Forum:"Versus" Questions on the Answers Wiki

Forums: War Room → "Versus" Questions on the Answers Wiki

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The Avatar Answers Wiki is still being worked on by Lady Lostris and Natsu11, who are doing a great job. However, I noticed quite a few of the questions are questions like "Character-1 VS Character-2". These questions are unanswerable and not constructive, so I suggest we ban them from the Wiki. --  Olorin The White  Talk  Contribs  Friends 01:15, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

I agree on this. Those kinds of questions cannot be justified. "Answers" to those questions are more opinionated than informative. The Ultimate Waterbender 01:30, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

Obvious agreement. I can't imagine anyone should suggest otherwise? Vulmen (talk • contribs) 01:44, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

Might as well, but the only foreseeable problem would be whether or not this ban would be honored. Sirius 13 FP 01:47, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

Agreed. Non constructive, redundant, and don't have an actual 100% true or false answer. Rassilon of Old ^{(Talk - Teru - Help)} 01:50, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

I am admin there; atleast message me! Olorin: Thanks. :) I do hate those type of questions but a Q&A site will have those questions. No one can help it. Also as Sirius said, would everyone follow it? I don't think so. I and LL can delete those questions and add a line in the policy, but what about other users? If consensus says so, I will ban it, but I don't fully agree. – Natsu11 · (wall • Nanatsu no Taizai) 01:59, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

You must decide for yourself if it will be upheld, the deletion ability lies with you, and you are perfectly capable of doing so.--  Olorin The White  Talk  Contribs  Friends 02:00, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

I agree. The answers for the questions are all based on opinion. I think we should ban those types of questions.--_{Back for Korra Folks :)  Talk  Contribs  Following}  02:18, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

I'd like to ask Natsu if there is a kind of 'question standards policy' on the Answers Wiki? If not, there probably should be. Rassilon of Old ^{(Talk - Teru - Help)} 02:22, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

Hmmm...I would say that I agree, but like Rass says it depends on the standards policy and protocol on the Answers Wiki. The problem is that these are subjective "what if" questions that people can have different opinions on and they distract from more informative questions. But it depends on the nature and mission of the Answers Wiki. I can't give a definitive answer to that - I'd like to hear Natsu and Lady Lostris weigh in on that before I would support or oppose banning these types of questions. --AvatarRokus Ghost (Message me • Read my fanon) 03:56, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

I agree that these questions are subjective and therefor no propper answer can be given, but banning them wouldn't work. In my opinion, people will still ask them, even is there is a rule against them. And besides, those are not the only subjective question. There are often questions like "who is the best whatever?" or "who is prettiest?", "do you think...?" or "what if....?". We could ban them, yes, but Natsu and I would spend an incredible amount of our time on the answers wiki then just deleting every subjective question out there. I don't think that a policy rule will stop the incoming flow of subjective questions. But as always, I will stand by a communnity consensus.
@Rass: No, there isn't, but you are right, there should be one. Natsu and I will make one, thanks for bringing that to our attention. Lady Lostris 09:23, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

Hmmm...I see your point. Since there are so many subjective questions it does not seem right to single out "versus" questions. They should not be banned - I have not spent a lot of time on the Answers Wiki and I know you speak from experience. Perhaps instead of banning them, separate categories could be created to separate clear-cut questions from versus, what if and other subjective questions. --AvatarRokus Ghost (Message me • Read my fanon) 09:32, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

Personally, I am more for the seperate category thing, although, we already have a truckload full of categories (that's another point that needs to be fixed there, possibly by creating a clear "which category" guide. Most of the nony's don't add categories anyway). Lady Lostris 09:38, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

Question standards policy? Good idea, will make one today. Also as LL said, questions like "who is the best whatever?" or "who is prettiest?", "do you think...?" or "what if....?" should be banned. – Natsu11 · (wall • Nanatsu no Taizai) 10:43, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

Ok, I am LL have also decided to make a User Group for the betterment of the wiki. Contact me if you want to join. – Natsu11 · (wall • Nanatsu no Taizai) 11:16, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

I don't think subjective questions should be banned, main reason: those are inevitable, even if you make a policy about it. It's not like we can go around warning and blocking every nony that posts a subjective question just because it is against the policy. Most of them are one time visitors anyway. I suggest we make a clear category for them, so that everyone knows it is an opinionated answers, not a canonical. Lady Lostris 12:32, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

You've misunderstood me a little here. The question standard policy is obviously, not going to stop the questions from happening, as most nonys (the majority of question askers) and users don't have a look at the policy of a wiki first thing. I know I didn't read Avatar Wiki Policy for a good two to three weeks. The standard policy would be for reference when warning a user. If a user asks a question which violates policy, you can easily say; "look, you've violated the Question Standard Policy of the wiki, and your question has been deleted." This way, when you delete questions for whatever reason, you have that piece of written information that you can refer people to, instead of saying, "the question is nonsense," you can say, "the questions violates such-and-such of Avatar Answers Wiki policy. Rassilon of Old ^{(Talk - Teru - Help)} 12:40, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

Can we add duplicate questions are not allowed too? LL: The site is not for opinionated answers. It is for confirmed ones. I will add a switch for duplicate questions in Vandal1. – Natsu11 · (wall • Nanatsu no Taizai) 12:45, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

Rass: There is some sort of policy here. Is that what you meant? That can always be elaborated.
Natsu: I know it's not for opinionated answers, I was just pointing out that an incredible amount of questions has an opinionated answer, you can't start blocking them all. And adding duplicate question to the vandal warning seems quite useless to me since it will most likely be used on a one time visiting nony, but if you think it is needed, then fine by me. Lady Lostris 12:53, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

Its just for some guys who really ask repeated duplicate questions. :) – Natsu11 · (wall • Nanatsu no Taizai) 13:45, July 11, 2011 (UTC)

Ok, so as there has been no consensus for this, I have made up with some policies:

1. Duplicate questions, questions that have been asked multiple times before, will be deleted on sight by the Administrators.
   1. That said, questions that have only been asked 2 or 3 times, shouldn't be deleted as users have less chance of finding them.
2. Obvious questions like "Can I bend" should be deleted.
3. Versus questions shouldn't be deleted and they should be answered like all questions. However, they will be deleted if they fall into the category of duplicate questions.
4. Questions that are un-answerable or questions whose answers don't have any information to support them, will have a answer stating that the question can't be answered.

Additions or changes are definitely welcome. – Natsu11 · (wall • Nanatsu no Taizai) 13:49, July 17, 2011 (UTC)

I agree with your policies Natsu. Renata ^Talk 22:05, July 17, 2011 (UTC)

I'd like to point out versus questions are unanswerable, because it is all based on opinion and has no real answer.--  Olorin The White  Talk  Contribs  Friends 22:08, July 17, 2011 (UTC)

Maybe we could solve the versus problem with just creating a simple poll as an answer instead of deleting it. It's easy for the ones answering the question, the one asking the question will get an answer and once we got all the possibilities in a poll, the new versus questions can be deleted for "Duplicate" reasons. Lady Lostris 09:47, July 22, 2011 (UTC)

I don't think this is needed. Very few of the users know, or understand the markup for polls, which is one of the advanced ones. It doesn't create much difference anyway. – Natsu11 · (wall • Nanatsu no Taizai) 10:46, July 22, 2011 (UTC)

I believe it offers the perfect solution for our problem with these questions. A poll is incredibly easy to create, everyone can do it and then the question is answered and can be catalogued without further thoughts needed. For those who don't know how to create a poll but are voting on this: you create a poll by adding this to the page:
<poll>
Title of poll
Choice 1
Choice 2
etc.
</poll> Lady Lostris 10:58, July 22, 2011 (UTC)

This has got no consensus on that one so I am opening a vote for the deletion of "Versus" questions. State your reasons please.

Voting

Support

1. Weak support — I think that optionated questions are not to be in the Answers Wiki. We can't, however, go around warning/telling users or deleting those questions as many of those questions come around everyday. Plus, most anonymous users or sometimes even registered users don't go looking at the policies before asking questions. – Natsu11 · (wall • Nanatsu no Taizai) 10:58, July 18, 2011 (UTC)
2. Support — For my reasons stated above and per Natsu. Lady Lostris 01:49, July 19, 2011 (UTC)
3. Support — Like Lady Lostris said, based on my reasons above and Natsu. The Ultimate Waterbender 01:58, July 19, 2011 (UTC)
4. Support —Per the two admins. --AvatarRokus Ghost (Message me • Read my fanon) 02:00, July 19, 2011 (UTC)
5. Support — Per Summerboy. TAD, theavatardemotivator - talk 13:54, July 21, 2011 (UTC)
6. Support — I agree with Natsu11's policy. -- AvatarFreak21 The First Storybender http://i1221.photobucket.com/albums/dd470/Renatabls/aang-fnrobe-c1.gif 14:03, July 21, 2011 (UTC)
7. Support —VJavatar The Last Wikibender(AR) 15:31, July 21, 2011 (UTC)
8. Support — Per Natsu. Dcasawang1 (talk) 16:39, July 21, 2011 (UTC)
9. Support — There are blogs for that kind of user vs. user questions, it's uneeded and it takes up space. TyLeeFan421 22:12, July 21, 2011 (UTC)
10. Support — The answers portal should remain factually based in the interests of its trustworthiness as a resource. The 888th Avatar (talk) 23:18, July 21, 2011 (UTC)
11. Weak support — Per Natsu. AvaFan MsgMe 08:48, July 22, 2011 (UTC)
12. Support — Like those endless Batman vs. Supes debates of my youth, it's all opinion. "Who was Aang's Earthbending instructor?" has an answer. "Toph vs. Bumi -- who would win?" while fun to discuss, does not. Keep those in the blogs where they belong. DesertDog (talk) 09:44, July 22, 2011 (UTC)
13. Support — Per everyone - the answers given would most likely be opinionated rather than actual fact. --Tsumi'no'Hime-chan 09:49, July 22, 2011 (UTC)

Oppose

This discussion is closed. The result of this discussion was:
"Versus" questions will not be allowed.
Please do not edit this discussion.