This question of mine got closed as off-topic, in spite of receiving way more upvotes than downvotes and also receiving a detailed answer. Why did it get closed?
1 Answer
The fact that a question is answered does not mean that it is on-topic or should not be closed.
The fact that people upvote a question does not mean that it is on-topic or should not be closed.
A question which does not show evidence of research can be closed by three people, since research is necessary and lack of it is a reason for closure. This much is actually in the closure message: "Please include the research you’ve done", complete with bold text and a link.
You haven't shown that "the English word foundation comes from the Latin word fundatio": you have merely asserted that, even though it may actually be true. However, in providing corroboration for that assertion, you would probably have found a step in the derivation where an o was introduced. That would actually answer your question.
The fact that people have been kind to you and done that research for you does not mean that your question cannot or should not be closed.
-
1Although it is true that upvoting and answering does not mean that the question is on topic it is certainly highly relevant to whether it is on topic. In this case it is also relevant that two of the answers come from regular, experienced contributors, that one of the answers is itself highly upvoted, and that three people voted to leave the question open in the review process. All that implies considerable support within the community for the question being open, even though the software does not recognise it as such.– jsw29Commented Aug 27, 2023 at 15:53
-
1I find it particularly curious that the 'leave open' votes in the review are only votes for removing the question from the review queue, and are not treated as votes against closing.– jsw29Commented Aug 27, 2023 at 15:56
-
@jsw There is no guarantee that voters (either up, down, or VTC) know what they're doing, so votes cannot be taken as any indication of close-worthiness or otherwise. And there is no way of actually voting "leave open" and reversing a close vote.– Andrew Leach ModCommented Aug 28, 2023 at 11:26
-
If it were assumed that the voters on this site generally don't know what they are doing, that assumption would equally invalidate all votes, and so provide no argument for giving more weight to the votes to close than to the votes of other kinds that imply support for the question to remain open. And that 'there is no way of actually voting "leave open" and reversing a close vote' merely happens to be how the site's software is designed; it does not show that there is a good reason for its being so designed.– jsw29Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 21:34