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Can we get in the habit of re-tagging closed questions to have the appropriate tags?

I'm thinking specifically about Android development questions. If they are retagged with it'll make it easier to find and delete them.

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    Do we want to keep "off topic" questions on-site? In about 80% I favored vtd (vote-to-delete). Does it make sense to re-tag deleted questions -- then I will do so in the future.
    – Izzy
    Commented Feb 8, 2013 at 14:51
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    No, we don't want to keep them. That's why I want to find them and vote to delete them.
    – ale
    Commented Feb 8, 2013 at 14:56
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    I heartily endorse anything that will help the 10k's to use their delete votes more easily/effectively.
    – eldarerathis Mod
    Commented Feb 8, 2013 at 15:51
  • Yeah, good thing! I made it my daily job to check those queues, especially the "closed" questions: those older than 2 days I give a closer look whether they should be deleted. If so, I immediately vtd. As that needs 3 votes, I encourage all of my fellow 10k's to at least check the "deleted" queue to "join in" -- but of course you are welcome to all the other queues as well ;)
    – Izzy
    Commented Feb 8, 2013 at 16:24
  • I also check the pile of closed messages as well, usually sorting by votes and going for those with the lowest votes. But that's not relevant to this question.
    – ale
    Commented Feb 8, 2013 at 18:00
  • Keep in mind that closed questions with a negative score and no answers will get auto deleted after a month or so.
    – Flow Mod
    Commented Feb 9, 2013 at 14:49

1 Answer 1

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As I just wondered again about the tag (and why there are only so few questions tagged such), maybe a sum-up from the above might be helpful:

Some facts

  • development questions are off topic according to our FAQ, and thus get closed
  • as we have no interest in keeping off topic stuff on our site, we finally want to delete them
  • a question being closed does not automatically mean it should be deleted (thinking of duplicates etc.)
  • a question cannot be deleted unless it was closed for at least 2 days (or the poster of the question decides to delete it himself, or the want-to-be-deleter is a mod)

How we can deal with this

  • development questions get closed for being off topic, as usual
  • we are not simply closing them, but re-tag them -- best as soon as such a question is unmistakingly identified, during the VTC process, when finding it in the list of closed questions (10k+ users), or when encountering them anywhere
  • from time to time, users with the necessary reputation thus can/will check the questions using the tag and vote-to-delete (or simply delete, in case of being a mod)

So here's probably the clue why there are always only few questions found using this tag: they simply get deleted :)

This way we 10k+ users can use our powers to support our moderators (and) keeping our site clean -- and not only we 10k+, but all users can participate here (e.g. re-tagging does not require a 10k+ but only 500+).

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  • Even people with reputation points below 500 can suggest new tags..
    – ale
    Commented Mar 2, 2013 at 16:13
  • My intention was not about "new tags", but rather about tracking those off-topic stuff we want to delete -- as your question seemed to point at as well (development questions). Apart from that you're of course right that even first-timers could "add new tags".
    – Izzy
    Commented Mar 2, 2013 at 17:33

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