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This question was asked today, looking for a flight share. It's been promptly closed (rightly, in my opinion).

I noticed in the 'Related' list another question from about a year ago which appears to be very similar, but has not been closed.

I used to participate on Stack Overflow, where an old off-topic question would be closed quite quickly once spotted.

What's the policy on Aviation?

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    $\begingroup$ I don't think the related question you point to is off-topic for this site. The fact that the questioner expects the flight to be local clearly shows it's a question for aviation enthusiasts, and not about travel. $\endgroup$
    – Dan Hulme
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 7:27
  • $\begingroup$ My understanding of the Stack Exchange ethos is to provide a library of quality questions and answers. The first question has already been delete by the OP. The second is asking how to get a free joy ride at an unspecified location (I paraphrase.), which doesn't seem to add much to the site. I've followed Voretaq7's suggestion below and voted to close. We'll see what happens. $\endgroup$
    – user11516
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 19:01
  • $\begingroup$ If you think a question is not useful, downvoting is the appropriate response, as the tooltip for the downvote button explains. Ultimately, what is on-topic is for the community to decide, but to avoid being completely arbitrary we try to stick to the guidelines in help center, and IMO the second question you linked matches those guidelines perfectly. $\endgroup$
    – Dan Hulme
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 8:33

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The general "policy" on this (or at least MY policy as a moderator) is "Y'all have close and delete votes. Use them."
(This seems to be the general network-wide consensus on dealing with off-topic questions).

If you feel a question is off-topic slap a close vote on it - it will go into the review queue and if enough other people think its off topic it will be closed.
If you think it's unsalvageably bad and shouldn't exist throw a delete vote on it after it's closed (and again if enough people think it's that bad it will get deleted).

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  • $\begingroup$ Fair enough. I'm wary of using Close votes. Having been a contributor on Stack Overflow where the site is drowning in junk the constant use of close votes became a very negative experience. $\endgroup$
    – user11516
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 18:56
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    $\begingroup$ @Airsick Don't be wary of using close votes - unlike Stack Overflow where questions are closed by mindless dogpiling folks here tend to actually look at the question rather than just throw more votes on top of what's there. Also closed questions can always be reopened, so there's unlikely to be any permanent harm. (Delete votes on the other hand may be worth a little more thought...) $\endgroup$
    – voretaq7 Mod
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 18:58
  • $\begingroup$ I'm not sure that 'dogpiling' is a fair assessment of Stack Overflow. The quality of questions posted there was dropping noticeably, almost day by day. I deleted my account there some months ago as a result. So far, Aviation is a much more positive experience. Long may it remain so. $\endgroup$
    – user11516
    Commented Oct 15, 2015 at 19:58

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