<p>I'm all in favor of option 3: ask SE to lower the threshold for closing questions from 5 to 3 votes. (Importantly, the same should apply to the threshold for <em>reopening</em> a question. <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/help/reopen-questions">This is also the case at SO.</a>)</p>
<p>In addition, at SO, qualified users of 3000 rep minimum can cast <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/help/closed-questions">up to 50 close or reopen votes per day</a>. Here, <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/help/closed-questions">we only get 24 close (and presumably reopen) votes per day</a>. So I would also propose to raise these limits to 50 per day.</p>
<p>My personal impression is that a large majority of questions that need closing are really clear-cut cases. We don't need a consensus of five sufficiently experienced users. Three is plenty. And if something gets closed that shouldn't, then the same logic applies. I can't recall a question where a larger consensus would have been useful, and if so, we can always open a question on Meta.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I don't see a good way to increase participation in the review queues, although that would certainly be a worthwhile goal. I'm as guilty as the next user of not looking at them enough, simply because it's a thankless job. By definition, you don't see the kind of interesting and fun questions that draw you to CV, but the exact opposite.</p>
<p>So, as long as it's a thankless and boring job, let's at least increase our effectiveness by 67% (if 3 votes can close a question instead of requiring 5, then each vote is <span class="math-container">$\frac{5}{3}$</span> as effective).</p>
