Note: if anyone else is considering having a question locked, please see https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/266175/if-answer-locks-shouldnt-be-used-on-comprehensively-answered-questions-then/266390#266390

Old Question

The top voted answer to How to modify existing, unpushed commits? became a community wiki in late February.

Since that time, an additional 4 answers have been added to this already answer-bloated question, 2 of which just regurgitated existing answers (they're both deleted), and the newest of which (just posted today) adds only 1 additional line of code, without much explanation, or warnings as to it's possibe dangerous side-effects.

All in all, the question is bloated with 22 answers that really just add only small, incremental value to existing answers...there's a lot of very slight variation of the basic

git commit --amend -m "your commit message"

There's even a whopping 47(!) answers if you count the deleted ones.

Can this question be locked against new answers?

I've seen some community wiki questions become locked against new answers being added, with a moderator notice that says something like

This is a community effort, please edit existing content, rather than trying to add new answers.

So the specific question I referenced isn't a community wiki, but the top-voted answer is. Does this make the question eligible to be locked against new answers being added?


Here are some examples of existing questions with such a lock:



After going through the examples of this using the search query above, it appears to me that it is not common to lock on-topic questions this way (the SQL-injection question seems to be the lone exception), though I see a lot of old off-topic questions locked this way.

Are these kind of locks just not really used for on-topic questions, even if they've become bloated by low-value answers?

  • There is no automatic locking, if that is what you are asking. We can protect the post, which means that you need a minimum amount of reputation before you can post. That wouldn't prevent those 2 answers from being posted, however. – Martijn Pieters Jul 19 '14 at 18:27
  • @MartijnPieters no, I'm not asking if there's automatic locking. I'm not looking for the question to be protected either. I'm asking about locking the post so that new answers can't be added anymore, period. I'm looking for other examples where this is the case right now. – user456814 Jul 19 '14 at 18:28
  • Yes, I don't think there is such a lock option, however. Locking is generally rather total, no editing allowed either. – Martijn Pieters Jul 19 '14 at 18:29
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    Two other examples in my answer here – rene Jul 19 '14 at 19:06
  • Right, I wasn't aware there is a lock option to prevent new answers. You could try and flag that specific question and ask for such a lock. – Martijn Pieters Jul 19 '14 at 19:09
  • The fact that there are so many answers essentially saying the same thing isn't nearly as astonishing as the fact many of them have also been upvoted in the 100+ range or so. Looks like a good way to get a lot of rep ;-) – Bruno Jul 24 '14 at 1:22
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    I think unfortunately this shows that SE is not designed as a way to build a repository of knowledge together. The rep system and the Q&A format play against that noble goal. – Bruno Jul 24 '14 at 1:24

The lock that you are referring to is a "Wiki Answer" lock. It allows the top-voted/accepted answer to be maintained, but blocks new viewers from adding any new answers to it.

In general, such a lock would be applied to high-view, highly-upvoted questions that continue to receive new answers even though there are already dozens of answers posted to it, including a correct, highly-comprehensive one.

I've applied such a lock to the Git question.

  • It's a shame there isn't a "lock to new answers only" option. I don't see why a valid question should be blocked from votes/edits/comments. – Mysticial Jul 20 '14 at 0:04
  • @Mysticial nor I can edit non-CW'ed answers either. – Braiam Jul 20 '14 at 0:42
  • @Mysticial as far as I can tell, this is exactly a "lock to new answers only" lock. If you got to the Git question, you can actually still vote, edit, and comment on all of the existing answers. The question itself is locked from editing though. – user456814 Jul 20 '14 at 5:31
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    @Cupcake But you can't vote/edit/comment on the question. That's the part that I have a problem with. – Mysticial Jul 20 '14 at 5:32
  • @Mysticial oh, right, I just noticed that. – user456814 Jul 20 '14 at 5:32

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