Reasoning behind closed questions

Question

In a separate question, it was said:

I always try to balance things out between the number of people showing appreciation and the people signalling that the question isn't appropriate. Just flagging something doesn't necessarily mean your flag will be treated with more weight than the 10 upvotes the question has already gotten.

However, these closed questions seem to contradict that statement:

• What are the recurrent usability problems in web sites today?
• Is there a way to disallow multiple votes from one user without forcing authentication?

Both were closed by just moderators and both have 5 upvotes and no downvotes. I don't disagree with closing these questions, but if these questions are closed because they aren't valid questions for the site, then why are other questions kept open solely for the reasons mentioned in the above quote? This is very inconsistent.

EDIT: There are lots more examples of questions that were closed with multiple upvotes and just a moderator closing them: https://ux.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&q=closed%3a1

Answer 1

Just because a question has up-votes doesn't mean it shouldn't be closed. People may well like the question, but if it's off topic it should be closed, regardless of it's vote score.

On a low traffic site where there aren't many users with close rights, it's to be expected that there may well only be the moderator vote present - especially if other lower rep users have flagged the question for moderator attention.

However, it's not always practical to add close reasons to the post. The auto generated text points to the FAQ which gives the reasons why the post was closed.

There are plenty of questions on other sites that are closed while having up-votes.

UPDATE

From the other side - regarding questions that are left open that perhaps should be closed but have been left open - all you can do is flag them for moderator attention and give a good reason why you think it should be closed. The moderator might not agree, but with a good reason you have more chance of it being closed. Also you have enough rep to cast close votes - do so. Other high rep users will see this and will cast their own votes if they agree. Also a question with close votes as opposed to close flags is more likely to actually get closed.

Moderators can only work with what they see. Unless you bring these questions to their attention they will remain open. Moderators don't have the time to go looking for questions to close.

Answer 2

I don't disagree with closing these questions, but if these questions are closed because they aren't valid questions for the site, then why are other questions kept open solely for the reasons mentioned in the above quote? This is very inconsistent.

Like many things in life, I don't think there can be a definitive answer, because this is a judgment call. However, we do provide a bunch of specific guidance on how to keep subjective content constructive, such as:

All subjective questions are expected to be constructive. How do we define that? Constructive subjective questions …

• inspire answers that explain “why” and “how”.
• tend to have long, not short, answers.
• have a constructive, fair, and impartial tone.
• invite sharing experiences over opinions.
• insist that opinion be backed up with facts and references.
• are more than just mindless social fun.

Questions that do not meet enough of these six guidelines will be closed as "not constructive." Please see the Good Subjective, Bad Subjective blog post for more details and examples.

There is a bit more at https://ux.stackexchange.com/faq#dontask

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here. (You are more than welcome to have such discussions in our real time web chat.) However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ______ to me”, then you are probably OK.

We provide as much guidance as we can -- there are also sample questions in the above faq link.

But in the end, it is always a judgment call based on a set of criteria. That's also why we have multiple moderators (and SE, Inc) staff and meta -- this very site -- to assist.

Answer 3

The question about recurrent usability problems was migrated from UXExchange.com, where it probably acquired most of its upvotes.

The question about authentication has a comment suggesting that it should be closed. That comment has as many upvotes as the question itself (5). Note that the question was asked early in the site's history -- Rahul was probably the only person who had accumulated enough rep to cast a close vote and wasn't a moderator.