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I have seen more than a few people writing a comment which starts with “Before the question gets closed” when they can predict that the question will be closed. I cannot understand what it means because we can post comments after the question is closed in the same way as before it is closed if I am not mistaken. What is it supposed to mean?

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I think it just stems from the mistaken belief that one cannot comment after a question has been closed. I used to think that too, before I saw it being done recently. Actually now I'm not too sure what closing does actually.

On a related note, I don't think we should answer questions "before they get closed." What was the point of closing the question if someone answers it anyway?

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(1) Thanks. Hmm, that might be the case. (2) If a question is closed, a user cannot add an answer to it (I do not know about moderators. You can edit an answer to a closed question). Also, a closed question can be deleted by voting (by users with lots of rep). (3) I agree that we should not answer questions hastily just because they are about to be closed, but that deserves another thread. – Tsuyoshi Ito Oct 9 '10 at 23:04
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Once a question is closed, it can't earn rep for either the poster or answers. – Suresh Venkat♦ Oct 9 '10 at 23:36
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@Suresh: Oops, I voted your comment, but after some testing, I do not think what you wrote is correct. It seems that even after a question is closed, it can be voted and votes on the question and answers affect rep. – Tsuyoshi Ito Oct 9 '10 at 23:40
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@Suresh: I also did some testing, and it seems that questions and answers still seem to add rep, even if the question is closed. – Robin Kothari Oct 9 '10 at 23:43
ah true. however, no new answers can be added. – Suresh Venkat♦ Oct 10 '10 at 1:33
FYI: What is a "closed" question? on Meta Stack Overflow. – Tsuyoshi Ito Oct 10 '10 at 14:53

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