Pairing of an ego fed by making "contributions" to the community with an inability to contribute in a way that adds to the knowledge base.

It seems like it's wrong that removing contributions would count as a contribution.

As programmers, aren't we proud when we can get rid of lots of code?

Not if we randomly yank good code

Perhaps a good gamification would be to freeze their accounts if they close too much?

That means that if spammers spam enough questions for the mods to shut down, the mods' accounts will be frozen and spammers will be able to spam unchallenged.

Also, that requires fine-tuning of the "too much".

We're talking about legit, but bad questions.

I'd expect actual spam questions to be closed automatically, similar to spam email.

Did you just describe the systemic dilemma of social media where:

- value is judged by how controversial something is, but;

- users who “crossed the line” are “not tolerated” and banned?