Question: A recent trend seems to be delete voting a question immediately after it's closed. While I like the sentiment, it has caused issues. Quite often, the question will be deleted within minutes of asking. So quick that the original poster never sees that it was closed and just sees it disappear. So they think there was a bug and re-post the same question. This obviously is not great for several reasons. [Here is a question](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5791241/what-is-the-difference-between-div-and-span-elements-in-html) that it almost happened to today (2 delete votes within 3 minutes of asking)...

I propose a "Delete Window". Basically, we'd still allow delete votes immediately after close. However once the necessary number of votes is received, a banner will appear on the question saying "This question is marked for deletion". Then it will remain available for some fixed time window as read-only (perhaps 1 hour). That way the poster can have time to see the fact that it was closed (and the marked duplicates).

The existence of the 20k 'rapid delete' has added some spice to this problem. A user submits a really poor question -- beyond reasonable repair. Within moments, it's both closed and deleted. Well, this is fine, except that it lacks a feedback path to the user, unless that user was watching closely enough to see the comments and/or close reason before the delete happened.

Answer: 
I have a better idea: **Start taking closing seriously!**

Closing, from the earliest days of the site, has been a "nomination for deletion" - a purgatory where bad questions sit until they've atoned for their sins, get deleted, and are allowed to move on to Question Nirvana. 

Ignoring the painfully-mixed metaphors in the previous paragraph, this means if you see a closed question - or a question *with close votes* - that you think can be improved to the point where it won't need to be deleted, **you should do your utmost to improve it *and then re-open it***!

I recall getting into an argument with another user a few years back for deleting a question that sat closed for *months*. He made some good arguments for how it could have been salvaged, but... It *wasn't* salvaged. It sat there, collecting dust, because the prevailing attitude at the time was that deletion was an empty threat, and so once you got your answer in, who *cares* if the question got closed?

Now, it's pretty obvious that while a question *might* sit around closed for a good while, it might also disappear within minutes of being closed - **that's a *good* thing!** Crappy questions clogging up the site are harmful, and the quicker they're either fixed or deleted, the better it is for the site. If the new deletion rules provide a long-overdue sense of urgency to fans of closed questions, then I'm happy.

It doesn't take an hour to fix a question, or to post a comment urging would-be delete-voters to hold off while editing is in progress. **If you post a lousy question and then sit on your hands while other users critique it, close it, and finally delete it... Then you probably have something else you should be doing**, and can ask again when you've at least as much time to devote to seeing your question answered as you expect others to put into answering it.
The speed at which a question is deleted is now in direct proportion to the question's suckiness. Higher suckiness means faster deletion.

[status-by-design](/questions/tagged/status-by-design "show questions tagged 'status-by-design'")

Your question assumes that people who post bad questions just need to be educated. But in my experience, the people who post really bad questions do not care about your explanations. They just want to post their spammy questions.

As an example, if a person posts three or four answers with links to their product or blog, without even making a feeble attempt to read the faq or find out what StackOverflow is all about, we don't try to educate them; we just burn their account (and all of their posts with it).

If it's really an honest mistake, the people willing to get better will figure it out.