Are we missing a close reason along the lines of "there are no stupid questions ... oh, I stand corrected, yes there are"?

Question

About this question: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/10959/96 Which asks:

I'm hoping to enroll onto a PhD program. I've heard that twitter might help me find a PhD program. This question is inspired by this video in the British Ecological Society Careers YouTube channel: http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=J9uEYEcCcFY I have not used twitter before. How can I use twitter to help find a PhD? For example, is there a particular group/channel on twitter that advertises PhDs?

And the OP also commented:

I've Googled virtually daily for the past two years without success

This just seems a terrible question to me. But I see no close votes, and when I look through the close menu, I'm not sure I see anything that really fits.

But do we really want this and questions like it?

Is this question's continued existence, evidence that we are we missing a close reason? And if so, what is that reason?

Answer 1

I think you're missing the point of closing a question. Questions are closed, broadly speaking, for being either inappropriate for our forum for whatever reason. Stupid but appropriate questions should not be closed; they should be voted down into oblivion, as that's the tool that we use to convey that message. Just because we have a hammer doesn't mean everything is a nail :)

Answer 2

This is a tough situation. It's an on-topic question, so it shouldn't be closed as a violation of the FAQs, regardless of how sophomoric it is. That sets a bad precedent.

The only above-board way to make such questions "go away" is for the community to downvote it into obscurity. Expressing disapproval of a question is allowed, and I think would be appropriate for questions that are deemed unserious by the community. Even then, though, the onus is on the down voters to explain why they're downvoting the question.