I've recently read several cases where comments or answers seem to be deliberately taking apart the question. This isn't new, it's been going on for a while now, in both old questions and new ones.
We are a worldbuilding site. It's natural for some of our questions to contain things that don't make sense. If and when the OP wants the idea torn apart (in context), the reality-check tag can be used.
Examples:
- My old jellyfish question (where the comments are now a chatroom) shows one such case, where people question the premise of the post instead of answering the post.
- This zombie question where I try fairly hard to rip it apart (but that might just be my bias because I've a) seen too many zombie questions that don't make sense and b) seen too many horrible questions in the same pattern by the same person.
- My old question for Sea creature moving via rotational motions - many answers simply state a "can't happen" instead of trying to find a way to make it happen. (Note: That question contains the reality-check tag, albeit used incorrectly)
- More recently, We finally have a weapon to win the war against the aliens. We don't know how to deploy it (which also happens to be my question.)
- World where gender roles are swapped also seems to have the OP defending his premise
This also brings up the question of when reality-check should be used, but I think that's covered pretty well here.
Should we encourage this "rip apart the question" behavior even if there's no reality check tag?