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What can be done about reversing the momentum of a questions shamed as "opinion based"? The moment a question had been shamed it seems that rewording it doesn't really bring attention back to it, it isn't worth it to expend effort on a question already marked on hold - trends are hard to revert, and I understand this.

So it also seems that the community is quick to punish questions why are not being asked according to the rule (eg "opinion based" questions") however isn't necessarily as quick restoring questions which have been edited to remove the offending elements.

The question I have in mind is this: What is "train" based development? - I did ask for an opinion initially, which was wrong of me, however I quickly reworded it to ask for a concrete definition. By that time the question was already on hold. What are my options sans asking a new question?

Generally, it seems to me that it is better to give questions a new chance - it is well know that "three strikes and you're out" didn't prove to be a good idea after all, so maybe "criminal" questions could be given an opportunity to start a new life. So can we consider keeping the close vote count but removing the on hold status once a question has been edited by the author? An additional close vote could trigger a new re-evaluation, still taking the full close vote count into consideration. However if a question had been edited in an appropriate way, it is unlikely that such a vote will occur anew.

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  • this question has been revisited after rewording: programmers.stackexchange.com/review/reopen/56504
    – gnat
    Mar 20, 2014 at 14:08
  • @gnat What I am saying is that human nature is such that it is easy to leave the question closed - because one already voted so, and reversing ones decisions isn't ... what we do, but it is a bit harder to actively vote to close a question again after an author had expended a visible effort on it. So what I am arguing is that an edit should unhold a question until the next close vote. Mar 20, 2014 at 14:14
  • "removing the on hold status once a question has been edited by the author? An additional close vote..." -- this opens a door to abuse. Add a dot in a question, wait for yet another close vote, add another dot and so on, until there's nobody around to close vote anymore. Please reopen, what a magic are these dots.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
    – gnat
    Mar 20, 2014 at 14:19
  • @gnat There is no need to appeal to extremes - one additional chance should be enough. After that revert to the current process. Mar 20, 2014 at 14:28
  • 2
    Not answering your question but after reviewing your question after the edit I decided to reopen it for you.
    – maple_shaft Mod
    Mar 20, 2014 at 14:44

2 Answers 2

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Have a look at the edit I did on your question. Here's some of the things I did.

  1. Changed the title to a question instead of a noun.

  2. Clarified at the top what you were asking about (ie. what's train based development)

  3. Copied in your comment to Robert Harvey about why the google failed you.

  4. Clarified your summary question at the end.

And your question has already been re-opened before I was able to finish this write-up.


So I think you're a bit misguided in what you think went wrong with the question and why it had been remaining on-hold. Ratchet Freak pointed out that your edits were reviewed, and 3 community members didn't feel that the edits made the question more answerable.

The root problem is that your question remained poor, even after edits, and relied upon the reader to infer too much.

In the future, you have a couple of options to find out how you can improve your questions.

  • Post a question here in Meta asking for help and provide a link to the question.

  • Drop into chat on The Whiteboard and ask for guidance there.

Keep in mind that not every "good question" is a good fit for the site. But the community will let you know whether or not a question can be re-worked into something constructive.

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if an [on hold] question is edited it gets put on the reopen queue for review by high rep users.

it appears that yous was still found to be wanting after the edit

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