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This question Warwick or Durham University for Mathematics was (presumably) closed as a shopping question. The resulting system generated text however does not say so (only curtly remarks “this question is off-topic”), instead seems to address people with closing privileges, inviting them to edit or migrate the question if possible. It is not helpful to OP.

Is this because I am one of the close voters, and other users see a “shopping question” text? If yes, that’s new, isn’t it - I think I used to see the boiler plate text stating a closure reason?

Note that, per Massimo’s answer below, the question has now been re-closed with the closure reason stated.

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    Does this answer your question? New audience-specific texts for our custom close reasons
    – GoodDeeds
    Aug 18, 2021 at 15:30
  • @GoodDeeds: Thanks! It might be related to system changes, but the displayed text (which gives no reason at all) is not part of the new boiler plates, for all I know. Aug 18, 2021 at 15:37
  • It comes from the privileged-user guidance here: academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4711/68109 . This is not the same text the OP will see, they see the post-owner guidance text. The general post notice is seen by everyone, which is the "curt" part.
    – GoodDeeds
    Aug 18, 2021 at 15:38
  • @GoodDeeds: Thanks again! That explains the text. That said, what was missing the most was giving a closure reason to OP. Instead of the new boiler plate for, say, shopping question, it just curtly said “This question is off-topic” (off-topic being a link to a list of all closure reasons). Aug 18, 2021 at 15:45
  • I see, thanks, so I misunderstood the focus of the question. I have retracted my duplicate close vote.
    – GoodDeeds
    Aug 18, 2021 at 15:46
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    @GoodDeeds: My question was two-fold (no closure reason/why do I see the text), and you did answer my second question. So thanks again! Aug 18, 2021 at 15:48

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It’s probably due to the fact that the votes to close were for different reasons, not only for shopping.

I have now re-closed the question as a shopping one so that the OP gets a clearer message.

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    Thanks! Correct me here, in the case you suggest, wasn’t in the past the highest voted reason displayed? If that is still the case, does this happen when two (or more) reasons get the same vote count? That said, the old text seemed to indicate that we had a shopping question as one suggestion was to “re-formulate the question as helping the user make a choice instead of asking for a list,” or so. Aug 18, 2021 at 15:35
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    Oh, yes, that must have been it. The second text suggestion was to migrate it, so we probably had equal votes for “shopping” and “not within the scope.” That should explain what happened, but I’m not fond of the system-imposed resolution (that I realize you here at academia have no power over) resulting in “no real feedback to OP”. Aug 18, 2021 at 15:41
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    @gnometorule I'm away from my computer and cannot investigate much on what's happened. I hope someone else can add more details; otherwise, I'll check in the next days. Aug 18, 2021 at 16:06

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