Best ways to get questions re-looked at?

Question

I recently looked at the questions I had asked earlier and found that they were worded improperly. So I reworded them the best I could. However I have found that when I reword a question (to improve it due to the fact that it isn't good) these questions aren't really re-looked at. So why do we tell users to fix existing posts if existing posts don't get re-looked at?

Answer 1

Generally speaking, editing older questions and posting bounties will get them looked at again. Edited questions appear on the front page again, they appear on /questions?sort=active, or, in the case of bounties, on the Featured tab. Making the question title clearer and using appropriate tags will get you more question views.

The improvements to the question, like making it clearer and providing more information, serve to improve the chances to get responses (answers or helpful comments) once someone clicks on the question.

All of this has been discussed before, for example here.

If this doesn't work, it doesn't mean that the advice to improve questions by editing is bad. It's just not a panacea. It generally helps, but there's no guarantee. Consider questions that too specialized to get answers on SU: No matter how well researched, clearly written, and well presented a question is, you won't get an answer.

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In this specific case (I'm using the one question I found as reference here):

• Its score is -4.
• It's closed.

These issues make it much more difficult to get any regular user's attention: People mostly or exclusively using the front page will not get to see it due to its score, and in all other lists, the [closed] will serve to deter users from viewing the question again ("What's the point? I can't post an answer anyway.").

• You edited it for the first and only time just two minutes before posting this meta question

Are you in a hurry? It often takes quite a lot longer for answers to appear. Please also consider the case that there might be no good solution within the boundaries you have established.

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So... what can you do?

Getting the question reopened

General advice is here.

We have a re-open queue for regular users. Closed questions will not automatically appear there though: You need one person to actually vote to re-open, or make a significant edit to your post in order to improve it. Users with reopen privileges can then review your post.

Another option is to flag it for moderator attention. Explain what you changed and why you consider the close reason to now be no longer valid. Make an effort, don't just write "Reopen, it's no longer NARQ".

You could also ask in chat. It's similar to the above, explain that you've fixed the question, and would like them to take a look at it and up vote or vote to re-open (or alternatively explain why it's still not good enough).

Getting people to find it and view it

Getting rid of down votes is difficult if nobody's even accessing the question. And a negative score is a good way to prevent that. You could get additional views (and possibly up votes, leading to increased visibility) by posting a bounty.

Consider making the question title clearer and more specific to entice users to click on it when they see it listed somewhere. Right now, it doesn't explain what the question is about very well. "How should I deal with my pre-installed copy of Windows 8?" is very vague and explains nothing. The comments indicate that you're looking for a very specific kind of solution, so not why ask for it in the title?

If users left a comment on your question, and explained why they down voted or voted to close, and you addressed any issues in your edit, you could let them know that you fixed it. Be nice about it, and make sure you actually addressed what they wrote about. Don't just spam anyone who left a comment. If you're lucky, they'll revise their vote.