-1

Once a question has been CLOSED, it seems that users should not be able to either UP or DOWN vote the question. To do otherwise seems a little unfair in the downvoting case. Especially since apparently you must now wait for 2 days for the author to delete a question.

It seems that this should be fixed.

3 Answers 3

6

I thought I'd recently seen the auto-delete criteria posted here, but I can't find it now...

I fairly frequently downvote closed, downvoted questions just to be sure they get auto-deleted. Since I can never remember exactly what the rules are for the auto-deletion, if something is -1 with no activity, I'll often make it -2 just to be sure.

According to the FAQ post on Meta.SO about deletion, my habit of adding another -1 just to be sure a closed question gets deleted isn't necessary:

1
  • In that case I'll go back to what I've been doing all along. Oct 17, 2012 at 0:44
5

As a general rule I don't downvote closed questions but I will do so if I see any reopen votes cast on a question that I think should remain closed, just to highlight the fact that it's a bad question.

1

I partially agree with the sentiment here (once it's closed there's no reason to keep piling on downvotes just because they're free), but I think that's a human problem - not a technical one.

I believe the reasoning behind allowing votes on closed questions is that the author can improve their question, thus making it worthy of re-opening (or the question may have been closed in error).
In those cases the upvotes a question may earn can be an indication that we should consider re-opening the question. Also if a question is edited people can change their votes on the question while it's still closed (which is particularly important for people who can upvote/downvote but can't yet vote to close/reopen).

Questions can also be locked, which prevents voting (or any other changes), but that's a moderator action (and one we tend to use with at least a little restraint since it means the OP can't fix a bad question)

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  • 1
    OK, but then you must allow the author to DELETE a question and not have to wait the two days.
    – mdpc
    Oct 12, 2012 at 20:57
  • 2
    @mdpc well the logic is we would rather you try to edit and improve your question instead of deleting it. If you feel that it is not something that can be salvaged (or is off topic and can't be made on topic) you can always flag for a moderator to delete it (not guaranteed they will though).
    – Zypher
    Oct 12, 2012 at 21:33
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    Ahhh....but a deleted question is still visible to the author who can undelete it after making changes. So why not allow the author to DELETE it without the 2 day delay.
    – mdpc
    Oct 12, 2012 at 21:36
  • Deleted questions and answers also remain visible to 10K+ members. Oct 13, 2012 at 1:11

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