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In several other stack-exchange sites, "broad" questions are quickly punished due to frequently the other sites being about subjects where you need precision.

For example with math, usually there is only one, or a few correct solutions for a problem, if the question then has "infinite" solutions, the question itself that is wrong.

But not only a question I asked, but several of the questions that answered my doubts, were closed due to being "too broad", thus I ask: does Worldbuilding follow Stackoverflow, Math, Physics, etc... precise rules regarding this? Should you ask questions only if there are only one anwser possible? If that is the case, how can be questions be asked in a way that prevent the consumers of the content in the future from finding "word of god" spoilers in the questions?

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    $\begingroup$ There should be one "best" answer, even if there may be many correct answers. $\endgroup$
    – Tim B
    Dec 21, 2016 at 9:31
  • $\begingroup$ Would you mind elaborating on: "..., how can be questions be asked in a way that prevent the consumers of the content in the future from finding "word of god" spoilers in the questions?" ? Thanks :) $\endgroup$
    – dot_Sp0T
    Dec 30, 2016 at 9:12
  • $\begingroup$ @dot_Sp0T for example I saw more than once peopel asking for more and more and more specific lore detail to answer a question, seemly to attempt to rule out all possible answers except one (akin to other SE sites). The question is then: how do you ask the question, in a way that future fans don't stumble into the question and read spoilers by accident? $\endgroup$
    – speeder
    Jan 3, 2017 at 0:20

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Few answers rather than one

Due to the exceedingly broad nature of material that WB covers, there are frequent situations where there are more than one equally good but very different answers.

I used to think there should be only one "best" answer to a question but I've changed my mind. "Too broad" is mostly a tool to make sure that answers can be created in a reasonable amount of time and with a manageable level of complexity.

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    $\begingroup$ And that there are some bounds -- "brainstorm about my broad idea" can generate dozens of responses that are completely different, with no means of evaluating them against the question. We need some parameters. $\endgroup$
    – Monica Cellio
    Dec 20, 2016 at 22:41
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I've only been on WB for 6 months... it took a while to get an intuitive grasp of "too broad" category. I'm still not sure I can define it, but there is a difference between questions that are infinitely open-ended and questions that are open but allow for oneupmanship (isn't English awesome that we have a word like that?).

"What's the best way to XYZ?" is often a good question. There may be infinite ways to achieve XYZ, but each answer vies to provide the most efficient/most interesting/most gruesome/most solution. Compare that with "What are all the ways to achieve XYZ?" We usually get those questions from things like, "If I change Q, what are all of the effects on the world?" A complete categorization of all the effects is likely too broad.

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There doesn't need to be one "correct" answer, however there needs to be one "best" answer.

For a question to work well in this format it should be possible to rate answers between each other and select one that is better than the others to upvote and/or accept.

Multiple answers may correctly answer the question, but specifying how to compare those answers with each other is an important part of asking a good question.

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