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When a question comes up in the close-vote review queue you have four options.

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I would like to draw your attention to the option to

edit

a question (instead of closing it). I suggest that this should be the best practice, i.e. one should

  • edit a question if that saves it from being closed and does not alter the intention of the question
  • only vote to close a question if such an edit is impossible, either because it is utterly unclear what the OP is asking, it is an exact duplicate or there is no salvageable core to the question.

It should also be best practice to try to get such an edit from the OP first, but also not to wait if the OP is not responsive, and in the latter case to leave a short comment for the OP explaining your edit and that they have the option to revert it (especially so when the OP is a new user).

I have done so on two occasions today:

  • Can I buy two tickets for one person with Megabus London to Liverpool to occupy two seats for added comfort?
    Initially asked whether "is it worth the idea" to buy two seats for one. I made an edit, focusing on the question whether the second ticket would actually give the right to a second seat and whether that adds any comfort. The question had already accumulated three close votes by that time but made it out of the review queue immediately and is now in good standing. I left a comment explaining myself. (Actually OP came back just now...)

  • Louvre Trip Planning for multi-day visit
    Initially asked for experiences, making it eligible for closure as "too broad" and "primarily opinion-based" IMHO. The OP is responsive but failed to transform his question in an acceptable manner, only elaborating more on what types of opinions he wants and having long discussions in comments. I asked them in comments whether I could try an edit and with their approval shortened the question considerably. It is now on-topic and good IMHO, also the OP seems happy and has not reverted the edit.

So, brave users of TSE, if you have enough rep to close-vote, be reminded that you have both the rep and experience to suggest edits that improve and salvage a question. Both acts are noble tasks, but close-voting is an act of cleaning up, while by editing you are creating something greater and help TSE grow.

Opinions?

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  • 2
    +1 Except for true duplicates (and spam and gibberish of course), I'm not a fan of unnecessarily closing questions and view the extent to which people are turned away for not asking perfect questions as a bad thing. If a question can reasonably be salvaged, then that's an excellent result.
    – Zach Lipton
    Sep 9, 2016 at 16:20
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    Clicking edit from inside the close vote review queue also immediately removes that post from the queue. But you knew that, didn’t you? ;)
    – Jan
    Sep 9, 2016 at 18:17
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    @Jan I actually did not, good one!
    – mts
    Sep 10, 2016 at 16:30
  • In that case, I shall post that as an answer ;)
    – Jan
    Sep 11, 2016 at 13:36

1 Answer 1

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I would like to expand on the usefulness of the edit button presented in the review queues (both the close vote and the low quality queue). For the close vote review queue, it is explicitly mentioned on Meta.SE:

You can try to fix a close-able question via the Edit button, which will automatically dismiss it from the queue.
(Bolding in the original, italics mine)

The same is implicitly true for edits applied via the low quality review queue.

Therefore, editing a post that can be salvaged effectively prevents bandwagon close/delete vote drops.

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