Perform automatic checks for cross-posting and question block at SO when post enters close queue, not only at attempt to migrate [duplicate]

Question

This question already has answers here:

Using Software Engineering to side step the rules on Stack Overflow (2 answers)

Closed 9 years ago.

Suggest to perform automatic checks for cross-posting (including deleted SO cross-posts, like this one for example) and question block / warning at Stack Overflow when post enters close queue, not only when it is attempted to migrate.

If check detects a problem, system would raise automatic flag for moderator attention.

I expect above preemptive checks to help us more efficiently address attempts to abuse the system.

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Related:

• Annotate user accounts network-wide when they get rate-limited or banned

  A few of the migration rules are skipped if it is a ♦ moderator clicking the button, however: the "is the user suspended or blocked from asking" is always applied.

  • Stats on how attempts to circumvent SO question blocks impact other sites

    working on a design for enhancing our our recidivism system to discourage this and other sorts of unproductive behavior...

• Check to make sure a duplicate does not exist before migrating

  A migration will be rejected if...

  • ...An exact, word-for-word duplicate already exists on the destination site, or...
  • ...A question created within a week of the one being migrated exists on the destination site with the same author and very similar body text.

  Moderators can override this restriction...

  • What difficulties could be there in establishing automatic checks for SO cross-posts...

• At smaller sites, penalize hot questions having 3-4 close votes

  At smaller sites... closing a question takes hours or even days...

  • How many questions do we get from users recently banned at SO, how many of these are closed / deleted?

  • Provide 10k users more close votes

  • Refund close votes for questions deleted on the same day

  • Recover Close votes if asker deletes their own question

• gnat: codename for suggested feature: Oded 24x7 :)
• gnat: some additional considerations: 1) questions that are over month (or maybe even week) old can be excluded from checking 2) to account for possibly unpredictable amount of questions that may enter the queue, system can be limited to some reasonable fixed amount of checks, like 30-50 a day
• gnat: related: Let's help askers who are trying to circumvent question block at Stack Overflow

Answer 1

How does raising a mod flag help here? What do you want moderators to do with these flags? Whatever that action is, can we just do it automatically when a close vote or flag is raised?

• gnat: note: "when post enters close queue". Moderators can complete review (so that other reviewers, answerers and, especially, site visitors don't need to bother about posts from abusers). Worth keeping in mind that moderators can also dismiss flags without action if they feel it's not worth it
• gnat: ...as for automatic completion of close review, I would be very cautious about this. Think of how it would look for site visitors, "Closed by Community ♦"? (in case of close flags there won't even be a name of first voter there) I guess I would rather prefer abusive posts pestering folks for a while than getting "magic closes" like that
• gnat: another thing that moderators can do which can't be automated is quick deletion of the garbage, to make room at front page for better questions (not that I believe you would care about that but to let other readers see this point covered and, as usual, ignored)
• Shog9: If caring fixed things, Faith No More would've solved the world's problems years ago. Moderators can quickly delete garbage... If they're around... And there aren't more pressing issues. But there are a lot more non-moderators than there are moderators, and their observation tends to beat weak heuristics in any case.
• gnat: "their observations" are already taken into account in this feature request, notice that it is about posts that enter close queue (meaning someone flagged or voted already). There is already a human check making a solid support for heuristics. And please don't pretend that moderators aren't around all 9 days while roomba is waiting... and please don't tell me that moderators go hunting for posts to delete, because per my observations they tend to avoid acting unless post is flagged (which is good)
• Shog9: Yeah, no, mods are totally sitting on their hands most of the time.
• gnat: yes they do just that. And this is good. If I had as much power as them, I would also tend to avoid unilateral actions, waiting for others (or system) to ping me. Haven't you had that story with ex-moderator at SF who actively did unilateral actions?
• gnat: as far as I can tell reasoning in this answer was invalidated by recent changes to mod guidance which made it clear that (most of) such questions should be quickly closed and deleted by moderators: "delete everything that's blatantly off-topic as soon as it appears" (automatic handling is still not an option though as it takes human eyes to tell whether post is blatantly off-topic or not)
• Shog9: Don't see how that's relevant, @gnat. Particularly as we try to more clearly differentiate these sites, the notion that Programmers is a pure subset of Stack Overflow should be avoided, not encouraged - if a question wouldn't otherwise be closed or deleted here, then deleting it simply because the author asked it on Stack Overflow first seems... backwards.
• gnat: what notions are you talking about, I have no idea. You wrote that you don't understand about proposed flags: "What do you want moderators to do with these flags?" When you wrote that it was unclear indeed what would they do. As of now it is 200% easy to tell: because questions posted by banned SO users are mostly debugging help, these are blatantly off-topic and moderators should quickly close and delete these, that's it. Recent changes to mod guidance made your old question obsolete: "What do you want moderators to do with these flags?" It has clear answer now