Rob Moir asked: How will you cope with pressure from visitors who don't understand how the site works? I see a lot of people say in response to another question that they will listen to others, which is right, but how will you deal with a large number of people who complain about a closed question that is off topic - I can find more than 10 people who hate to see licence questions closed as dups of our canonical licence question.
pauska answered: I would explain the same thing over and over - the reasons WHY we close those questions.. Like gently explaining why shopping questions brings alot of spammers for an example.
Ben Pilbrow answered: Our rules and FAQ are what they are because the greater community has decided on them. As in life, people disagree, but the majority will do the right thing, and unfortunately, as in life they might just have to "like it or lump it". If people won't listen to a reasoned argument, then I'm afraid there's no convincing them because that's simply what they believe (which I guess in itself is not actually wrong).
ErikA answered: I would try and explain gently that a goal of the site is to encourage good answers to good questions, within the topic. It is non-productive to slam them as posting a "bad question", but with a bit of discussion, I think most people can come to understand what fits and what doesn't.
Chris S answered: Beer and Liquor mostly. Probably more liquor than beer. Who doesn't like a good whiskey?
freiheit answered: I think in the case you spell out there, it's important to stand your ground. Refer people to the appropriate part of the FAQ and/or meta threads, invite them to open a question on meta, and leave it closed.
WesleyDavid answered: I do that as it is - that won't change significantly if I'm a mod. I simply point them to the correct links that shows why I believe it was off topic and don't engage in argumentation. If they have a good reason to show why I'm wrong - great! That means I'll be learning the culture better.
voretaq7 answered: The decision about what we want the site to be is a community one - If there is clearly a consensus from the community that we do not want certain types of questions (like Licensing) I'll have no remorse about closing those questions. I'll try not to make the person asking the question feel bad in the process, but we are a walled garden: Sometimes we have to pluck the weeds (undesirable questions) even if they might bear beautiful flowers.
Again I would say Meta is the place to talk about this -- That lets the person whose question got closed see that it's not just a mean Mr./Mrs. Mod hammering their question into oblivion, but a decision the community made. It also lets the community decide if I screwed up -- Questions can always be reopened.
MDMarra answered: If we bend to the will of a handful of vocal users that are new to the site, then we risk losing relevance to a larger audience. I remember seeing a statistic a while ago that said that the vast majority of traffic is from non-registered members. These users just want definitive answers to their problems. It's in the best interest of everyone to keep the site on-topic and objective. If a few disagree, then they are free to ask why in meta and in chat, but I won't bend on that.
