What is the "practical" purpose of closing a question that has an accepted answer?

Question

I frequently see a question closed after an answer has been accepted. I understand the "technical" pupose in that you want to prevent further answers until the question has been clarified. But, in terms of practicality, I know, in a few cases, with my own questions, I have already gotten a satisfactory answer, and accepted it. If you close it afterwards, as far as I'm concerned, I'm not going to edit it, because I got what I wanted to know.

So, isn't this scenario counter-productive to what M.Y. wants? You put the question on hold, or closed because you'd like it edited, but, chances are, it won't be edited. I don't mean to sound sarcastic, but what's the practical point?

Answer 1

I'm not going to edit it, because I got what I wanted to know.

That's pretty short-sighted of you. Thousands of people are going to see that page in the future. Improving the post (if it even is salvageable) helps other people find it and helps other people understand your question that they can learn from it. Mi Yodeya is a community-wide resource, not just a resource for the OP.

I'll just note also that acceptance shouldn't be a factor at all, being just the personal opinion of the random guy who asked the question. Community upvotes are much, much more significant. Many a time have accepted answers been changed because of new answers, and many a time have accepted answers been just flat out wrong.

[I]sn't this scenario counter-productive to what M.Y. wants?

Not at all. We want high quality Q&A. Low quality Q's and low quality A's detract from that.

You put the question on hold, or closed because you'd like it edited

Again, no. We put questions on hold if they are currently inappropriate for the site. If someone wants to edit a question to make it appropriate, great!

Answer 2

The questions and answer on Mi Yodeya are meant to form a permanent repository of knowledge about Judaism, for the benefit of the Internet-reading, Judaism-interested world. As such, it's our duty as a community to do what we can to make every question and answer as useful as possible to people in that world.

So, if a question is formed in a way that is unlikely to generate useful answers here, or that is likely to generate un-useful answers, it's our duty to either edit the question or close it, pending edits. Anyone with editing privileges, not just the original author, can help with improvements.

You're correct that one of the people most likely to be willing to improve a question is the person who originally posted it, and that the potential to get answers useful to him is a major motivation. Consequently, when questions that don't meet our standards are posted, it's best to fix or close them as soon as possible.