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In the comments section for the below question , one of the users, Sarvabhouma is soliciting votes to close a question as duplicate -

Parbrahman was the real author of Bhagvad Gita and Krishna was the mere medium?

Here is the comment - "@Lakhi It's the answer from the question I have linked as duplicate. Can you please cast your duplicate vote on this question? – Sarvabhouma 41 mins ago"

I am just curious to know if it is ok to solicit votes in this manner?

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    This happens very very frequently in chatrooms. Just go to the chatroom called "Hinduism" and find out. If one user feels that a post should be closed, they ask others to do close voting as well. And, many times the posts get actually closed. IMO too this is not ok. Let the users decide on their own without being asked to do so/influenced by others. – Rickross Nov 27 '19 at 9:14
  • @Rickross Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I agree with your opinion. – user16581 Nov 27 '19 at 9:17
  • Yes! It's totally fine to ask it. What's wrong you are finding in that? – Krishna Shweta Nov 27 '19 at 16:19
  • BTW, you must have found "a group of users" who reopens questions. And you find nothing wrong with that, really? I'm curious. – Krishna Shweta Nov 27 '19 at 16:24
  • @KrishnaShweta I have absolutely no idea what 'group of users' you are talking about. I dont even know that some 'group of users' is reopening questions. Its not my job here to be a detective. – user16581 Nov 27 '19 at 16:42
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    So if some user agrees with you then your reply is "thanks for sharing the thoughts" and if you disagree then it's "not my job here to be a detective" that's great – Krishna Shweta Nov 27 '19 at 16:44
  • @KrishnaShweta So you are saying it is ok to solicit votes to close questions. I think people should decide that independently. If you disagree, lets just leave it at that. – user16581 Nov 27 '19 at 16:49
  • @KrishnaShweta Could you explain what is your point? I am not able to understand anything. – user16581 Nov 27 '19 at 16:52
  • It's obvious that users here decides their own. But nothing wrong in asking to cast close votes or reopen votes, no one is forcing to do it. You are taking it in the wrong way. – Krishna Shweta Nov 27 '19 at 16:54
  • @KrishnaShweta Let me make it clear that I am not part of any group here. Enough said. – user16581 Nov 27 '19 at 16:59
  • Glad to hear that! BTW, if it was a force then yes it's not correct at all. But Sarvabhouma is not forcing. So chill – Krishna Shweta Nov 27 '19 at 17:03
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Yeah. It is fine to ask other users to remind their privileges of moderation. On smaller sites like ours, close votes or reopen votes do not reach threshold of 5 votes easily and the questions remain closed/open even though they are not worthy of it. So, I asked the user to use their close vote since they also think it's answered already.

If we are asking others to vote to close irrespective of the content, that's against the spirit of moderation. We might have to face some consequences for doing that. See
Concerns about brigading.

Linking questions for closure or reopening happens in chat rooms regularly. There is a dedicated chat room on Stack Overflow only for posting such comments. I think there are other rooms on other sites too.

In the cited example, the user commented "Yes" linking to an answer which was the same question linked as a duplicate. The other question too asks the same question whether it was Krishna or Brahman who was speaking. So the user also agrees that it's a duplicate. But I am not sure if they are using their privileges right. So I reminded them to use their privileges.

In fact, we even have a meta question which asks users to moderate first if they see something which needs to. If we know the question needs some action, then it's better to act on it.
Users should make use of their privileges

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    "It is fine to ask other users to remind their privileges of moderation." "But I am not sure if they are using their privileges right." I would say - Let users decide when and how to use their privileges. – user16581 Nov 27 '19 at 8:52
  • "On smaller sites like us, close votes or reopen votes do not reach threshold of 5 votes and the questions remain closed/open even though they are not worthy of it." We need data to support such claims. What is the minimum reputation level required for closing votes? 250? 500? How many members have crossed that reputation level on HSE? If that number is significantly higher than 5, then the above is only a perception, not supported by facts. – user16581 Nov 27 '19 at 8:56
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    @LazyLubber Then no one would moderate if we are leaving questions as they are. Answering duplicates, off- topic questions is heavily discouraged. We can't leave moderation. You will know how many close votes are cast on a question if you have access to close vote privilege and access to moderator tools. Anyone with that privilege can check it. It's a fact. – Sarvabhouma Nov 27 '19 at 8:59
  • I am not asking you to leave moderation. Feel free to moderate if you think that is justified. But I would not question whether other members are moderating properly or not. That is their choice. In any case, we do have moderators who can close questions if they want to. – user16581 Nov 27 '19 at 9:03
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    @LazyLubber Moderators are not the only ones who have the privilege of closing questions. SE depends on community moderation. "Hinduism Stack Exchange is moderated by you". That's what review page says. SE is not like forums where only people with moderator role are supposed to moderate. Also moderators are not active like they used to be. We should try to engage most of the community in moderation. If they are not interested, let them leave. But answering close vote worthy questions is discouraged here. It's a bad practice. We should stop it for the sake of the site. – Sarvabhouma Nov 27 '19 at 9:08
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    Again, I am not against moderation. Let members decide when or whether they want to moderate. That's all I wanted to say. I have nothing further to add. – user16581 Nov 27 '19 at 9:14
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    @LazyLubber If you are not against moderation, that's okay but deliberate leaving open or obstructing close vote process is not fair. By any chance if you want to participate in reviews, do it after you make familiar with the scope of the site. – Sarvabhouma Nov 28 '19 at 15:22
  • Assuming it is possible to obstruct a close vote process, I dont know how to do that. You are over-estimating my abilities. – user16581 Nov 28 '19 at 16:38
  • @LazyLubber I am talking about your recent reviews and some users reluctance not to close anything. You have left open many questions which should be actually closed due to various reasons. They post comments that it's a duplicate but they don't close it. I don't understand why. Is close voting a sin? I even saw apologies for closing a question. – Sarvabhouma Nov 28 '19 at 18:53
  • Ok, I see where you are coming from. I got some random notification yesterday or so and when I clicked it, it was a review queue. First time I am seeing that. May be I crossed some reputation limit recently to get that privilege. It took me some time to understand what in the world was going on. I was using laptop version from a few days because I had to post a really long answer to a question. Normally I use mobile version. I did not close any question because I did not have the time to review that long list. I was never expecting that long review queue in the first place. – user16581 Nov 28 '19 at 19:58
  • To add to what I said, I did not even know what a review queue was till I clicked on the (what I thought was) random notification yesterday. Even now I do not know much about it. (Please dont bother explaining). But if my reviewing is going to prevent someone else from reviewing, let me know. I will let others do it. – user16581 Nov 28 '19 at 20:24
  • When you don't know what to do, just skip. You are not forced to review when you don't know what to do. Double clicking the red dot will make it disappear. But don't give wrong reviews. That would make the things worse. – Sarvabhouma Nov 29 '19 at 2:13
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There is recorded proof of this bias on this website. The coterie is exposed in the "Guidelines for new users answering questions" See point 5. where the coterie has as the yardstick of "Prasthana" to measure the "correctness" of the answer.

Why should all the user be measured on the yardstick of Prasthana? This is a million-dollar question!

This is recorded evidence of the way the coterie groups together to judge an answer, downvote it, close the question and many other acts that point to the rigged practices on this website. The coterie supports each other to gain privileges.

Then these privileges are used to suppress other viewpoints! In real-world such practices will amount to infringement of Anti-trust laws and goes against the principles of natural justice.

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