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A couple of the post notices could really use some improvements in the copy:

citation needed

This post does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.

should be

citation needed

This post does not cite enough valid references or sources. Please help improve this article post by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.

because we would like to be able to use it on any post that has no valid references, or not enough, not only on posts without any links.

Also,

insufficient explanation

We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer: please explain why you're recommending it as a solution. Answers that don't explain anything will be deleted. See Good Subjective, Bad Subjective for more information.

should be

insufficient explanation

We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer or merely tell the readers where the answer can be found. : please explain why you're recommending it as a solution. Answers that don't explain anything will be deleted. See Good Subjective, Bad Subjective for more information.

because not all answers are "solutions", and also not all bad answers that produce link-rot are one-liners. We would like to apply it to any answer that it's equivalent to a one liner and not exactly a one-liner.

4

1 Answer 1

6

The "insufficient explanation" post notice currently reads:

We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer: please explain why you're recommending it as a solution. Answers that don't explain anything will be deleted. See Good Subjective, Bad Subjective for more information.

I love the Good Subjective, Bad Subjective post and would like to use this notice more often. But I don't use it much because of this unfortunate phrase:

Don't just give a one-line answer

It's rare on many non-programming sites (i.e. subjective sites ;) for answers to be literal one-liners, so there are lots of posts that ought to get this notice that are not one-line answers. Even if the answer happens to be just one line, this phrase diverts attention from the real problem: the answer doesn't really provide enough supporting details. Length of the answer is really a red herring.

Another issue is that it focuses on what the user did wrong, not what they could do to make things right. A notice from a mod is already sufficiently censorious, so I don't think we need to pile on with the negativity. Often times, this post notice is followed by deletion unless the answer is edited into shape (as noted in the notice itself).

Finally, the notice is too long and leaves the most helpful bit as an afterthought. Here's how I would word it:

We're looking for full answers that provide some explanation and context. See Good Subjective, Bad Subjective for more details. Answers that don't explain anything will be deleted.

I think that fixes my issues with the notice.

By the way, the link to the Back It Up! Principle from Good Subjective, Bad Subjective is 404'd.

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