.Ross. I see only one question was asked by the user. Please correct me if I am wrong
    – Gopi
    Apr 28 '10 at 12:44
  • @ ccornet Yeah. I understood but the reason for the disagreement could be eye-opener for me :)
    – Gopi
    Apr 28 '10 at 12:47
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    I'm surprised it took a whole 2m25s to close that question. Link
    – Jon Seigel
    Apr 28 '10 at 12:48
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    ...the user tried again, better this time, although it needs a bit of work (will attempt an edit myself). Link
    – Jon Seigel
    Apr 28 '10 at 12:50
  • @ Jon. Yet again it was closed! :(
    – Gopi
    Apr 28 '10 at 12:54
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    @Sri: As I said in my comment there, the author needs to give more information on the problem, where the error is occurring, etc. I got what was provided in the question into shape, but it was still lacking a critical part of the question -- mainly a question -- and there were 3 close votes by the time I had finished editing.
    – Jon Seigel
    Apr 28 '10 at 12:56
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    Looks like Bill the Lizard deleted the 2nd question and combined the question bodies into the first question. (Can't keep up with all the edits... lol)
    – Jon Seigel
    Apr 28 '10 at 12:57
  • @ Jon Yeah I understand. Since OP is really new to SO, she/he will learn to post a proper question. Good to see at least your interested in helping him out by editing, applauds for your effort.
    – Gopi
    Apr 28 '10 at 12:59
  • @Sri: Yeah. I haven't done much Java, but I can spot a few very obvious problems in that code just from looking at it. Unfortunately, once people realized it was the same person posting the 2nd question, I think there was a knee-jerk reaction to close instead of actually looking at the code. That being said, it still may have been closed regardless.
    – Jon Seigel
    Apr 28 '10 at 13:06
  • @Sri: Also, for the @ comment notification to work, the @ has to be before the person's name without a space in between.
    – Jon Seigel
    Apr 28 '10 at 13:07
  • @ Jon Thanks for the information :)
    – Gopi
    Apr 28 '10 at 13:13
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    The poster can edit it after it is closed leading to reopening and answers. If they know what's up. What that question needed was good comment explaining how things work around here...
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Apr 28 '10 at 13:21
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There's simply no reason to have a feature like this.

The Ask Question page gives an author unlimited time to write a detailed question for everyone else to see. SO even has a live preview, which you don't get on many forums. (This, of course, applies to writing answers as well.)

In this specific case, I think it was entirely a matter of not knowing how to ask a complete, detailed question. The lone, seemingly irrelevant tag on the initial question underscored that fact. It may seem a bit harsh, but hopefully the author will read the "How to ask questions the smart way" article that was linked to in a comment on the original question.

See also: Could we please be a bit nicer to the noobs?

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  • 2
    Exactly. The user has all the time in the world to edit their question before it's posted.
    – Bill the Lizard
    Apr 28 '10 at 14:09
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I really don't think this user was going to make the post any better, whether you give them 2 minutes or 15 minutes or a whole hour.

A certain amount of effort is required to even be given the benefit of the doubt...

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2
  • Might be for this question. But closing it immediately seems to be little harsh on them
    – Gopi
    Apr 28 '10 at 12:42
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    @Sri: thousands of people managed to show up here and ask questions that include... uh... details and questions and such... without gentle hand-holding and rigorous training. There's inexperience, and then there's laziness.
    – Shog9
    Apr 28 '10 at 15:30
1

Once posted, a question is already either information or noise. If the question is not clear at all, it should be closed to avoid people wasting time on it.

For scenarios in which you need to gradually improve a post you are working on, the suitable feature request would be to Save drafts of questions or answers.

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