-1

I'm talking about questions like this one who is attracting a lot of answers (23 so far with 8 of them being deleted).

We already added a "controversial post" notice after this meta question was asked. However, to me, this was and isn't enough.

I believe that any question attracting a "flood" of answers should be removed from HNQ. I'm thinking that, if an answer already has 20 answers, any new answer is very unlikely to be useful and just become another answer we have to moderate and remove as duplicate (or low quality, or etc...). So, in short, any new answer to such a question is just costing us energy and time.

So, should we remove a question from HNQ if the question as gathered too many answers already?

If yes, what should be the "answer limit" of such a question?

Also, is there some other indicator we could look at that will indicate to use that a question would do better outside of HNQ?

2 Answers 2

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12

Not really.

In my opinion, the number of answers shouldn't be the only reason to remove a question from HNQ. There could be good answers and remember the answers can still be added even after removing from HNQ. There are other factors must be taken into account before making that decision.

To repeat EmC's answer regarding when we should remove a question from HNQ, we should only do this when there are too many low-quality answers coming and protecting the question isn't being helpful. Closing the question will remove it from HNQ automatically but we can't really close it because it's well-defined and on-topic. That's when we can consider removal.

However, the number of answers shouldn't really be a reason for removal.

11
  • I don't disagree, but the number of answers a question gets might be a sign that there is something else not going well with the fact that the question is on HNQ. Also, to be clear, I don't think it's an issue that people can still answer. I think the issue is being with attracting attention from people who aren't that familiar with IPS and are more likely to give low quality answers than the people who regularly visite the site outside of HNQ.
    – Ael
    Nov 25, 2019 at 11:02
  • That's why I said it shouldn't be a single reason for removal.
    – A J Mod
    Nov 25, 2019 at 11:04
  • Do you have ideas about what else we could look at to decide if a question should stay on HNQ or not?
    – Ael
    Nov 25, 2019 at 11:05
  • Also we already leave suggestions for improvements for people who are not familiar with IPS.
    – A J Mod
    Nov 25, 2019 at 11:05
  • @Ælis I have mentioned it in the second paragraph.
    – A J Mod
    Nov 25, 2019 at 11:06
  • How do you define "too many" then? And when do we decide that an answer is "low quality"? When an answer is deleted? As soon as someone post a comment asking for backup and someone else agrees (upvote the comment)? And what about the answers that needed backup but that are later edited to added them? Do we count them too in our "too many low quality answers"?
    – Ael
    Nov 25, 2019 at 11:09
  • 1) I can't give you a number for that. We can look at it case by case. 2) Look for the IPS policies regarding answers to determine if an answer is low-quality. 3) If an answer gets edited to satisfy IPS policies, it shouldn't be a LQP anymore.
    – A J Mod
    Nov 25, 2019 at 11:16
  • "but we can't really close it because it's well-defined and on-topic." Why? On RPG SE a post of mien once was being closed as "unclear what you are asking" And when I asked on meta about clarification, they said My OP was in fact on topic and clear, but it generated a lot of answers, which ignored the core question and posted answers to a underlying problem which wasn't asked and the not expressed nor asked question that was being answered would be off-topic so they closed my On-Topic OP for being "generating a high amount of bad quality answers." So why we couldn't do that, too?
    – dhein
    Nov 25, 2019 at 12:24
  • 1
    @dhein if I recall correctly, we talked about one of yours being closed on RPG for being primarily opinion based too? So if a question is unclear (getting answers that address different things), or opinion based (getting mostly only opinions), this is something the community can do. So perhaps an answer/new meta question arguing this is necessary by this point (e.g. use some answers as examples) should be written then. Also, it might help if you could link to meta posts that explain how RPG decides these things, it will make it easier for people on IPS to see how much sense this makes.
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Nov 25, 2019 at 12:45
  • @Tinkeringbell am on mobile right now, I can link that later/tomorrow. Mind pinging me a reminder in chat? :)
    – dhein
    Nov 25, 2019 at 12:47
  • @Tinkeringbell: This was the related situation on RPG: rpg.meta.stackexchange.com/q/8864/15211
    – dhein
    Nov 25, 2019 at 15:18
-4

Here is what I think could be a good "answer limit":

  • 5 answers is okay. 5 isn't that much, so keeping the question on HNQ shouldn't be an issue IMO.

  • 10 answers, I don't know.

  • 15 answers is already too much. I think that, if we hit the 15 answers limit, the question doesn't really need to stay on HNQ anymore.

  • 20 answers is definitively too much. I think the question should definitively be "quicked out" of HNQ.

So, with a threshold of 15, here are the question we would have eventually quicked out of HNQ in the last month:

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