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I just stumbled upon a question from 2009 (that's what I mean by 'old'), and it's this one for reference.

I think we can all agree that by Today's standards this question would be closed (with a couple of valid reasons to choose from).

However, things were different back then - well from what I can gather, I see quite a few questions like this from back in the day. This kind of question was clearly acceptable at one point.

So, should I vote to close it or leave it be? And just for extra understanding, what would happen to any rep for that question and the answers if it was closed?

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2 Answers 2

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View all question with today's standards. If the question fits as per current standards then leave it open; if it doesn't fit then vote/flag to close it. If we keep the questions which don't fit as per current standards, then people will ask why the questions are still open.

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  • fair enough, but what will happen to the rep all those users have gained? My conscience is the only reason I came to Meta to clarify, I am not sure I agree with people losing rep that they earned, just because rules have changed
    – musefan
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 10:12
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    @musefan - We don't lose reputation if our question get closed. So you don't need to worry about it.
    – Himanshu
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 10:13
  • So in my example, Jonathan wont lose the 65 rep he gained from upvotes? And the accepted answer wont lose the 80 rep?
    – musefan
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 10:16
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    @musefan Reputation is lost when the question is deleted, not just closed. Questions are only deleted if they serve no purpose whatsoever.
    – Duncan Jones
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 10:18
  • @musefan - They won't. It's worth to look at How does “Reputation” work? :)
    – Himanshu
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 10:19
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    @DuncanJones: OK, that's cool, I can sleep better now
    – musefan
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 10:19
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    @DuncanJones for the sake of precision, reputation is sometimes kept even if question is deleted, see Deleted posts should not influence reputation post here at MSO: "you should keep the reputation for... * A score of 3 or greater * Visible on the site for at least 60 days"
    – gnat
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 10:41
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Not if your reason to close is "this site belongs on another site on the StackExchange network", because that option is absent for me on this old question, so I can only assume that such closes are not desired.

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    Questions older than 60 days cannot be migrated, not even by Moderators.
    – ale
    Commented Nov 30, 2013 at 18:19
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    Generally speaking, questions that should be migrated are off-topic on the current site, so yes, you should close them as "off-topic -> some other reason", rather than "off-topic -> belongs on..."
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Nov 30, 2013 at 18:40
  • But that seems perverse. Why are we supposed to censor the existence of these other sites? I'm sure this is an unintended consequence of a technical decision...
    – Robin Green
    Commented Nov 30, 2013 at 18:42
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    @RobinGreen it wasn't a technical decision actually, it was done for other purposes (mostly tied to high numbers of votes and associated badges & privileges in the destination community. See this and this for more info.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Nov 30, 2013 at 19:44

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