High volume of questions being put On Hold or Closed - is that a problem?

Question

At this moment, 7 of the top 10 questions are either On Hold, or Closed.

Does anyone consider this a problem? How does this compare to other SE forums?

Answer 1

The Workplace SE is a very subjective subject, and on new Stack Exchange sites, sometimes it's not quite clear what the site will be about, despite having an Area 51 proposal and commitment phases.

The community consisted of folks who were around in the beginning days of Programmers SE, and many recall the troubles that site went through with quality; hence, the community defended quality at all costs, sometimes at the expense of questions that may have been a good fit.

It's extremely tough to figure out where the line is between what is a good question and what is not a good question for a community, especially on a site where the experts can't be defined with a single term, like "engineer" or "writer" or "chemist".

It's been said that the private beta and the early period are the most important time for a site and set the tone for years to come. The folks who volunteered their time during the site's early period stuck their necks out to defend quality and make sure this site didn't go through the same mistakes as previous communities.

As a result, we have a community of experts in the Workplace who not only answer questions but also protect the site's quality, and as we move forward, we'll continue to redefine the site's scope. Perhaps we'll also let our guard down more as we realize that we're not in danger as we were in the first early months of the site's beta.

I can't disagree with any of the closures on the main page nor am I concerned that they're closed/on hold. Those posts have problems, but I also strongly feel that we can and should use these opportunities to reach out to those users, help them with their edits, and show them the benefits of creating a good Stack Exchange question and how -- by asking good questions -- they are themselves "giving back", even without having answers to contribute of their own. Most of the questions do indeed look like some helpful editing and encouragement could bring them up to par with the level of quality this community has come to expect. The toughest challenge we face is not just maintaining quality but maintaining quality with smiles on our faces.

Answer 2

I do consider this a problem. But the problem is not that the specific questions are closed but that this has been a common occurrence regularly through out the life of this site.

There are 3 main factors that contribute to this (In my opinion)

1. The Workplace is going to be full of soft questions that are basically asking for opinion.
2. We do not have controls in place that will help users avoid asking bad questions.
3. We seem to have some users that Vote to close anything that they are not interested in.

1 - The nature of this site means we should not throw away all opinion questions. But we need to focus questions towards constructive questions (How do I do rather than what does everyone else think). Look at the question and see if it is asking for a solution to a problem, an explanation of something, or is it a "doesnt this suck" question. We need to close the doesnt this suck questions. Other questions that can be fixed should be.

2 - I do not know what the options are here. I think we could help alot if we were able to add some controls that will help users ask better but that is under SE Control.

3 - All we can really do is help edit the questions to improve them and reopen the questions.

Answer 3

Hot Questions

Over the past two weeks I have noticed 4 questions from the Workplace on the 'hot questions' list. These questions introduce a flood of new questions in to the site (much more than if there isn't a question on that list).

_{more on the hot question curse here}

Limited Resources

When there are fewer questions, we seem to be doing a good job of offering advice, editing questions, nudging people in the right direction, and answering all at the same time. But when the quantity of questions increases, those resources get spread thin.

Triage

Editing a question is a lot of work. You have to make sure you understand what the asker's concern actually is, you have to figure out whether that fundamental concern can be made on-topic, and then you actually have to rewrite the question to ask that question while staying on topic.

A close vote, however, is very easy. You just click a couple buttons and you are done. This may not be the best way, but it would seem many people believe this is a better alternative than leaving them open and having the new users see open questions of low quality when they come via a hot question.

Improving Quality

Ideally the flood of new people from the hot questions should be a boon to the site. Some of those people visiting could be the next RhysW or jmort and improve our capacity to be a good resource in the future. If the closed questions are accompanied by friendly advice on how to improve them, and don't drive away those potential productive users, then there is no issue. In that sense, I strongly agree with jmort:

I also strongly feel that we can and should use these opportunities to reach out to those users, help them with their edits, and show them the benefits of creating a good Stack Exchange question and how -- by asking good questions -- they are themselves "giving back", even without having answers to contribute of their own. Most of the questions do indeed look like some helpful editing and encouragement could bring them up to par with the level of quality this community has come to expect. The toughest challenge we face is not just maintaining quality but maintaining quality with smiles on our faces.

Answer 4

Comparing us to other SE forums is a bad idea, the way each site works is generally similar but the crowds they attract can differ vastly. From what it looks like we have just had a case of some users who aren't fully familiar with the specific rules ask some questions which the community has requested be improved before we continue onwards with them.

If you look at the users they are nearly all new to the site, starting from 0 rep, or the 101 rep markers. This is because we recently had a large amount of questions reach 'hot question' status, which got us flung into the ticker for a few days straight.

Because of this the new users found out about the site and asked their questions right away. This has caused some of them to not quite be up to standards and get put on hold or closed.

So no i would not be too worried about it as this usually happens after questions make it to the ticker. It will only be a problem if most of our questions are closed / on hold all the time for a few weeks.

Answer 5

I think this still might be a problem. A lot of questions I start to answer get put on hold or closed by the time I finish answering, and I'm usually surprised by the reasons provided to explain why the item was put on hold or closed.

The badge system assigned me the task of asking a new question. This seemed like an easy assignment at first, but it quickly became challenging. I kept coming up with a subject line for my question, but the system kept warning me that my question would probably get put on hold or closed. This was a bit discouraging and even frustrating. After awhile the focus was no longer on figuring out how to ask my question, but instead on how I should format my question in a way that would be acceptable by the system. It seems like a problem when content is lost due to formatting requirements.

Please don't get me wrong. I understand the value of a well phrased or worded question.

What I don't understand is necessary for so many questions to get put on hold or closed. Is this just an attempt to maintain question quality and flag ones that seem like a waste of time to read or reply? If so, I honestly don't mind reading the all of the questions. I also don't mind trying to answer a question, even if I have to make assumptions about what the OP is asking. I'm working from the idea that they may not know enough about the situation to ask well formed questions, but maybe it's similar enough to my own experiences that I can still understand what they are trying to ask and how I can try to help them.

Answer 6

At this moment, 7 of the top 10 questions are either On Hold, or Closed.

Does anyone consider this a problem?

It's a huge problem. It's also "the elephant in the room" that we aren't paying attention to.

In theory, a site "reboot" might erase any negative feelings that began during Workplace.Beta.SE's inception, but I have difficulty conceptualizing what this "reboot" might look like.

Given that a site reboot would be difficult or impossible, maybe we should redefine what's on-topic here at Workplace.Beta.SE.

I have to be honest - Although I've been upholding the letter of the law with my close vote, sometimes I feel like the law doesn't make any sense; and sometimes I wish that I had been a more vocal participant when this site was being conceptualized on Area 51.

How does this compare to other SE forums?

I'm not sure. But if nothing else, StackExchange should consider its experience with Workplace.Beta.SE when choosing future Beta moderators.