Downvoting closed questions from newcomers: how can we address it?

Question

I've noticed that bad questions from newcomers often not only get closed quickly, but get downvoted. The downvoting often happens after the question is closed. Helping some of them with chat, I've noticed that it's very easy for these downvotes to lock out a newcomer, preventing them from asking new questions, even after we've helped them understand what a good question looks like.

Per the help documentation, they're supposed to refine their existing question instead. But refining it enough to not only be "okay," but worthy of upvotes is excruciating. Doubly so because the algorithms quickly bury closed questions.

What can we tell newcomers to encourage them to be good Physics.SE citizens after making a mistake? How can we help them get their standing back so that they can start asking good questions. The only answer I have been able to find is "wait 6 months, and the algorithm unblocks you." I doubt anyone has ever waited; we're not the only player in the game.

The best answer is probably to answer other's questions, but in most cases of these close/downvote patterns I've seen, they often do not have the physics background to farm enough rep to ask questions again.

Answer 1

Agreed that excessive downvoting should be rare, although I’m puzzled to think that a single massive downvote could lock an account. Admittedly I don’t keep track of suspended accounts.

Of course there is no practical way to deal with impatient users who don’t bother searching the site or are just careless, but in my book there is nothing gained by locking the account of a new user unless there are exceptional circumstances. As others have suggested, there are likely deleted questions.

See also this old question of mine on a nearly identical topic.

There is right now this related question also on meta and I think if we fix the companion question we’re some ways to fixing the problem you allude to here. At least better direction to new users and a bit of patience on the part of the community should allow the well-meaning new users to avoid being locked out.

Answer 2

More often than not, I tend give new users some leeway and vote to reopen their questions rather than vote to close them. Sometimes, the question is definitely unclear and impossible to answer as presented. If I ask for clarification from the OP and none is forthcoming or if I see repeated requests for clarification from other users and no response from the OP, I will downvote the question as a warning "shot across the bow" in order to send the message "sort this mess out". However, I was not aware that my downvotes could lead to a new user being locked out of the site and that was not my intention. Perhaps I should avoid downvoting in future as I genuinely try to be friendly and helpful to newcomers.

I am not sure how to make the site more tolerant of new users. Perhaps it should be made impossible to downvote already closed questions. The user is already injured and on the floor. I don't see why we should continue to kick the user when they are already down.

Sometimes it seems obvious that people are downvoting questions, because the question contains assumptions that are not correct. I don't think that is good practice as newcomers should not be expected to have a full and correct knowledge of the physical principles involved in their question. Clearly, if they did, there would be no need for them to ask any questions on the subject all. Surely it would be better and friendlier to provide a short answer explaining where their misconception are.

Answer 3

Reality is that we, as a collective entity, are very bad moderators. We are faceless, we are not transparent, we are slow, we are arbitrary. It is hard to imagine yet more worse experience for a first-time user, what we give them.

For example, the question closure. User gets the info that his question was rejected, but he also gets only cloudy, and very often utterly false reasons. Already this clearly shows for them: it does not matter, how hardly is he working to fix his question, he won't get reopen. So, he does not invest the effort, rather leaves the site with bitter feelings.

We should be some... human interface of the site, with what the newcomer can talk and cooperate with them. Instead, we are an obstacle, user is coming for the content (and for the ears of the real professionals), our role is only to harass, suppress, obstruct him.

Anyone can see, what these guys say, by simply googling for critical content about the site network. There are also quite terrible horror stories.

In my opinion, not chatgpt is the largest competition to the site network today, but its own, irrational antagonism.

The company clearly visibly ignores the whole problem, maybe also they can not see a way out, or it is pretty fine for them. Only they know that.

We might try to convince other users with various moderation privileges: to be nice. And, instead of keeping everything with iron fist, what could expel a newbie, we should see them as potential worthy contributors of the future.

What could work imho very well: we should try to create such a human structure where we are working like a pyramide; or a ladder: everyone asks "upward" and answers "downward" (in skill level).