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I just encountered a review audit (i.e, an "attention test") question in the close votes review queue for the first time. That is, it was a question that did not deserve any close votes that had been placed there to make sure I, the reviewer, was actually paying attention to what I was doing. Anyhow, I was puzzled when I saw the item, and I clicked 'Close' just to see the summary of any other close votes in case I had missed something obvious; it takes two clicks to submit a close vote (you must specify why you are voting to close), so there's no harm in that first click.

Still though, I was placed in 5-second timeout and told to pay more attention. This isn't a big deal, but it seems that this message is shown prematurely since I never elected to submit a close vote. I merely clicked 'Close' to see how anyone else could have possibly thought the item deserved to be closed.

Is there a reason the attention warning shows on the first Close click instead of on the second? Can that be changed?

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    This is kinda a double edged sword, because on hand you shouldn't be voting according to what others are but rather your own interpretation. On the other hand, I don't even have the close votes memorized, and occasionally will click on them to remind myself if there are any reasons to close the question.
    – James Mertz
    Commented Jun 17, 2013 at 14:41
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    I specifically wanted to check if it had been flagged as a duplicate; otherwise, I couldn't see why it would be closed. If there is no comment directing me, I'm most likely to check the close votes summary before going off to search for a duplicate question on my own.
    – Excellll
    Commented Jun 17, 2013 at 14:59
  • If someone VTC's as a dupe, then a comment is automatically added to the question.
    – James Mertz
    Commented Jun 17, 2013 at 15:01
  • @KronoS Ah, I didn't realize that. TMYK
    – Excellll
    Commented Jun 17, 2013 at 15:03
  • I've been hit by this one a few times, so I never usually click the Close button when I'm unsure without first opening the question in a different browser tab (where you could then hit the Close button and see who voted for what without affecting the review queue). While I agree that you shouldn't immediately fail for clicking the Close button, I think it would be difficult to add back in "fake" votes for a particular reason. I think a better idea might be to allow users to dispute/flag a particular test they felt was invalid, because the tests don't really matter unless there's a problem.
    – Breakthrough
    Commented Jun 17, 2013 at 20:34
  • BTW, @Excellll, it’s actually three clicks: “Close”, reason, and then “Vote To Close”. If your reason is “off topic” and the question is less than 6(?) months old, you will be given the opportunity to click to select which related SE site it should be migrated to. If your reason is “duplicate”, you will have to specify what it is a duplicate of. But my bottom line is I agree; I’ve been bitten by this once or twice myself.
    – Scott - Слава Україні
    Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 21:44

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Either this is new or I overlooked it yesterday: enter image description here

So, all the details I was looking for were already available. There is no reason to click 'Close' unless you intend to close the question.

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    You overlooked it, it's been around for a while
    – Sathyajith Bhat Mod
    Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 4:21
  • Well, that’s not strictly true. If the banner mentions “off topic” (as your example shows) and a potential voter wants to know “What were they thinking?”, and the question is less than 6(?) month old, he still has to click on “Close” and “off topic” to see where the other voters believe the question belongs.
    – Scott - Слава Україні
    Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 21:45

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