Are questions really that poor and what do we do about it?

Question

From today's newest questions page 12 of 15 questions that is 80% had issues with at least one close vote or even closure.

translation of indirect speech in english
How would I ask for superking(extra large) cigarettes in german? 2 close votes
Wort wie »Begriffspaar«, aber für drei Begriffe 4 close votes
Adjektivendungen ohne Artikel
Can someone tell me a sentence that sounds really angry involving cake closed
Warum wird Konjunktiv 2 benutzt? 1 close vote
direct speech of indirect speech in 1st & 2nd person singular form reopened after edit
Can we write any objects before the subject? 3 close votes
Was ist der Unterschied zwischen gestalten und bilden? closed
Is there an expression that translates to "building character" in German? 3 close votes
"Es waren … darunter" 3 close votes
Context meaning of »über« 3 close votes
Groß/Kleinschreibung von "Er/er" in Arbeitszeugnissen
Was sind Knochenscheiben? closed
Von Namen abgeleitete Adjektive: groß oder klein? closed

Only one of these question could be reopened after several edits.

Please do not discuss single instances listed here. They are just for illustration why this came up. It appears to be a more general and a rather long-standing issue we have. Did questions really become that poor recently? Are some of us overzealus in close voting?

What should be done?

Answer 1

The only way to improve questions is to enter into a dialogue with the person posing the question. Such dialogue takes time and patience, whereas voting to close the question does not. The fact that communication often involves a language barrier doesn't make this any easier.

I haven't been here very long, but one thing I noticed is that people use the notion duplicate way more loosely than I would. My feeling is that a question should not be considered a duplicate solely because it addresses the same topic as another question. Only if one of the answers to that other question actually answers the poster's question should it be considered a duplicate.

Unfortunately, I have the sinking feeling that the topic itself, i.e. the German language, will always invite a large number of poor questions. There will be language learners with poor command of German and English, asking questions that a textbook could have answered for them. There will be native speakers, asking about the same kind of Zweifelsfall over and over again. That's unavoidable.

Still, my takeaway is: Engage with posters before voting to close.

Answer 2

Um die eigentliche Frage zu beantworten: Nein, die Fragen sind nicht schlechter geworden. Solche Phänomene, dass ein Großteil der aktuellen Fragen close-votes aufweist, sind immer wieder einmal zu beobachten. Ein paar Tage später kann sich das Bild aber auch komplett umwenden.

Ich denke, das Problem liegt einfach darin, dass bei den Nutzern unterschiedliche Sichtweisen vorliegen, welche Fragen on-topic sind und welche nicht. Die Ursache hierfür ist eventuell die Definition der Site. Wie bei den meisten anderen Sprachen auch enthält sie "... discuss the finer points of the language ...". Und da kann man schon feststellen, dass viele Fragen dieses Kriterium nicht erfüllen.

Für das Englische ist das elegant gelöst: dort gibt es eine Site für "Lernende" und eine für tiefergehende Fragen. Da dieses Konzept aber für Deutsch nicht umgesetzt werden kann, sollte vielleicht die Definition überdacht werden. Die Erfahrung zeigt, dass ein Großteil der User eben nicht die "feineren Punkte" disktuieren will, sondern grundlegende Fragen zur deutschen Sprache hat.

Nur, wenn die Community das akzeptiert und auch "einfache" Fragen als zulässig ansieht, werden vielleicht die close-votes zurück gehen. Ein positiver Nebeneffekt könnte dabei sein, dass wenn diese "einfachen" (vielleicht auch regelmäßig ähnlich wiederkehrenden) Fragen geduldig und freundlich beantwortet werden, auch die Zahl der Fragen stabil in die Regionen steigt, damit wir endlich die Beta-Phase verlassen können.

Answer 3

There will always be differences of opinion as to whether a question should be closed. That's why four close votes are needed. One or two close votes on a question are not a sign of a systematic problem.

The longer a forum like this exists, the more likely it is that certain themes will constantly recur. One example is the Platzhalter-Es (es ist etc.). German-learners constantly stumble over this and there is a steady stream of questions, often just different enough to not qualify as duplicate, but effectively the same question. It's very tempting to immediately mark these as duplicates. Elsewhere this would be covered by a FAQ. Maybe we need some kind of canonical question/answer (in German and English) that we can refer people to.

That questions are reopened after an edit is not a problem at all. That's the way the system is designed..

No matter how much you tell people ist to do research beforehand you will always get some 'dictionary-lookup' questions or users trying to treat GLSE as a translation service. The only solution is to close them quickly and move on. And there always be some questions that can't be reopened even after several edits.