Closing questions
I'm seeing a lot of posts closed today. It seems unnecessarily heavy handed. If it's a question the person could have looked up, or needing help with homework, you can suggest they give it a try and come back with an effort for corrections.
14 Answers
A person might feel unduly unwelcome here if his or her first few posts gets closed with a template reply asking him to look elsewhere when all he wants to do is just participate. Besides, some suggestions for 'where to look' don't really answer the poster's questions anyway!
Another question might look similar but is intrisically different, and who knows? Maybe the poster has already looked and decided he needed a different response so he posts?
There was a post closed last night which " I was not on" and yet I got flagged
and lost 10 points , now that is lateral ripping off for you , I don't know how it was done
but it is a neat trick. " Is there s moderator in the house ???
Most likely you are going to be deleted too! 
Don't worry, be happy.
100% agree, Leatha, I'm glad it wasn't just me noticing that.
My purpose in posting this question was to give feedback not to slam anyone.
Yes Leatha and rightly put , but i think you misinterpret the genuine concerns that
most people feel , and are saying , " please we have problems here and no one
is listening let alone addressing them " .I feel that I have been slam dunked
over the past 30 hours , please tell me what should I do , maybe go sit in the
corner and sob, it never helped me in the past , so I am voicing my concerns
here in the hope that someone, anyone will listen to me and help
Yes, I agree about the homework questions. Let the person try to answer and then check their response. If you close the post, how do we follow up with the their answer. I guess it's a different way now.
My purpose in posting this question was to give feedback not to slam anyone.
Newbie moderators.
Closing posts might make it appear as if some real work had actually been done. Items from the "in" box are put into the "out" box as if they had been truly addressed. If it was not so pathetic and sad one could almost laugh.
I noticed it as well.
I just returned to SD after some weeks absence. What is happening here? Where's Heidita and Marriane? Is this the same SD? What have I missed?
I moderate on a forum, OK it is different to this one as it is about ferrets but some things are the same.
We get the same questions constantly, how do I teach them not to bite, what is the best thing to feed them on, what are the best cages etc etc???
We do have a FAQ section and one of the mods will usually post a link to the appropriate FAQ, but we also leave the questions open as new members have their own ideas and want to contribute too. Sometimes a newbie may answer and someone with more experience will pick up that they are taking the wrong approach so it becomes a learning experience for the person who answered as well as the original poster. Sometimes really good points are raised and we can add something to our FAQs.
If we simply post a link to the FAQ and close the thread then we have all lost the opportunity to learn from our new members and they will feel less appreciated and will probably not hang around.
Hello all. We are currently closing all homework questions that the question asker has not attempted answering themselves, so that our members do not inadvertently give that person the answer. Before closing the post, we will point the poster to the forum rules, encourage them to try answering their question first, and encourage them to re-open a thread once they've tried to answer it themselves. Homework questions where people have tried and are asking for specific help and any requests for translations/edits that are not related to homework will not be closed. Thanks to everyone for the feedback!
last night I woke up.......in my dreams I just kept on reading. .....post closed, post closed, post closed.......
It's a gold bar but not bare gold.....if you know what I mean. 
