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A few weeks ago, A Notice About Personalized Advice was requested on our site like Christianity Stack Exchange has. After some discussion, it came into live. This is the text in the notice.

Like any library, Hinduism Stack Exchange shares great information, but does not offer personalized advice, and does not take the place of seeking such advice from any Acharya, Pundit, astrologer, Guru or other trustworthy Counselor.

By this, I thought it is made explicit that personalized advice is off-topic for our site.

What does this mean? e.g: Will we close any question which asks for help in problems in personal life as off-topic immediately (which means swift moderation, letting know the OP such questions and deleting)? Or is it just a caution to the user not to ask? (If it's asked, time will be given. left open in the review till some period of time and edited by others to suit the scope or something of that sort.

What is the purpose of this notice w.r.t dealing such questions?

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    We often gets such type of questions, so notice would serve the purpose of being noticed at every page of our site informing "we don't provide personal advises". Talking about handling such questions, They should be closed as off-topic as soon as possible by close votes. If OP wants to improve, s/he can edit and it will automatically be drawn to re-open queue by the system.
    – Pandya Mod
    Dec 5, 2019 at 11:32
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    @Pandya Exactly! It is happening only in theory but not in practice. Users are choosing "leave open" to such questions and mods are not closing them even though they are aware of it. For example: this. By any chance, they are closed it is taking so long time.
    – user6981
    Dec 5, 2019 at 14:56
  • @Paṇḍyā They should be closed as off-topic. Yes. But where? As Krishna Shweta wrote, those questions are getting leave open votes. Some questions which are closed are staying without any deletion. We got pure personal advice questions and they are not closed swiftly.
    – Sarvabhouma
    Dec 5, 2019 at 15:24
  • @Sarvabhouma So, is that what Shweta commented an issue or is it what you asked?
    – Pandya Mod
    Dec 6, 2019 at 2:32
  • @Paṇḍyā I asked what will be the implication of the notice. Will there be any impact of the notice in the moderation. That's my question but Krishna Shweta brought up an issue where this is not really happening in practice. Your comment looks like an answer. Can you post it as an answer?
    – Sarvabhouma
    Dec 6, 2019 at 3:32

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By this, I thought it is made explicit that personalized advice is off-topic for our site.

The purpose of this notice is to inform the visitors (especially new users joining the site) that we do not provide a personal advises. It is like a disclaimer. The decision of closing questions asking for personal advice as off-topic was taken long ago in 2015 See this answer. Consequently this off-topic reason is clarified at the on-topic page of the help center and set as one of the close reason while closing the question. So, it is not like we made the scope explicitly clear by this notice, it was already clear.

Q. Will we close any question which asks for help in problems in personal life as off-topic immediately (which means swift moderation, letting know the OP such questions and deleting)? Or is it just a caution to the user not to ask? (If it's asked, time will be given. left open in the review till some period of time and edited by others to suit the scope or something of that sort.

If the question is clearly asking for personal advice then we should close it as off-topic straightforwardly that is to start casting of close votes immediately. Unlike our policy of deleting unsourced answers where we determined the time period, in this case we have never talked about any waiting period of time before initiating the process of closing the question. The procedure is to close questions asking for personal advice off-topic as soon as possible by close voting, nevertheless if OP wants to fix the question to fit into the scope of site, s/he can revise the question and closed questions are automatically drawn to re-open queue after revision so-that reviewers can look whether question deserves re-opening.

Q. What is the purpose of this notice w.r.t dealing such questions?

As I've said first this notice has nothing to do with our procedure of closing off-topic questions. Notice is intended to work as a disclaimer for whoever visits or joins this site.

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  • I believe you read comments which are addressed to you under my question. Can you say why this is left open by users? Astrological remedies in a horoscope are also off-topic for our site. What's your take on it?
    – Sarvabhouma
    Dec 6, 2019 at 8:21
  • @Sarvabhouma well, that is the different issue should be discussed as separate meta question usually raised like "Why is this question is not closed as off-topic"?
    – Pandya Mod
    Dec 6, 2019 at 8:32
  • I think it's covered in this meta question what is its impact. Anyway, if I have to post meta time for every review item to remind, then the moderation is in a pathetic state. That's for sure. Perhaps I should post a new meta "Why are mods not closing" rather than what you have suggested.
    – Sarvabhouma
    Dec 7, 2019 at 3:59
  • @Sarvabhouma I am not talking about posting meta for every review item. I believe most of reviews would be running fine. Meta post is needed only when there is a problem. In any case, your question doesn't describe the problem with moderation. If you are concerned with moderation issue you should frame meta post properly. Visit XY Problem
    – Pandya Mod
    Dec 7, 2019 at 4:12
  • Seems like you don't understand what is my question and my comment. I asked what have you done in comments. You are confusing with my question. My question is this. " What is the purpose of this notice w.r.t dealing such questions?". By your answer, it feels like there's no change and we will be same like old and bringing no change at all. Your answer raises new questions. You said it's already clear and this notice brought no change in our moderation. So is it useless for close voters? Is it only aimed at new users? If it was clear already, why is there inactivity and improper reviews?
    – Sarvabhouma
    Dec 7, 2019 at 4:33

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