If I see a question on the front page that I believe is off topic according to current standards, then I vote to close that question.

Sure, perhaps closing a question can in principle be seen as "penalizing" the author of that question. But really, there are two major possibilities here (allowing for slight variations of each):

• The asker is no longer active on the site. In this case, whether or not the question received an answer that solved the problem, the asker isn't penalized whether the question ends up closed or left open now, because they are no longer around.
• The asker is still active on the site. In this case, they are likely familiar with our current standards. They can always bring the closure up in chat, on meta, or flag their question for moderator attention to request that it is reopened if they feel it was closed in error, or fix whatever caused the question to be closed (if it is fixable without invalidating existing answers) and have it reviewed and possibly reopened through the normal reopen review queue.

On the other hand, leaving the question open:

• Indicates to people new to the community that this is a type of question that we accept, inviting further similar questions.
• Allows posting of answers that can be anything from actually useful (I find this to be the less common case) to borderline inappropriate to downright spam.

To me, certainly the fact that off-topic questions being left open indicates to newcomers that the type of question is allowed outweighs the relatively minor issue of an active user having an old question of theirs closed because it no longer meets current standards. Hence I vote to close with an appropriate reason when I see them. (However, I do not go looking for this type of question to vote to close them.)

I recall having had at least one question of my own closed as off-topic on Stack Overflow long after it was posted. I don't hold any grudges against the people who voted to close it there, nor do I feel the closure was unfair, as the question at that point was off topic on that site.

TL;DR: If I see a question on the front page that I believe is off topic according to current standards, then I vote to close that question.

Sure, perhaps closing a question can in principle be seen as "penalizing" the author of that question. But really, there are two major possibilities here (allowing for slight variations of each):

• The asker is no longer active on the site. In this case, whether or not the question received an answer that solved the problem, the asker isn't penalized whether the question ends up closed or left open now, because they are no longer around.
• The asker is still active on the site. In this case, they are likely familiar with our current standards. They can always bring the closure up in chat, on meta, or flag their question for moderator attention to request that it is reopened if they feel it was closed in error, or fix whatever caused the question to be closed (if it is fixable without invalidating existing answers) and have it reviewed and possibly reopened through the normal reopen review queue.

On the other hand, leaving the question open:

• Indicates to people new to the community that this is a type of question that we accept, inviting further similar questions.
• Allows posting of answers that can be anything from actually useful (I find this to be the less common case) to borderline inappropriate to downright spam.

To me, certainly the fact that off-topic questions being left open indicates to newcomers that the type of question is allowed outweighs the relatively minor issue of an active user having an old question of theirs closed because it no longer meets current standards. Hence I vote to close with an appropriate reason when I see them. (However, I do not go looking for this type of question to vote to close them.)

I recall having had at least one question of my own closed as off-topic on Stack Overflow long after it was posted. I don't hold any grudges against the people who voted to close it there, nor do I feel the closure was unfair, as the question at that point was off topic on that site.