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So, I'm getting pretty close to obtaining the gold apex badge.

I've read that gold badges ~= moderator for that tag, in that a vote to close by a gold badger means that question is closed.

The general consensus seems to be that holders of gold tag badges (I still think gold badgers is a better term) should (and regularly do) stay their hammer.

...but what about, say, the basic unit test questions that pop up a dozen times every day?

Things I'm considering:

  • Yes, I think there should be more scrutiny than normal in deploying one's mjolnir once obtained
  • People with gold tag badges didn't get them for nothing. They're a core part of the community, and have a more trusted degree of judgement.
  • If we narrowly decide to allow gold badgers to close unit test questions that are general enough to be handled by the q&a, this could reduce the load on the close queue
  • Retagging to allow a gold badger to unilaterally close a question is ridiculous, and should be avoided

thoughts?

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  • 1
    The Close Vote queue has been backed up for quite a while. I don't see any problem with acting on questions you feel are obvious targets.
    – Adrian Larson Mod
    Mar 11, 2019 at 20:06
  • 1
    @AdrianLarson I've seen it get north of 20 before, but right now the close queue is showing 0 for me. I've dug around a little more in the tools section, and somehow found salesforce.stackexchange.com/tools/question-close-stats , but is there another place for non-mods to see the overall health of the queues?
    – Derek F
    Mar 11, 2019 at 22:27

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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I am the newest of the 10 gold-apex badge holders, and I do to wield it fairly often on what I think are clear duplicates, including basic unit test questions that get mapped to the canonical-qas. My belief is that doing so helps to close out questions that are negatively received quickly and provide referrals to resources instead of negativity or downvotes. I'm always open to discussion on that point - including pushing back.

Having that power does encourage me to be judicious with my duplicate votes in situations where I feel there may be ambiguity, and I try to exercise it carefully there.

Retagging to allow a gold badger to unilaterally close a question is ridiculous, and should be avoided

Gold-badgers can't do that. If you retag a question apex, your gold badge privileges don't apply to that question.

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  • I think we're both of the same mind then, and good to know that SE doesn't have (or patched at some point in time) that potential avenue of abuse. I wonder if 2 gold badgers working in concert could defeat that (hoping the answer to that one is "no" as well).
    – Derek F
    Mar 11, 2019 at 22:28
  • @DerekF That would probably work, but it seems like a lot of effort to close a question 3 votes early, and it leaves enough obvious signals to the community that I don't think it'd qualify as much of a conspiracy!
    – David Reed Mod
    Mar 11, 2019 at 23:09
  • I've learned not to underestimate people when internet points (or money) are at stake :p
    – Derek F
    Mar 11, 2019 at 23:44
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    Update: I am no longer the newest! Welcome to crmprogdev. salesforce.stackexchange.com/help/badges/104/apex
    – David Reed Mod
    Mar 13, 2019 at 2:38
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If you don't feel comfortable about using the hammer for a given question, then simply don't. Link the related canonical-qa question as a normal comment, and let someone else decide. We are all a team here, and we work best as a team.

I have personally used this technique at least a few times to avoid badge-hammering the question out of existence. I will only use my hammer if I'm like "95% confident" that the answer is what they need. If I don't want to hammer, I typically write something like this:

I believe I found the answer for your question [here](link-to-answer). If this does indeed help you, please let us know so we can link the answer to your question. Otherwise, please feel free to [edit] your question with additional details so we can provide better answers to your question.

I just kind of made this comment up just now, my comments probably look far different than that (but typically include at least the link to a question/answer and an edit link). Find your own style and go with it.

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I had a similar question, and I think the same advice holds. If a questin should be closed, then go ahead. FYI your vote is only decisive for closing duplicates. I believe it is also decisive for any vote to reopen.

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