On the topic of "policies" on policies, answer posts to What is the network policy regarding AI Generated content? got deleted with a staff comment saying:
Deleting this because we don't typically host answers on policy posts, if you wish you can create a new question on MSE for it.
Which is... strange. Like- where's the precedent?
If you plug [policy] is:q [discussion] answers:0 closed:no into the search bar, right now, there are six results, and none of those are posted by users who currently have a staff tag. Compare that with [policy] is:q [discussion] answers:1.. closed:no, which turns up results including:
- Creative Commons Licensing UI and Data Updates (23 answers)
- Updates to Privacy Policy (September 2021) (18 answers)
And on MSO:
- New help center article and banner on the site about GPT-Generated content (3 answers, and posted by the very same staff member who deleted the answers on What is the network policy regarding AI Generated content?. granted- it doesn't have the policy tag, but it's clearly about policies)
Even more mind-bending is that the post is locked with the following message (emphasis added):
This question is locked because it is an official policy or communication and can only be edited by staff. It is still accepting answers, comments, and other interactions.
And it's tagged discussion.
Another weird thing: all the three examples I listed above put the policy information in the question post, whereas What is the network policy regarding AI Generated content? chose to self-answer. So if anything, isn't that policy Q&A the one that's breaking precedent?
And the self-answer actually even fails to answer its own question, which asks "Stack Exchange released guidance to moderators on how to moderate AI Generated content. What does this guidance include?", and then gives an answer about what the policy excludes, but not what it includes...