(*psst* the religious analogy is for fun; I don't actually think we should baptize Stack Overflow)

In the interests of improving questions and question askers, I propose giving moderators the ability to place users in **Purgatory**.

Purgatory is a place where users who have sinned, but not too badly, are placed so that they may make penance and redeem themselves. Sinners are users who submit questions that are not bad enough to close, but need work to bring them up to a level where they are acceptable. 

A Moderator, seeing a user who could use a bit of repentance, would indicate on a question that the user should be placed in Purgatory for asking a poor question. The Mod would be asked to provide an explanation as to why (see use case below). The user is then placed in Purgatory and would be required to submit edits on the question in order to gain release. Extreme unction would not be provided; users would have to flag to request that.

Users in Purgatory submit edits to improve their questions, and moderators would be able to see a list of submitted improvements, such as the current method for low-rep users submitting proposed edits. If their edit is accepted, they are released from Purgatory. If not, they remain until their edits are accepted. Mods would be able to provide further feedback when rejecting an edit.

Purgatory is **not** for questions that are off topic or are "not a real question" (e.g., please write my program for me). Purgatory is to force new users to learn how to ask a decent question by forcing them to fix their crappy ones.

**Use case:**

*user102867423423 asks the following question:*

> 
> Hello!
> 
> 
> I get null reference when code run
>  help
> 
> 
> 
> ```
> mDisplay =
> mWindowManager.getDefaultDisplay();
> mWakeLock =
> mPowerManager.newWakeLock(PowerManager.SCREEN_BRIGHT_WAKE_LOCK,
> getClass().getName());
> SimulationView = new SimulationView(this);
> setContentView(mSimulationView);
> 
> ```
> 
> Thanks!
>  [androidnumberonedeveloper.blogspot.com](http://MadeYouLook.TheGame.Derp)
> 
> 
> 

*Moderator OmgWtfLol places user102867423423 in Purgatory with the following notice:*

> 
> Welcome to Stack Overflow read this
>  blah blah blah. Your account has been
>  blocked from asking more questions
>  until you fix the following issues
>  with your question:
> 
> 
> Please remove the "Hello" and "Thanks"
>  from your question. Also, taglines
>  are not acceptable here, please remove
>  it. Your code must be formatted
>  properly.
> 
> 
> 

*user102867423423 submits the following edit:*

> 
> I get null reference when code run
>  help
> 
> 
> 

```
mDisplay =  mWindowManager.getDefaultDisplay(); 
mWakeLock = mPowerManager.newWakeLock(PowerManager.SCREEN_BRIGHT_WAKE_LOCK, getClass().getName()); 
SimulationView = new SimulationView(this); setContentView(mSimulationView);

```

*Moderator OmgWtfLol rejects the edit with the following notice:*

> 
> Welcome to Stack Overflow read this
>  blah blah blah. Your account has been
>  blocked from asking more questions
>  until you fix the following issues
>  with your question:
> 
> 
> Can you format your code so that the
>  line lengths do not exceed the maximum
>  allowed length and cause the
>  horizontal scrollbar to show? You are
>  more likely to get answers if users
>  don't have to scroll to see your code.
>  Thanks!
> 
> 
> 

After this point, user102867423423 submits an acceptable edit, a moderator marks the edit as accepted, the question appears on the site and the user is released from Purgatory. ***For now...***

---

Edit and clarification:
-----------------------

Here's the use case from the Mod perspective:

1. Mod sees "low quality" or such flag in the queue.
2. Mod peeps question, perhaps expanding it to view more closely
3. Mod clicks "Purgatory..." link, popup ensues
	1. Mod chooses canned reason, such as "fix formatting"
	2. Mod enters custom reason

This takes *no more time, if not less, than current actions*. Currently, the mod performs all these steps, except they close the question as not real. Or, the mod may open the question in a new window to edit it. So, currently, *no more work has been added* to the moderator.

When the user has edited the question, it can either enter the current Pending Edits queue or another version of this queue that moderators only can view. 

Purgatory queue (mods only) use case:

1. Mod views the Purgatory queue
2. Mod views a pending edit, evaluates canned reason, decides if edit is good enough
	1. Mod chooses to accept edit, user is redeemed
	2. Mod rejects edit, optionally adding a custom reason why

Again, this is no more work than trolling the current edit queue. If pending Purgatory edits go into the current pending edits queue, *this wouldn't be necessary at all*.

**Believe me**, adding more work to mods is **never** my desire. I'm lazy. I believe this process will not only not cost more effort for mods, but may reduce work in future, will make the site easier on noobs, and increase the overall quality of questions.

As Bill says, 

![Bill the Lizard said it, that's all that matters.](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jrLCL.jpg)