Questions tagged [answers]
This tag is for questions about answers: how to answer, whether specific answers are appropriate, and so forth.
33
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Should our default position be that answers should be science-/logic-based, rather than magic-based?
We are seeing some questions which receive answers that deal with magic. There isn't anything wrong in building worlds where magic exists, but there are two main issues that I can see:
Magic systems ...
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When is "that's not possible" an appropriate answer?
Every once in a while, we do get questions where "that's not possible" is a valid answer to the question as asked (with perhaps further clarification in comments). Sometimes the question gives ...
- 29k
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2
answers
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Are answers solely referencing novels/movies/etc. okay?
In my time on Worldbuilding, I've seen loads of answers along the lines of
I remember reading a book with a similar scenario: [Insert book name here] by [Insert author name here]. In it, [long plot ...
HDE 226868Mod
- 101k
33
votes
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answers
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Real Life cannot be an overriding limitation on any question unless specifically requested
I have finally found the perfect question to kick-start this discussion concerning what I believe is a growing undesirable behavior on Worldbuilding
How can the Sea of Japan be drained?
The OP wasn'...
- 122k
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Accepted answer is a mix of given answers
I am new on this site, I asked this question about the logistics of corpse disposal for inspiration on a short story I'm working on. After reading the answers I decided on my own version which ...
- 1,023
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Sandbox for Proposed Answers
What is the Sandbox?
This "Sandbox" is a place where Worldbuilding.SE users can get feedback on prospective answers they are writing. This is useful because writing a clear and fully ...
- 10.4k
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4
answers
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Challenging Questions' Premises
This is something I've seen cropping up quite a bit lately, and has made me pause and think. Sometimes questions are based on faulty or questionable premises, one such question would be this one, ...
- 7,006
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Why is Worldbuilding Stack Exchange so good at answering questions?
This is written with my metaphorical mod hat fully off and hanging on the wall next to my real hats.
I moderate two other Stack Exchange sites, History of Science and Mathematics and Mythology. They'...
HDE 226868Mod
- 101k
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votes
9
answers
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Should we delete answers that don't meet the requirements of the hard-science tag?
Around the beginning of August, Stack Exchange created a custom post notice for Worldbuilding. Basically, moderators manually add the notice to all questions tagged hard-science, and then may add it ...
HDE 226868Mod
- 101k
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answers
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Answers that contradict Questions: how to respond?
Related: Should workarounds be suggested when the question implies an impossibilty?
That question is about questions that are (roughly) of the form, "In a world with feature X, how could phenomenon Y ...
- 2,057
10
votes
8
answers
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'It won't work' - challenging the frame of a question
I think it is time to have a discussion about the amount of challenging the frame of the question that we have on this site; a follow up to Possible new 'non-reality-check' tag?
So what is ...
- 2,896
6
votes
7
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Is it Fair to Encourage People to NOT Answer Questions that Need to be Closed?
Introduction:
WB.SE has a SE mandated format; the community has determined that certain rules need to apply to the asking and answering of questions; the community has in place certain policies & ...
- 40k
11
votes
3
answers
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Do we still want the Answer Sandbox?
The Answer Sandbox was created late December 2014 (see the post about creating it for detail). Since then, it has generated:
3 votes (+3/-0)
1 favorite
2 comments
0 posts.
In other words, it's not ...
- 10.4k
11
votes
2
answers
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The issue with multiple answers
This is usually a sporadic issue, but today I found a question that really made me do something about it:
World with a different sun every day, and random days with no sun
The question per se is ...
- 643
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votes
3
answers
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According to reality check, possibility implies existence
Before I go on with this post, the assertion in the title is actually logically sound and consistent, which I find beautiful.
Now, more seriously, this is something I have noticed in most reality-...
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10
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Please Don't answer and/or upvote “bad” questions (yet)
Exhibit 1
12th vs 21st century archers in a battle to death, who would survive?
This is blatently off topic and anyone with some experience here would recognise that WB is not for random fiction what-...
- 69.4k
9
votes
3
answers
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Are incorrect answers deleted too fast?
I am not actually 100% sure how the whole process is made. But an answer appear in the Low Quality Posts queue, and the reviewer can choose between
Looks OK
Edit
Recommend Deletion
I'm not sure how ...
- 6,827
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5
answers
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Is a single rude remark inside an otherwise good answer grounds for deleting the whole answer?
I recently stumbled across this deleted answer (10k+ users only). It seems like a good enough answer to the question it was posted on, with a fair amount of detail, but was deleted by a moderator as ...
- 14.2k
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3
answers
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Should workarounds be suggested when the question implies an impossibilty?
The title is awful but I couldn't come up with a better one, feel free to edit
What I'm wondering about is this: when presented with question such as this, this or this, where the answer is most ...
- 5,823
9
votes
3
answers
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How best to suggest a comment be made into an answer?
This is a trend I've noticed more in 2017 than before, which is people posting information or points that could be answers to a question in the comments section. While this isn't a bad behaviour (...
- 66.3k
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7
answers
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Are answers posted in comments acceptable or not?
It happens every now and then that someone posts what is actually an answer as a comment to the question. That is, something that actually addresses the question being asked, perhaps succintly, but in ...
- 29k
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Should we use the sandbox for answers, too?
So, the sandbox is now up, and there's a decent amount of activity. I like what I'm seeing: good dialogue between users on the posted questions.
I'm suggesting that we use the sandbox for answers, ...
HDE 226868Mod
- 101k
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votes
5
answers
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Posting two answers in a question
Based on this question
I posted my answer as two separate answers because both of them solve the question differently. However, in my not-so-kind mood, if I were not the poster, I would frown upon ...
- 10.9k
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answer
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Picking the sole answer as the best answer
In case there is one-and-only answer available, considering:
Sufficiently good answer, addressed most of the question, wouldn't it be unfair to select it as the best answer right away? Wouldn't it be ...
- 2,000
3
votes
0
answers
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Should we have a "How to write the perfect answer?" discussion?
Sometimes, popular questions draw a large number of answers, and end up with answers that should be comments, or largely similar answers (some users prefer to write their own answers, even if they are ...
- 3,398
3
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0
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Does my answer fit the hard-science tag?
I'm currently having a dispute with JDługosz whether my answer to a question tagged hard-science actually meets the hard-science tag requirements.
I'd be interested in what others here think about it....
- 31.4k
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3
answers
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How should we handle possibly legally/morally sensitive topics?
This question was triggered by this one : Appstore application to assassinate anyone. I have a lot of troubles dealing with it.
Quoting it, the core of the question is something akin to that (Know you ...
- 7,527
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5
answers
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Is there a better way to list "recommended reading" for answers?
For a lot of questions, there are frequently existing books/stories/movies/games that explore the theme that the question asks. A question on AI souls trapped in VR hells recently led me to mention ...
- 25.4k
2
votes
2
answers
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How to handle answers that no longer reflect the edited question
I'm curious: how are we supposed to handle questions that have been changed such that older answers no longer reflect the questions being asked?
In the context and spirit of this meta question what ...
- 2,513
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answer
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Is it permissible to cherry-pick someone else's answer for the same question?
Concerning Are 'tree waterfalls' possible?
Some time after answering the question myself, I found LazyReader's answer had been deleted. However, I felt the answer had intrinsic merit, so I ...
- 122k
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vote
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answer
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Disputing a Policy: Question Edits Cannot Invalidate Answers
Worldbuilding is the only Stack I am aware of that discourages improving a question if it invalidates answers. I could be wrong about that, but what it does is suggest that answers are more important ...
- 122k
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vote
2
answers
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Found a potential answer to my own question, but didn't get feedback on it. How do I fix that?
A few days after I posted this question, I hitting upon this potential answer to it and posted it to get feedback on it, but the only response to it was strictly to tell me how to use superscripts (I ...
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answers
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The Completionist's Dilemma
For those of us who are completionists (individuals who are driven to complete whatever they start, whatever that may entail), the badges can be a bit of a nuisance. I asked previously if it would be ...
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