Is there a rule prohibiting “follow-ups” [duplicate]

Question

My question was closed, with my requests for reopening being declined even after resolving every concern presented, except one. This stated that I cannot have multiple answers, with the person stating this saying that I was asking 3 questions, one being the main, one being a request for explanation, and another being a question about whether my idea is hard to prove/disprove. Is this a good reason to close my question, and/or is asking “multiple questions” not allowed?

Answer 1

Yes

When you say "follow-up" I assume what you mean is that, within a single post, you're asking a "main question" with one or more "follow-up" questions. I say this because asking a second, independent question on Main that is a "follow-up" to a previously asked question is completely permissible.

So, yes, they're a reason to close a question. If you click on the "Close" link on any question you'll find the following:

Needs more focus

This question currently includes multiple questions in one. It should focus on one problem only.

In other words, asking more than one question, no matter how related, is a technical infraction of Stack Exchange's rules. Note, Stack Exchange, not Worldbuilding.SE. It's not our rule, it's network-wide.

If you think this discussion is messy, search Meta for "Opinion-Based" and look at the dozens of discussions we've had about that network-wide close reason on a site that has a tag for "Magic."

Let's look at what you state are the three questions you feel should be permissible.

1. The main question

Can white holes travel faster than the speed of light?

2. A request for an explanation

And if this effect doesn’t apply, then what is it that bounds them to traveling slower than the speed of light?

3. "Whether my idea is hard to prove/disprove" (a request to review the idea)

do you think that I could get away with using this idea anyway?

Had it been asked better, question #1 isn't a bad fit for this site. My original problem with the question (and the reason I voted to close the question) is that you appeared to be asking for a factual answer involving a fictional issue. That's better addressed by Physics.SE or Astronomy.SE. Your original post didn't make it clear that you were writing a story, building a world, or that you know negative mass, etc., isn't real.

I remain a bit unconvinced that you understand the difference between a mathematical hypothesis and empirical evidence. The first is fiction until proven otherwise. The second is fact. If I'm wrong about this perception, I very much apologize. If I'm right, it's important that you learn to understand the difference.

Since, as the Help Center explains, our goal is to help people build imaginary worlds, we became stuck with what to do with your question. Because you presented yourself as believing the hypothesis was real, what you needed was an educational experience to help you better understand the issue. But that's not within the scope of our Stack. Technically, it's not within the scope of any Stack. Stack Exchange wants people to ask specific and reasonably objective questions that meet the expectations of the individual Stacks.

Which brings us to question #2. Giving you an education about astrophysics is not why we're here. Per the Tour, Stack Exchange is not a discussion forum. Per the Help Center, any question that can be reasonably answered with a book-length response is out of scope. It's a long way of again saying we're not here to give you an education.

As a quick aside, this is why we have problems with "tell me what's wrong with my idea" questions. The Help Center states that questions should not be asked in a way that produces answers of equal value. Infinite lists of things questions (meaning questions that are not asked with the expectation of a single, best answer) are off-topic here and "tell me what's wrong with my idea" questions are of that type.

The last question is scratching an itch that we haven't solved, yet. We're still thinking about review my idea questions. The problem is that they don't fit the Stack Exchange mold. Remember, Stack Exchange wants one specific reasonably-objective problem that needs a solution. In fact, it's intent is to be the go-to place to find solutions to problems. From their perspective, your individual desires don't come into this. From our perspective, we know that a creative process like worldbuilding must balance the individual needs of the querent with the business expectations of Stack Exchange.

To a degree....

So, yes, there is a rule against "follow-up" questions in the way that you're using the phrase. You're allowed to ask one and only one question per post. We're usually lenient with new users, but there were many other things wrong with your question, too.

I wish you'd asked this first in our Sandbox. The Sandbox's purpose is to help people learn how to ask questions on this site to meet our expectations while adhering to Stack Exchange's business model. All this could have been ironed out before you met your first slammed door (closed question). I still recommend it. We're happy to help you be successful — within the limits of Stack Exchange's rules and our policies.

Answer 2

Yes there are rules prohibiting multiple questions

If you are talking about this question, and that by follow-ups you mean asking multiple questions that follow one another, the answer is no, you cannot ask follow-ups within the same post as the main question. Let's start with the reference rules :

General guidelines for all questions

• [your question] Must be specific and answerable: What problem are you trying to solve?
  ^{From the help-center : what topics can I ask about here?}

Your question should be specific. Also note that "problem" is singular, with no "s".

What types of questions should I avoid asking?

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.
Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much. ^{From the help-center (again!) : what types of questions should I avoid asking?}

Asking multiple questions will tend to make it chatty. Moreover it makes answers much longer than necessary. As told in the tour, the motto of Stack-Exchange is "Ask questions, get answers, no distractions". The goal is to be as straightforward as possible in both questions and answers, and the site is designed for that. Multiple questions in a row tend to attract more questions both from you and answerers, creating long, unreadable threads of comments at best, mangled up mix of answers we don't know what was the question at worst. That's one big reason why it's forbidden.

Finally, know that the community is not overly pedantic. As such some edge-cases are allowed if each question are extremely closely related. For instance : "What is the maximum height of my ogre species? Can it reach the height of an elephant?" Answering the first question effectively answers the second, making this 2nd question more like a writing style to add additional details about what you want (➡️ I wish to make my ogres as big as elephants). This is not really a standalone question anymore. For the other cases... Well, consider you cannot ask them in the same post.

The solution

The solution to this issue is actually quite simple : Don't jump over horses, sharks and sheeps three at a time. Asking two questions at once is not really useful anyway if your 1st question get good answers which are yet inadequate for the 2nd query. Ask your main question, wait for answers, see if you need to know more, then write a second post with your follow-up question. This has been done with success a numerous amount of time.

If you wish to, you can succintly relate one question to another with a link. Just remember that each and every question should hold its own alone, so if you need important details in one question to ask another, you'll have to restate it. This is in part to prevent broken links from making your question unreadable at much later dates... And because it can be annoying to have multiple tabs open to follow you, too 😵.