How and why are question threads closed?

Asked by anartist (14813

) March 11th, 2011

There may be many reasons. But i have seen two recently. One was someone who asked a very specific question, maybe about a typeface, that was closed after answers, and one was a social question about song first lines asked by @seazen. Neither were controversial yet both had a discussion closed tag either very early on or while the discussion was still active. I have never seen these closed discussions before. Is this something new?

Observing members: 0

Composing members: 0

4 Answers

Questions that are sent back to the user to edit are now visible if you know the URL. Once edited and re-posted they are open for responses again.

Along with the usual reasons (typos, bad title etc.) if a question is posted in the wrong section it will appear to be closed until the user re-posts it.

Dog (25152

)“Great Answer” (8

) Flag as…

In addition to @Dog‘s answer, if a question is permanently closed by us, it will say “This discussion has been archived.”

augustlan (47745

)“Great Answer” (5

) Flag as…

You can also request for a question that you’ve asked to be closed. For example, my Fluther was acting weird one day, so I posted a question in Meta asking about it. The problem later resolved itself, so I asked that the question be closed.

Seelix (14952

)“Great Answer” (3

) Flag as…

@Seelix I think you’ve got it! At least about some Qs.
This Q was closed after only one answer. But now it is open again. @Dog may have explained this one—held up for a typo that wasn’t [Brit spelling of mold ‘mould’—mould of a green colour might be useful penicillin.]
@augustlan—I’ve seen that too—like the frizzer or cia Qs.

anartist (14813

)“Great Answer” (1

) Flag as…