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I was amazed that this question, which was closed some time ago, appeared on the front page of the EL&U site today. I find out it is because the original poster edited it to add some text. Is it normal that closed questions can still be edited? Although I can see the point made for it (it allows people to improve them), it can also have bad consequences: in this case, it brings back to the front page a bad question, which was edited by its author in a way that doesn't improve it at all (added some semi-random links to other questions at the end).

So, shouldn't closed questions be uneditable?

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    how would you have even seen this question if this had not happened? In other words 'churning the sediment' is how we ensure the soil is safe and healthy for all growing things..
    – Jeff Atwood
    Feb 16, 2011 at 18:01
  • @Jeff: well, my point is, once a question has been determined not to be new or interesting, why have continue be part of the cycle? I wouldn't have minded never seeing it, as it is of low quality.
    – F'x
    Feb 16, 2011 at 19:34

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I think that by making closed questions uneditable we would be throwing out the baby with the bath water.

  • If a closed question cannot be edited, then, as you note yourself, it cannot be improved. So people will start posting dupes instead. In this particular case, instead of having a bad edit to a bad question, we would be left with two bad questions, one of which would have to get close-voted all over again.
  • If a closed question can be edited, but the edit doesn't bump it to the front page, then people can improve their questions all they want but have no way to make others aware of the improvements. (Offering a bounty does not work on closed questions, as it makes little sense.) So again, people will just start posting dupes instead.

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