6

Don't get me wrong, "What is the best ...." question should usually be closed fast.

But, when they are several years old and have many/several answers I see no point in bringing them into the review queue.

A few Examples (I skipped most of them, not wanting to waste reviews)

0

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
7

Yes, so that we can close them. Closure doesn't always result in deletion, but it will mark such questions as unwelcome and reset the precedent (the way questions are locked and retained on SO because of "historical importance"). Such locking would be better, but we'd need a mod on hand for that, I think.

Apparently "historical importance" is the wrong type of lock here. It freezes both question and answers, whereas only the question need be frozen, as Seth suggests. With the other locks, the existing answers can continue to be updated and new answers cannot be created.

10
  • If the OP is talking about the questions I think he is (e.g. What kinds of desktop environments and shells are available?) then I don't think they should be closed. We actually did close them at one time but then a few community members banded up and attempted to delete them all (which the community subsequently made quite clear they did not want). Locking them is an option but that disallows edits, essentially condemning them to stagnation.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 3:41
  • I'm not there was ever anything official on the subject but I believe we ended up just leaving them with the banners at the top explaining that these were not questions that would be accepted today. This leaves us in something of a dilemma. We cannot close without subjecting them to deletion, we cannot lock them without subjecting them to stagnation. At this point I'd say let the banners do their work and let us focus on the more urgent areas of the site that need out attention. Just my 2 cents.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 3:41
  • @Seth do you know of any precedents in the sister sites?
    – muru
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 3:59
  • Not off the top of my head, but I could ask around. Anything specific in mind? Seems to be the current strategy is working..
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 4:07
  • @Seth U&L and SF, I suppose. I think you can edit locked posts, just not add answers or vote on them (like this one says).
    – muru
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 4:18
  • Well I will ask around. But no, you cannot edit locked posts. (try askubuntu.com/questions/35488/… or askubuntu.com/questions/226575/ubuntu-with-spyware for example)
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 4:19
  • @Seth not all ones, yes, but it seems the one I linked to can be edited.
    – muru
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 4:26
  • Hmm, that is not in my default tools that I can see. I'll look into it. That sounds like it may be a good solution to the problem, if it still exists.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 4:34
  • 1
    @Seth the confusion was mine, Shog9 says on meta se that the question is locked, but the answers aren't, therefore the latter can be edited and the former can't. Which is still good for us, since the question is well past editable fixing anyway.
    – muru
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 4:36
  • Well I asked some of the moderators on other sites (sorry it took so long to get back to you, my life has been super busy lately). They mostly said they just close them, but they don't have the deletion problem we have so that wasn't much help I'm afraid :/ I suppose we could lock just the question..
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Feb 8, 2015 at 3:36

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