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How is this question opinion-based? ("May I have a mango!" is it an Imperative, Optative or Interrogative sentence?)

There is nothing that seems inherently subjective about it, nor does it look particularly likely to inspire opinion-based answers. It's a genuinely interesting question, made the HNQ list, and it has an excellent, fairly-highly-upvoted answer. (I'm aware that reaching the HNQ doesn't necessarily indicate quality, but it feels like most hot grammar-related questions do actually deserve the visibility.)

In review, it got one VTC and two 'leave open's, but it was eventually closed outside of the queues. It's being reviewed for reopening right now, but I'm more interested in why it was closed in the first place. (Comments were locked for a while, so there aren't any clarifications to be found there.)

  • What makes it opinion-based?
  • If it was indeed opinion-based, would it have been salvageable through editing?
  • What questions should we reviewers be asking ourselves to determine subjectivity when encountering such questions?

It seems to me that the questions above are still relevant even if it ends up being reopened.

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    As before, your argument why the posted reason doesn't justify the closing is very convincing. I am afraid, though, that raising meta-questions about such cases is unlikely to produce any results. It is quite common on this site that people vote to close a question for a reason that is not on the menu of boilerplate reasons for closing, but then still click on one of these reasons. That practice is unfortunate, but widespread, and it is unlikely that somebody who engages in it will come to the meta-site to respond to your arguments.
    – jsw29
    Commented May 24, 2023 at 20:10
  • @jsw29 - harrumph. So should I stop posting such meta-questions? (And ugh, if only people took the time to use the 'other' option when doing close votes.)
    – Heartspring
    Commented May 24, 2023 at 21:09
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    For whatever my opinion is worth, I think that it is more effective to post such objections as a comment below the question itself, where they will be seen by more people, including possibly those who made the vote. If one is voting to reopen the question, such a comment may induce others to join in the vote. The meta-site may be more apt for raising general questions about the closing practices. The site's menu of the standard reasons for closing probably needs an overall reworking, but that is a daunting task, so I am not optimistic that it will be undertaken any time soon.
    – jsw29
    Commented May 25, 2023 at 15:46

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There were three close votes: one each to Opinion-based, to Needs Focus, and to Show Research. The system has to pick one of those as "the" reason.

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