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One of my questions was closed so it's pretty probable someone flagged it beforehand.

It would be nice to get a note with the statement the user made, to see what I did wrong. The users nickname doesn't have to be connected with this note.

With access to this extra context/reason for the flag, it would help users like me make less mistakes in the future, without having to start a meta-discussion to ask about the closure.

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  • Was it this one: gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/4650/… It would help if you linked it :)
    – Ivo Flipse
    Aug 6, 2010 at 10:44
  • Yes, but I think my question is independent of my closed question.
    – eL13
    Aug 6, 2010 at 10:56
  • People should comment before they flag, but I can't imagine one of your questions being flagged. Closing and flagging isn't usually connected, if something is worthy of flagging a mod will usually delete it.
    – user56
    Aug 6, 2010 at 11:15

2 Answers 2

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We're having a bit of a terminology confusion, here, and I don't blame you because it can be confusing for a new user. I'll walk through the general terminology, and review some points.


Flagging is an anonymous act used by community users to either raise a post that needs improvement, raise it for moderator attention, or mark the post as spam or rude/abusive. The latter causes a small and temporary reputation penalty as if downvoted, unless 6 are accumulated in which the post is deleted and locked and you suffer a whopping -100. If it doesn't reach 6 votes within 2 days, the flags decay and you get your reputation back, so it's generally harmless.

The latter is posted in strict confidence to moderators only, so a flagged user technically shouldn't be alerted of the act unless the moderator needs to specifically talk to them.

None of your posts were flagged.


Closing makes a question unable to accept new answers. Comments may be posted and existing answers may be retooled. Only questions may be closed.

Closing by the community occurs when 5 users of sufficient reputation (usually 3k) vote to do so. A close vote decays after 4 days if the question doesn't accumulate 5. Closers select from a preset collection of reasons: duplicate, not-a-real-question, subjective and argumentative, off-topic, too localized, and belongs-on-meta. The last one actually migrates the question here. Duplicate votes will automatically generate a "possible duplicate of..." comment if the duplicate link is not already present, so that's automatic information of close intent.

Generally good etiquette for closing is that a user who votes for things besides duplicates will add a comment explaining why they voted. It's not necessary, but it traditionally helps, especially if the question can be retooled.

Additionally, when you hit 250 reputation, you gain the ability to vote to close and reopen your own posts. This has a side effect of allowing you to see current close votes on your questions. It may take some time to reach, but that offers the general functionality that you seem to be looking for.


If I'm missing any further inquiries from you, I'll be happy to address them.

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  • Thanks, this terminology was exactly my problem.
    – eL13
    Aug 6, 2010 at 14:37
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    coming from a new site member i wish they would highlight this for all new members,this answered alot of questions i had,i know it's an old post but thank you : )
    – 2 SCooPS
    Dec 17, 2011 at 22:53
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It's very well possible you're question was a victim of my crusade against subjective questions, now I agree it would have been polite to post a comment on every question I voted to close, but I think there has been enough 'public' discussion on the topic to take action as I see fit.

If people disagree, than they should do as you did now: go to Meta and discuss what should be done next.

Also, as Arda Xi commented, it's unlikely it got flagged, but more likely it got discussed in the Gaming Chat room, which I recommend everyone to visit some time, to discuss the site or just hang out!

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