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While answering this, I realized that the "insufficient explanation" post notice had potential to be quite useful on sites like MO, Physics, Chem (possibly Math, Bio, CogSci, and the other science sites), but in its current state is quite useless.

The current "insufficient explanation" post notice is:

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.

It seems to be for recommendation/subjective questions. I actually don't see the need of it, since a good subjective question (refer Good Subjective, Bad Subjective and Q&A is hard, let's go shopping) explicitly asks for explanation. With that in mind, an answer which doesn't explain something can easily be commented on + deleted as Not An Answer. I don't see the need for a post notice here.

On Physics and Chem, we get plenty of answers which technically answer the question (and are thus not deletable), but are quite unsatisfying because they don't explain anything (for example this answer).

I propose a different wording. Maybe this could be a separate post notice, or it could replace the current one on sites that want it (or all sites):

insufficient explanation - We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer: please explain the reasons behind your answer.

This is no longer tailored specifically for subjective questions, and is now useful for placing a banner on one-liner answers.

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  • 3
    +1, would vote again.
    – user102937
    Jun 26, 2013 at 16:29
  • 1
    @RobertHarvey Care to explain that comment? (Coming soon: Comment notices) ;-) Jun 26, 2013 at 16:31
  • 1
    I think the observation is spot on; the only time we ever use these notices is for answers that don't provide sufficient explanation, never for product recommendations; we delete those.
    – user102937
    Jun 26, 2013 at 16:45

1 Answer 1

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+50

Are you sure this hasn't been solved already? Are they configurable per-site? Because currently that post-notice (at least on Movies & TV) reads:

We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer; explain why your answer is right, ideally with citations. Answers that don't include explanations may be removed.

I don't know if that's the wording on all sites, but neither do I think those post-notices are per-site configurable, nor does this sound very site-specific. It already sounds like a good compromise for all sites, but also quite fitting to scientific sites in particular, and pretty much like the wording you propose.

So I'd say this problem has already been solved behind your back and was just not marked accordingly.

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    Exists on physics too. Good catch! Aug 13, 2015 at 21:26
  • You (or anybody else here) wouldn’t happen to know whether moderators can edit it (and how) or whether it takes a CM?
    – Wrzlprmft
    Aug 14, 2015 at 11:19
  • @Wrzlprmft Likely not, it doesn't seem per-site configurable at all. But no, I don't know it. But that wasn't really what the question seems to be about anyway. Aug 14, 2015 at 11:19

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