Return to Question

I'm having a hard time understanding the reasoning behind closing questions. Not that I think questions shouldn't be closed, but I do not understand the reasoning and/or thought processes behind closing questions, and what it is we hope to accomplish by doing so. Obvious things like shopping recommendations we just plain don't want here. But what about things like this?

• Is the performance of a CPU affected as it ages?

• How are commercial DVD's burned? (I've wondered this myself as a Super User when my DVD player won't take any DVD-R's)

• What is the origin of K = 1024? (Good question, bad answers?)

• http://superuser.com/questions/318724/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-a-solid-state-drive

• How to run Mac OS X within Windows Virtual PC?

• How can I gently explain to non-techie friends they are the victim of a hoax? (clearly OT, but seems like it would be very relevant to many Superusers)

• What technical reasons exist for not using space characters in file names? (Specific meta discussion here)

This is mostly just a run down the highest voted questions list and picking out a few that are closed (they were just handy for some quick examples), but I can't imagine we wouldn't want them on the site any more, would we? Surely the questions aren't closed just because they can be, because they don't follow the rules.

I'm also a little confused about locking vs closing vs deleting. It seems locking or deleting are rarely considered. Many of the above questions would make more sense to me if they were simply locked.

• What do we hope to accomplish by closing questions?
• Do we not want closed questions here?
• What message does closing these questions (and other "questionable" questions) send?
• How does this help the site?

Again, not trying to play Devil's Advocate or whine about questions being closed. I honestly do not understand the intent of closing a question.

I'm having a hard time understanding the reasoning behind closing questions. Not that I think questions shouldn't be closed, but I do not understand the reasoning and/or thought processes behind closing questions, and what it is we hope to accomplish by doing so. Obvious things like shopping recommendations we just plain don't want here. But what about things like this?

• Is the performance of a CPU affected as it ages?

• How are commercial DVD's burned? (I've wondered this myself as a Super User when my DVD player won't take any DVD-R's)

• What is the origin of K = 1024? (Good question, bad answers?)

• https://superuser.com/questions/318724/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-a-solid-state-drive

• How to run Mac OS X within Windows Virtual PC?

• How can I gently explain to non-techie friends they are the victim of a hoax? (clearly OT, but seems like it would be very relevant to many Superusers)

• What technical reasons exist for not using space characters in file names? (Specific meta discussion here)

This is mostly just a run down the highest voted questions list and picking out a few that are closed (they were just handy for some quick examples), but I can't imagine we wouldn't want them on the site any more, would we? Surely the questions aren't closed just because they can be, because they don't follow the rules.

I'm also a little confused about locking vs closing vs deleting. It seems locking or deleting are rarely considered. Many of the above questions would make more sense to me if they were simply locked.

• What do we hope to accomplish by closing questions?
• Do we not want closed questions here?
• What message does closing these questions (and other "questionable" questions) send?
• How does this help the site?

Again, not trying to play Devil's Advocate or whine about questions being closed. I honestly do not understand the intent of closing a question.

I'm having a hard time understanding the reasoning behind closing questions. Not that I think questions shouldn't be closed, but I do not understand the reasoning and/or thought processes behind closing questions, and what it is we hope to accomplish by doing so. Obvious things like shopping recommendations we just plain don't want here. But what about things like this?

• Is the performance of a CPU affected as it ages?

• How are commercial DVD's burned? (I've wondered this myself as a Super User when my DVD player won't take any DVD-R's)

• What is the origin of K = 1024? (Good question, bad answers?)

• http://superuser.com/questions/318724/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-a-solid-state-drive

• How to run Mac OS X within Windows Virtual PC?

• How can I gently explain to non-techie friends they are the victim of a hoax? (clearly OT, but seems like it would be very relevant to many Superusers)

• What technical reasons exist for not using space characters in file names? (Specific meta discussion here)

This is mostly just a run down the highest voted questions list and picking out a few that are closed (they were just handy for some quick examples), but I can't imagine we wouldn't want them on the site any more, would we? Surely the questions aren't closed just because they can be, because they don't follow the rules.

I'm also a little confused about locking vs closing vs deleting. It seems locking or deleting are rarely considered. Many of the above questions would make more sense to me if they were simply locked.

• What do we hope to accomplish by closing questions?
• Do we not want closed questions here?
• What message does closing these questions (and other "questionable" questions) send?
• How does this help the site?

Again, not trying to play Devil's Advocate or whine about questions being closed. I honestly do not understand the intent of closing a question.

I'm having a hard time understanding the reasoning behind closing questions. Not that I think questions shouldn't be closed, but I do not understand the reasoning and/or thought processes behind closing questions, and what it is we hope to accomplish by doing so. Obvious things like shopping recommendations we just plain don't want here. But what about things like this?

• Is the performance of a CPU affected as it ages?

• How are commercial DVD's burned? (I've wondered this myself as a Super User when my DVD player won't take any DVD-R's)

• What is the origin of K = 1024? (Good question, bad answers?)

• http://superuser.com/questions/318724/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-a-solid-state-drive

• How to run Mac OS X within Windows Virtual PC?

• How can I gently explain to non-techie friends they are the victim of a hoax? (clearly OT, but seems like it would be very relevant to many Superusers)

• What technical reasons exist for not using space characters in file names? (Specific meta discussion here)

This is mostly just a run down the highest voted questions list and picking out a few that are closed (they were just handy for some quick examples), but I can't imagine we wouldn't want them on the site any more, would we? Surely the questions aren't closed just because they can be, because they don't follow the rules.

I'm also a little confused about locking vs closing vs deleting. It seems locking or deleting are rarely considered. Many of the above questions would make more sense to me if they were simply locked.

• What do we hope to accomplish by closing questions?
• Do we not want closed questions here?
• What message does closing these questions (and other "questionable" questions) send?
• How does this help the site?

Again, not trying to play Devil's Advocate or whine about questions being closed. I honestly do not understand the intent of closing a question.