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Hello, all!

Is it recommended / allowed to answer example questions in Area 51?

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  • Can you clarify a bit? You mention Meta - are you suggesting answering the example questions in the new Discussion section? Suggesting that they be addressed in the Meta of the beta site? Or something else? – Grace Note♦ Jan 31 '11 at 16:59
  • For those confused by @Grace Note's comment, the original title (which I edited while Grace was typing) said "meta" instead of "Area 51." – Pops Jan 31 '11 at 17:01
  • Apparently I did a confusing mistake in the title of the questio. I am sorry. Thank you for clarifying it, Popular Demand, that is exactly what I was trying to say. – brandizzi Jan 31 '11 at 18:14
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    Related; and why we don't allow answering example questions: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/70576/… – Robert Cartaino Jan 31 '11 at 19:18
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I would not recommend it because there is no real purpose to this. The example questions are used to help define the scope and feel of the site. Answers aren't really useful in the define stage.

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    +1, answers just clutter up the pages and distract from the real purpose of A51 – Pops Jan 31 '11 at 17:00
  • Well, in this case wouldn't be useful to have it stated at the Area 51 FAQ? Or isn't this question frequently asked? – brandizzi Feb 1 '11 at 12:07
  • @brandizzi, I haven't seen it asked before. But that doesn't mean this is the first time, but I don't think it is a very common question. – jzd Feb 1 '11 at 12:10
  • Well, I missed some documentation about it, but maybe Meta questions can take this role... – brandizzi Feb 1 '11 at 18:19
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I do agree with @jzd mostly, but I think it is not so absolute as he states.

Giving this discussion a chance, and to balance a bit:

Allowing example responses could not be such a bad idea since I have seen question I though were bad or useless get excellent very helpful answers.

I think the quality of the answers is a good indicator of the quality of the answers (caveat: exceptions do exist).

Just wanted to add another point of view.

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  • I see questions themselves as very critical to define a site's scope. I guess I assume that questions will get good answers and therefore draw the line at example answers being just noise. – jzd Feb 1 '11 at 20:27
  • @jzd ok that is an interesting perpective but letting people answered will also be a test to see if there is a critical mass of qualified individuals for the site – Trufa Feb 1 '11 at 20:38

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