When flagging for close: Adding a reason

Question

Posts on StackExchange are closed for numerous reasons, and ticking of the right box for the exact reason might not always fit the question quite right, or the reason might sometimes be very vague. For new users, knowing exactly why ones question was closed is not always clear.

Now, I am not suggesting that we add a whole new bunch of close reasons, but simply to add a new field where the user flagging to close needs to write a short description of why the question is being closed.

Fo instance, sometimes the reason to close are added as a comment as in Why is my bibliography in italic style? [on hold], but not always. It would also be a lot cleaner if the reason was given in the reason-box, and not in the comment only.

Edit:

As I see it at the moment, the default reasons for closing, are just categories. These could benefit from an additional mandatory field where a more fitting reason is supplied.

Edit 2:

As mentioned by David Carlisle and Alan Munn, this request should be made on the main meta site. Therefore the question has been posted there, for those who are interested in the discussion, see: Feature request: Add mandatory field for more precise reason

Answer 1

Sometimes questions are closed right away, which is unfortunate.

SE policy states that closing isn't closing right away, but putting the question on hold, i.e. pressing the pause button.

If an active question is closed, i think a comment is left in 90 percent of cases.
Often the cause is off-topic. Typos, missing braces are also considered off topic, since there is an infinite amount of those question.
Another reason: the question is a duplicate and is already answered.

The other reasons to close are often (in my experience) first stated in a comment before the first flag rises.

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Inactive questions get closed after a few months in case that there is no real solution to provide that answers the question. Often because the question is unclear and the OP did not react efficiently to comments. In other words, get rid of cold cases.

Except for the very first sentence, i think we are quite ok on the current way we are dealing with flagging. But this is completely unrelated to the review system, which is another topic :-/

Answer 2

The feature you're requesting already exists. When closing as Off Topic, you can add a custom reason if you feel that the default ones are not appropriate.

In this case a comment is automatically posted with the reason you wrote in that box. I don't remember at the moment if other close reasons generate auto-comments (in the case of choosing Off Topic). All close reasons generate a small text in the close box, and if the auto-comment was generated, it's used in lieu of the default text.

By the way, keep in mind that "voting to close" and "flagging to close" have two different meanings on the SE sites.

Answer 3

I heartily agree that close voters should give reasons, preferably in a comment so that the questioner is engaged in the process and not just informed of the result.

Unfortunately, however, this behaviour a product of the reviewing system which allows users to click through close votes without ever interacting meaningfully with the question at all. And we have quite a few of these types of reviewers, (unfortunately IMO).

See the following question for some discussion of the problem.

• Reviewers; what do you eat for breakfast?

Personally I only close duplicates, and in that case an automatic comment is left.

Ultimately this is a social problem exacerbated by the ease with which questions can be closed.

Since we don't have control over the closing interface at the site level, as a feature request this would need to go on the main meta site. But the need for fast closing is much greater on the larger sites, and so any change to the current system is likely to be met with a lot of skepticism.