Is there any value to keeping question 1998 around?

Question

The question "https://islam.stackexchange.com/q/1998/22" has recently resurfaced on this site; examining it, I question whether it has any constructive value here at all:

• The question is highly ambiguous; it is not clear at all whether it's asking about Alawites or Alevites
• The question is asking for "The Sunni and mainstream Shi'a" opinions, yet the accepted answer only sources one particular Sunni perspective. None of the answers directly and completely cover the entire scope of the question
• The accepted answer is heavily cribbed from an anti-Shi'ite polemic site which has been brought up before
• Even phrased about as neutral as possible for this sort of question (thanks to Ansari), it's still essentially asking us the site to pass judgement on a particular group

Given that this question is now considered "answered" by not only the questioner, but by the Stack Exchange infrastructure itself, it is no longer getting regularly bumped to the front page; it is unlikely to attract new answers. What you see here is more-or-less what will be presented to any new users asking this question.

As written, this whole thread does not reflect well on this site, or on Stack Exchange as a whole. Does this question provide sufficient value to keep around at all, or should it be deleted entirely? If it is to be kept, what should be done to make it more…palatable?

---

<<Update: The thread has now been deleted.>>

Answer 1

No. It should be deleted entirely.

• The issues you cite are legitimate concerns. The question is neither clear nor are any of the possible ways it could go (depending on clarification) questions that would be appropriate on the site at all.

• No attempt to fix it has been made since 2012.

• Any future attempt to fix it should probably a) interact with this meta post first to figure out how to frame it constructively and b) ask it as a new question because the baggage of an accepted answer to a non-constructive framing isn't worth messing with.

• Leaving it as a closed question that clearly has no constructive future is a "broken window" that only invites the more participation of exactly the kind you don't want to see. Even if no new answers can be posted it serves no purpose except to rile up emotions.