I'd like to propose a way to deal with controversial questions.
Current state of events.
Every once in a while a question pops up that by itself is flawed when set against site rules, but at the same time is adopted enthusiastically by the community.
Right now rule violation/on hold status, a lack of correctional actions by the OP or reputed users lead to closure and then deletion.
After deletion the question with all that goes with it basically is gone, never to return. (Disregarding the small chance that there are 3 10K users that will actually resurrect it)
But.
Sometimes a question only can fixed by the OP, because it boils down to what this person drives. And sometimes the OP is never seen again.
And.
Sometimes a question is kept on closed and undeleted because of 'historic value' at the discretion of the reviewer.
Several discussions have addressed this already, with good arguments put forward about the lines in the sand, but petering out without any real outcome towards site policy that I can see (yet).
Proposal.
Every once in a while a discussion sprouts indicating that maybe the rules sometimes fail us when dealing with the untidiness of life as it happens. So, what if we define 'historic value' and so create a purgatory of controversial closed undeleted questions?
- Rule violation.
and
- High view count.
- Multiple answers.
- Multiple up-votes.
I really want to keep such questions and their answers. I think they achieve something. It would be something like What is a historical lock, and what is it used for?.
Examples. (hard to find)
- https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/343411/is-there-a-word-for-a-person-who-cant-do-things-right-or-cant-handle-things/343426#343426
- Does "like" mean to build a further relationship?
References. (A pretty random list, and one of em mine)
- https://english.stackexchange.com/help/asking
- http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/44471/sandy-lines
- Question deleted with multiple up-voted answers, why?
- Bad questions can lead to good answers
- What are the "rules" for deleting questions? And should “What does ‘TL;DR:’ mean?” be undeleted?
- The answer to this question is great! But the question is closed and a bit hard to find
- What happened in the "Single word for something that is 'not yet a fact'" controversy?
(in fact the list is endless)