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Is there a way to show only (or hide for that matter) 'on hold' questions?

Just to clarify, I don't want to filter out closed questions. Instead I'm wondering if there's a way to show only questions that are currently on hold. The original idea was to look to see if there are any on hold / off-topic questions that could be salvaged with edits. I only mentioned hiding them because I figured maybe there would be a way to reverse that to show an on hold only view.

I did try guessing at some status searches, but didn't have any luck. Here's what I've tried:

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I would suggest making the suggestion in the Stack Exchange Meta; though as a feature request, I do not think it would have the practicality to be implemented. \$\endgroup\$
    – Gnemlock
    Mar 23 '17 at 2:07
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Use a closed=yes search query. In the search results, click the "newest" tab.

"On hold" is not functionally different from "closed." It's purely a nomenclature thing in order to make the status seem less confrontational. A closed question displays its closure status as "on hold" for the first five days of closure, after which the text "on hold" changes to "closed." There is nothing else different about the two statuses.

If your purpose is to look for questions that can be salvaged with edits, filtering by closed=yes and sorted by date is a reasonable way to accomplish this.

Questions that have been on hold for more than five days (that is, those that are "closed") are perfectly valid candidates for edit salvage as well.

The 10k moderation tools can show you recent close votes and recently closed questions as well, but it's not as friendly a view and it is hidden behind a reputation gate.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you for pointing out that "on hold" is just a form of closed. I assumed incorrectly that since SO prevents adding [on hold] to a question title, it was its own status. I'd prefer to focus on on-holds since it seems like a greater chance to re-engage users who might otherwise never come back, but appreciate knowing that older closed questions might also benefit from edits. \$\endgroup\$
    – Pikalek
    Mar 24 '17 at 1:26
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There is a way to get *some* results, yes, but it's hackish and not reliable a lot.

You can use the StackExchange Data Explorer to perform an SQL query and search for the questions.

Just for the fun of it, I've made one here.

As its title implies, it's very hackish, uses magic numbers that I know nothing of (I've noticed a pattern in the data) and you don't have up-to-date results because the database dump is old.

In fact, the data is updated once a week

The data is updated early every Sunday morning around 3:00 UTC.

(Source)

So you can spend your Sunday trying to salvage questions that are on hold from up to the previous ~Tuesday/Wednesday, but I guess that it'll get boring after that because of no new stuff coming your way :P

@Josh's method is better ;)

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks. It's too bad the data isn't refreshed more often, or that'd be a really slick solution. Your post did lead me to the Stack Exchange API; I might look into that down the road. \$\endgroup\$
    – Pikalek
    Mar 24 '17 at 1:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Pikalek Yeah, the data is really there for the geeks out there that like to check stats, I think, that's why they don't update it often; they don't need to. But nice, the API! \$\endgroup\$
    – Vaillancourt Mod
    Mar 24 '17 at 1:39
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No. As per previously-raised meta, you can filter on hold questions only by filtering out all closed questions. Simply add the parameter "closed=no" to your question. This filters out all questions that have been closed, including questions that are on hold.

Likewise, you can only look for on hold questions by looking for all questions that have been closed with the parameter "closed=yes".

There are a bunch of useful search parameters you can find by looking at the "Advanced Search Tips" to the right of the fully-fledged search bar.

On the search page (https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/search), "Advanced Search Tips" appears to the right of the search box.

Along with some other useful tips, it provides additional modifiers to filter search results based off the status of the question.

closed:yes
duplicate:no
migrated:no
wiki:no

You can also find out more about advanced searching in the help centre.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm not looking to filter closed questions, I'm looking to filter questions that have been placed on hold. \$\endgroup\$
    – Pikalek
    Mar 23 '17 at 1:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yes, I read it. It tells how to do other things. It does not specifically address on hold status. I also searched the searching help for the term 'hold' & got zero hits. \$\endgroup\$
    – Pikalek
    Mar 23 '17 at 2:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Pikalek, the point I am trying to make is that this question was already asked, and the above functionality is the best there currently is. "on hold" has no implementation as a parameter, either. Alternativley, you could filter back in duplicates, not other closed questions. \$\endgroup\$
    – Gnemlock
    Mar 23 '17 at 2:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ Sorry if my lead off was unclear. I'm actually interested in the opposite of what your reference is asking for (i.e. sometimes I'm just in the mood to help on-hold off topic questions). \$\endgroup\$
    – Pikalek
    Mar 23 '17 at 2:44
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Pikalek, my answer still stands; there is no way to do it. Note that in any consideration, you can use the opposite words of "yes" and "no" to filter results to only show or ommit the particular search function. The fact that you can not filter out these questions is confirmation to the fact that you can not only filter for these questions. \$\endgroup\$
    – Gnemlock
    Mar 23 '17 at 2:54

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