Forum:Why some questions in OPEN section of the Biostars.org have "(Closed)" at the beginning of the question?

Question

[Petr Ponomarenko]

I am a little bit confused why adding new answers is not possible for questions that have "(Closed)" in the Post Title. Comments are available in such posts. Despite all this such question appear in the list of OPEN questions on Biostars. As a result, there are thousands of "(Closed)" questions in the list of OPEN questions.

Also, we have OPEN questions that are several years old and not yet have "(Closed)" in their name. Does it mean that Biostar's community is "still looking for the answers." If so, then should we go and try to answers that are a few years old?

[GenoMax]

Also, we have OPEN questions that are several years old and not yet have "(Closed)" in their name. Does it mean that Biostar's community is "still looking for the answers." If so, then should we go and try to answers that are a few years old?

If those people "are still looking for an answer" may be debatable but you can certainly add an answer, if you have one. Adding a new answer "bumps" the question up to the main page automatically.

[Petr Ponomarenko]

I get it. "(Closed)" appears together with the words in "The thread is closed. No new answers may be added." below the conversation. But my question is not technical at all. I am trying to understand the reasoning behind such classification of "(Closed)" questions as OPEN.

Answer 1

[Carlo Yague]

Hi !

From my understanding, "open" questions are questions with no answer yet and "closed" questions are questions that were judged unfit for the forum (because not a bioinformatic question, lack of details, unintelligible, ...). Hence, a question can be both open and closed.

[John]

Schrödinger's posts? :)

Answer 2

[GenoMax]

One of the main reasons of closing posts (besides others enumerated by @Natasha) are to keep the same sort of questions from proliferating unchecked.

It has been Biostars policy to keep the threshold for initial posting low (for new users and others). This ensures that new users do not feel intimidated when asking questions. This has a side effect though. It is one of user education. While users are supposed to search (the built-in search engine is less than optimal in biostars, external searches work well) before posting new questions, many don't. As a result we have similar/identical questions that come through. Closing such questions keeps the sprawl in check. Questions that have been previously answered generally get links for those included as a part of closing/in the comments for that duplicate question. A new user may have an innovative answer for a question that has been answered many times before. That user still has the option of adding this answer to older threads (all "non-closed" threads are open for new answers). Adding a new answer "bumps" a thread up (no matter how old) to the main page.

Ultimately Biostars moderation is a system of checks and balances. Everyone is volunteering their time and users (for large part) respect each other. Moderators decisions are open to debate and we do listen, when a valid point made against closing a post.

Answer 3

[natasha.sernova]

Dear colleagues,

As far as I have understood, a question may be closed by a moderator if the topic doesn't relate to bioinfornatic area. If the author of the question provides some additional details and proves it does relate to bioinformatics, it won't be closed. If this question is not complete and doesn't have enough details, the question author will be asked about them but a moderator will not close the question. If someone asked a question and had no answer the question is still open, usually moderators give it some additional round - some questions may be very specific and a very limited number of people can give some suggestions.

Answer 4

[WouterDeCoster]

Questions only get closed when Biostars isn't the most appropriate place for them, such as pure biology or pure programming questions, together with questions which lack the information required for a sensible answer. We don't like deleting questions, even misplaced questions because a delete is permanent. Only blatant spam and an exact accidental duplicate post gets deleted.

Questions which are open are those which didn't receive an answer which solved the issue for the OP. Can be that the question remained unanswered because nobody, at that time, could help him. Or maybe the solution appeared in a comment, and strictly it should be moved and accepted as solving the question in that case. Questions which have been asked years ago and remain unsolved can still be answered if you know the solution. It's unlikely that it will help the OP of that question (he hopefully moved on or found the solution) but it may help people in the future with a similar issue. Biostars appears high in the list when you google problems, so it's not unlikely that people come across old (unresolved) posts.

So indeed, it's perfectly possible that a question is both closed and open.