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    Physics is definitely not the only site - some of the requests that I have read specifically mention wanting to close posts more quickly before being answered. That said, I did specifically think of Physics when writing that paragraph. I've been struggling with this for a long time because I know y'all really want this and I understand that but - if my queries are correct - the number of questions answered prior to a third vote to close is still really high, so I'm not sure that this will do what y'all are hoping - it might help but, yeah, I think there may be more direct solutions.
    – Catija
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 16:06
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    Of course, we don't want anyone getting piled on for answering a question that they didn't realize was out of scope or wasn't sufficiently detailed. Or, on many sites, there's disagreement about what sorts of questions should be answered - for example, questions that just want an answer without showing any attempt to self-solve. These are often considered "homework questions" - the sort of question that looks like it was copied right out of an assignment and the user doesn't show their attempts to figure it out on their own. And, there may not be a great solution to that, sadly.
    – Catija
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 16:08
  • I think that - and y'all probably have analyzed it a lot - understanding what questions are getting answered before being closed and looking for commonalities - types of question, person answering (or type of person such as a new user, experienced user, etc), reason for closure... etc. To understand where the breakdown in communication is. Maybe you need better guidance to prevent the questions from being asked such as a customized Ask modal or sidebar (view the ask page in incognito mode to see the modal). Maybe better education for the people answering about when not to answer...
    – Catija
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 16:11
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    OK, I lied, y'all require registration to ask, so you can't just view in incognito, so here's some screenshots of the default (what y'all have) and what it can look like when customized (Code Review). It's possible a more descriptive modal may guide people on how to ask better. The right nav bar can also be customized with helpful links and instructions. While we can't guarantee people will read them, we can at least make it clear what they need to do.
    – Catija
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 16:15
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    @Catija We should indeed think very carefully about what we put into that modal, and how we can use that to improve new users' questions. But in terms of questions getting answers before they can get closed, it feels to me that if it's an education (or communication) problem, then the education should be focused on the users writing answers, not the askers.
    – E.P.
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 16:20
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    So, say, something like a modal, or ideally a warning box that appears above the answer text editor box (even better, something that pops in once the user clicks on the editor box), which reminds the user what kinds of h/w questions are on-topic and which ones shouldn't be answered, and which appears, say, on questions with the h/w tag or which have one or more pending close votes with that close reason. How feasible would something like that be?
    – E.P.
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 16:22
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    That's an option - and, honestly, both is good here! But it's important to understand the answerers' motivations. Do they disagree with the questions being close-worthy? Are they unaware that the question should be closed? Do they have thoughts on how they can improve the question - it's possible that the best case scenario for the asker and the answerers is that the questions get improved first and answered - so it's not so much that they can't answer the question but that they should work with the asker to make it a good question before offering a (possibly problematic) answer.
    – Catija
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 16:24
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    ^^^ That was written before your prior comment so assume it's a reply to the other one.
    – Catija
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 16:24
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    More generally, when you say 'better education for the people answering about when not to answer', that feels like the most critical step to me. But it's not an easy population to reach (i.e., to reach in an effective and targeted way, and at a time when they're receptive to the message and the message is actionable). (← also written before your last comment =).)
    – E.P.
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 16:25
  • Regarding your last comment -- yeah, I'm not sure that we have a grasp on how that population really looks like in detail that's fully grounded in evidence. We should probably use the time while the current experiment runs to dig into that and understand our problem better.
    – E.P.
    Commented May 4, 2021 at 16:27
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    I think this will be a very significant improvement for sites like raspberrypi.stackexchange.com where +/- voting is very stingy, resulting in there being far too few people who can access the close/reopen queues. This was completely dsyfunctional for years, thank you, but I am honestly appalled that it took you this long to bother noticing. My impression for a long time has been that management does not care at all about the smaller sites. Hopefully the beginning of something new there.
    – goldilocks
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 16:06