Changing custom close reasons

1:22 PM

room topic changed to Changing custom close reasons: For discussions related to the changes to the custom close reasons in 2022 [close-reasons]

Q: Revamping the closure reasons in 2022

Prompted by Gro-Tsen's recent meta question, it appears that now may be a good time to rethink our site-specific close reasons here on MathOverflow. Background: If you have sufficient rep, you can click the "close" button on a question (or the equivalent "flag" → "needs improvement", which is av...

I will try to create a chatroom related to this. Just in case some users might want to discuss some things related to these changes - and they want to do so in chat rather in comments. (For example, if the discussion in comments grows too long.)

There were a few things mentioned in the main chatroom. But it is probably better to left that room for other things that people want to discuss there.

Clearly the moderators have been discussing this in some private chatroom (and maybe through email, too):

in MathOverflow, May 6 at 15:15, by Martin Sleziak

Just out of curiosity - the moderators discuss mostly using moderators@mathoverflow.net? Or in a private chatroom here on SE? Or both?

in MathOverflow, May 6 at 15:15, by Tim Campion

Historically it's been mostly via email, but lately more and more via chat

But maybe it is not a terrible idea to have a room which is available to users without diamonds, too.

It is possible that I might end up the only person talking here. But even if that's the case, the room still might be useful - some stuff related to changing close reasons will be collected in a single place.

2 hours later…

Martin Sleziak

3:44 PM

Shog9's answer explains how exactly editing (updating) the custom close reason works: How do moderators make changes to the site-specific closed question reasons?

A: How do moderators make changes to the site-specific closed question reasons?

Introduction Per-site off-topic reasons were created to reduce the amount of confusion and debate surrounding what specifically is on- or off-topic for a given site. Folks asking questions for the first time are often unclear on what is allowed or expected; by explaining common misconceptions in ...

One of the issues which might slow down changes is that two moderators are actually needed for any change.

> The moderator who created a reason cannot approve it himself; we want at least two people to be reviewing these before making them available. Approving a reason also activates it, and as noted above, only 3 reasons can be active at any one time on most sites - to approve more than this, an existing reason will have to be deactivated first.

The same post exlains that an additional close reason can be added, if needed:

> A few sites do get a regular influx of off-topic questions in a larger number of distinct categories; if you find this to be the case on your site, post a feature-request on your meta site with examples of questions that would benefit from a predefined off-topic option - we'll verify the need for this and work with you to make more reasons available.

This happened, for example, on Ask Ubuntu: Can we have more than 3 custom close reasons, pretty please?

In fact, this was already mentioned both in chat (here and here). And in a comment on meta.

Actually, I have asked one of the moderators whether the mods consider asking for more close reasons (if/when they are needed):

in MathOverflow, May 18 at 6:16, by Martin Sleziak

@TimCampion Have you (and other mods) considered whether MO might at some point ask for more custom close reasons? Or would that be premature at this point - since the standard number isn't used up ATM?

(So far, there was no response.)

3 hours later…

Martin Sleziak

6:28 PM

Q: Was the custom close reason mentioning Math.SE removed?

For a long time, these two custom close reasons used to be available: This question does not appear to be about research level mathematics within the scope defined in the help center. MathOverflow is for mathematicians to ask each other questions about their research. See Math.StackExchange to ...

discussion support math-stackexchange close-reasons

The comments under my post suggest that the changes that the mods want to do know haven't been finished yet.

We are revising the custom closing reasons at the moment. You may experience some technical difficulties. — Asaf Karagila ♦ yesterday

Your title says "Math.SE", but the question (and this forum) is about MathOverflow. — Gerald Edgar yesterday

@GeraldEdgar Yes, this is a question about MO. As mentioned above (and in the linked posts), one of the close reasons here on MO used to say: "MathOverflow is for mathematicians to ask each other questions about their research. See Math.StackExchange to ask general questions in mathematics." — Martin Sleziak yesterday

@AsafKaragila Any timeframe on when these difficulties might get solved? The missing close reason is one I (and I’m sure many other close voters) used the most often. — Emil Jeřábek 12 hours ago

@EmilJeřábek: If not by tomorrow, then by Tuesday. Let me also add that it was a useless closing reason in 90% of the times it was used. Badly written questions shouldn't be sent elsewhere, they should just be closed. — Asaf Karagila ♦ 10 hours ago

It's the ideal close reason for questions that are not quite suitable for migration, but nevertheless would be on-topic at math.SE, and last but not least, it serves the purpose of directing the OP to math.SE for their future questions. — Emil Jeřábek 5 hours ago

@EmilJeřábek The updated "not research level mathematics" close reason will point users to Math.SE, with a somewhat longer and better explanation. — Stefan Kohl ♦ 4 hours ago

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