Questions tagged [policy]

Indicates policy related questions or comment. Usage should be limited to matters of site policy, and not the theoretical policies or laws of a model government.

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Should we ban posts using ChatGPT or similar software?

Recently, the chatbot ChatGPT was released and experienced a surge in popularity. It's reasonably good at mimicking humans, and it has a database of information to draw on. The upshot is that you can ...
HDE 226868's user avatar
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33 votes
5 answers
847 views

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'...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
27 votes
1 answer
247 views

Yes, questions can be Too Localized. But usually they are at far greater risk of being Too Broad

Seriously, from the word go, we need to be pre-emptive about requiring people to ask specific enough questions that we can offer concise and definitive answers. For example, "How does one go about ...
KRyan's user avatar
  • 229
22 votes
3 answers
144 views

Policy Recommendation: We recommend that users wait 24-48 hours before selecting a best answer

For some time we have had an unofficial policy that we recommend users wait 24-48 hours before selecting a best answer. This unofficial policy has been transmitted through comments, usually ...
JBH's user avatar
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18 votes
7 answers
427 views

Should we think long and hard about [sex]?

(pun in title intended) There is a question posted about intimate relationship between members of different species: What would be the most comfortable position for mermaids and humans to engage in ...
VLAZ's user avatar
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15 votes
6 answers
716 views

When and how to challenge the back story?

I was in the middle of answering this newly asked question when it was deleted by the author. It had been up for 30 minutes. I can't read the OP's mind, but I suspect the question was closed because ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
14 votes
2 answers
296 views

End of beta soon?

This is from Area51: Sites remain in beta for at least 90 days to build up a critical mass of users, questions, and participation. We are at day 86 and our stats are good. We have hit a ...
Vincent's user avatar
  • 16.8k
14 votes
5 answers
358 views

Back It Up! policies

The Good Subjective/Bad Subjective guidelines talk a lot about what make for great questions and answers for subjective issues, and it primarily falls around Back It Up!: answers need to cite some ...
KRyan's user avatar
  • 229
13 votes
4 answers
325 views

Does the Stack wish to allow questions concerning the profession of worldbuilding?

EDIT: It appears that the question in question has been closed, then reopened, then closed again, and is a vote into reopening it a second time. We're pretty divided about permitting questions about &...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
13 votes
2 answers
341 views

What pictures do we like and dislike in a post?

I’ve seen posts containing (possibly large) pictures heavily downvoted and (now that I'm a ♦-mod) flagged. (Most recent example) I’d like to have this topic be a reference for what the general WB ...
JDługosz's user avatar
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12 votes
5 answers
1k views

Policy Clarification: Asking about commercial or third-party worlds

We have an unwritten rule that questions about commercial worlds (e.g. Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, etc.) should be asked on the Science Fiction & Fantasy stack. Or we might have one. That's ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
11 votes
3 answers
175 views

Do questions HAVE to be for some greater cause?

I love this stack. I've just recently gotten into it and have been absolutely enthralled with the deep discussions and thought provoking responses that I've witnessed in my short time here. That ...
wposeyjr's user avatar
  • 1,190
11 votes
3 answers
104 views

Scores and synonyms

I was looking through the new tags and saw money. IMO, money should be a synonym of finances, so I tried to flag it as a potential synonym. Except that I need a "5 score" in finances to make the ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
10 votes
2 answers
266 views

Why, exactly, was Robert's answer deleted?

Regarding this answer, which I'll duplicate here in the case of people who can visit Meta but can't see deleted content. There is a significant debate about this going on in the scifi community. We ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
10 votes
3 answers
185 views

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 ...
mechalynx's user avatar
  • 5,805
8 votes
4 answers
232 views

Seeking community consensus about "Why would X lead to Y?" questions

While we've likely always had "Why would X lead to Y?" questions, it feels like we've had a lot of them lately. Here's a sample (the questions asked so far in October, some have been closed). Why ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
8 votes
5 answers
284 views

A proposal to establish policy regarding the torture and execution tags

Although most questions tagged torture and execution are unquestionably well within the scope of Worldbuilding, some were or might have been inappropriate causing a discussion about the validity of ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
8 votes
1 answer
78 views

Questions about [tag:psychology]

We are starting to have a problem with psychology questions. While the impact of events on a culture is part of Worldbuilding, you could easily write a thesis on even the smallest change and how it ...
Mourdos's user avatar
  • 2,886
7 votes
3 answers
272 views

Advice: How to ask for a review of your idea

Periodically we see questions of the following form: After reading the back story and my description of my worldbuilding idea, what do you think? I'm going to call this question type a Review My ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
6 votes
7 answers
489 views

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 & ...
elemtilas's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
191 views

Are questions based on movies okay?

Are questions based on movies OK? More specifically, is something like this acceptable, or should it be kept in chat: reality-check evolution creature-design Anatomically correct (insert creature ...
Daniel M.'s user avatar
  • 1,090
6 votes
2 answers
195 views

How best to deal with "what are you expecting?" questions

From time to time I run across a question like this one1 where it appears the OP hasn't taken the time to think about what kind of answer he/she is looking for. It's not uncommon for these questions ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
5 votes
2 answers
207 views

Taking some issues

A little frustrated here, but my motive is to discuss issues, not inflame things. I gravitated to this site with the intent of helping people construct their worlds, likely by contributing my ...
HA Harvey's user avatar
  • 902
5 votes
2 answers
102 views

Systems of measurement

I've ran into several posts where the author used 2 systems in the same post. Personally, I use the metric/international system all the time. Other people might use other systems, namely the US system....
Vincent's user avatar
  • 16.8k
5 votes
4 answers
200 views

Died of a Theory: A Challenge for Too Story Based and Fishing for Ideas Questions

I wanted to test a theory. I wanted to see what would happen if a question that asked for a narrow list of ideas would react on the site now that a week or two of my previous meta post asking how to ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
4 votes
3 answers
112 views

Should we take a meta consensus as site policy

Meta is used to decide site policy how should we use the results of questions? Is the highest voted answer immediately taken as a rule or is it a suggestion? If it is a rule then what consensus is ...
Bellerophon's user avatar
  • 5,898
3 votes
3 answers
116 views

Is Worldbuilding a What if Site - a followup

For some this is a problem brewing, for some this is a problem that has brewed, for others, its sat on the desk going moldy from being ignored. What do I talk about? Well Is Worldbuilding a What If ...
Mourdos's user avatar
  • 2,886
3 votes
3 answers
143 views

How far can we push the term worldbuilding?

I don’t know how much discussion has been on a topic like this already, but allow me to explain. The term "world-building" was first used in the Edinburgh Review in December 1820 and ...
Topcode's user avatar
  • 2,245
3 votes
3 answers
259 views

A Concise List of "The Rules"

"The rules" are spread across a number of locations. This post is an attempt to bring the basics of what this Stack expects of questions together into one place. Before I begin, please let ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
3 votes
1 answer
120 views

Do people still need to see comments under graduated/abandoned question drafts in the Sandbox?

Recently there was a Meta discussion about Deletion of Comments from Sandbox? and according with Monica's comment I want to start a discussion about the usefulness of comments under graduated/...
Secespitus's user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
50 views

Community wikis - are they ever a possibility?

After seeing this question on shared worlds and this one, I'm wondering whether such questions are better handled as community wikis, or even if they would be on-topic if broad enough to work as ...
mechalynx's user avatar
  • 5,805
2 votes
5 answers
196 views

What proof would we accept that an otherwise 3rd-party world belongs to a Stack Exchange user?

Relevant post: How much and how powerful would a "phlebotinium" bomb launched from orbit be to create an artificial sea? A new user, @JustKherty, has posted a question about a publicly ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
2 votes
3 answers
190 views

Policy proposal: Questions about names and the process of deriving names are off-topic

I visited What calendar can be used for Venus, Mercury and moons of Jupiter and Saturn? and realized that a policy of the Stack had been left off A Concise List of "The Rules": the policy ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
2 votes
1 answer
89 views

(Not so?) Suspicious Deletion of Suspicious AI Generated Responses

Regarding this question, in light of this policy. I think we can all agree in principle that AI generated text has no real place here in Worldbuilding, with the possible exception of queries about AI ...
elemtilas's user avatar
  • 39.5k
2 votes
2 answers
75 views

A tag for speculative questions

I was re-tagging questions and it occurred to me to make a speculative tag for all those questions that are "what if"s and the like. Alarms went off in my head about what that encourages, considering ...
mechalynx's user avatar
  • 5,805
2 votes
1 answer
92 views

Two identical answers

I just reviewed an answer from a new user new user covering the same explanation as another already posted and more developed answer. It is not the first time I come across this situation. Normally, ...
Vincent's user avatar
  • 16.8k
1 vote
2 answers
694 views

What is "narrative necessity" and how does it apply to worldbuilding?

As a loose continuation of How best to deal with "what are you expecting?" questions, I believe many new authors don't understand the function of Narrative Necessity in their writing and how ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
1 vote
2 answers
105 views

Can the fairy-iron question be saved by worldbuilding our own world?

This question as asked was correctly (in my opinion, see note below) put on hold: Why is "Cold Iron" the only thing that can harm faeries? I’m not here to argue about that. :-) What I want ...
SRM's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
111 views

The Rules and the Worldbuilding Resources Tag

Background A recent question asked about designing the biological sexes of alien creatures. Not surprising in our world today, the OP's original question used the word "gender," even going ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
1 vote
2 answers
171 views

Should the Worldbuilding-Process tag be discontinued?

Relevant test question on Main: Magic Systems: Advice for developing opposing forces The roll-over text for the Worldbuilding-Process tag reads: For questions about the process of creating a new ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
0 votes
3 answers
238 views

Policy Proposal: We do not engineer technologies

We are receiving questions asking for us to factually invent an idea or technology with increasing frequency. The questions are usually asked by people with insufficient education but a strong desire ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
0 votes
0 answers
69 views

What should we do about tag wiki excerpts?

Recently, I've been going around and creating tag wiki excerpts. At first, I was wondering about the usefulness of such work-but after a few accepts, it seemed like a good idea. After a few (not-so) ...
The Commander's user avatar
-1 votes
5 answers
144 views

Speculative but factual Books: Worldbuilding or not?

Reference question: Is an atmosphere's oxygen partial pressure or concentration more biologically significant? While discussing with the OP why they were looking for so much detail the OP said the ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
-1 votes
1 answer
219 views

A Proposal to End the Love/Hate Relationship with Brainstorming, AKA List questions, Idea-Generation, and Fishing-for-Ideas

Preliminary Information Before I begin, I want to make a clear distinction insofar as I understand the principal purpose of this Stack (the following closely fits the rules as defined in the Tour and ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
-1 votes
2 answers
112 views

Clarification concerning a loophole in the Real World Question policy

Policy Reference: A proposal to finalize the "are real world questions on-topic" debate Enlightening Comment: A proposal to finalize the "are real world questions on-topic" debate ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
-2 votes
2 answers
123 views

Could Neverland be built on Worldbuilding Stack Exchange today?

Let me open by saying, worlds are big It is fair to say that many novels have more than double the content involved in worldbuilding as they do in story and plot. Publishers have a special allowance ...
Vogon Poet's user avatar
  • 8,169
-2 votes
3 answers
137 views

Canonical Delphicity is the line we must observe in judging third-party worlds

Entirely too much bandwidth and moderator time is being invested in quashing the victimless crime of using borrowed terms in a query under the false pretense that such terms invade some third-party ...
Vogon Poet's user avatar
  • 8,169
-2 votes
1 answer
157 views

What rationale was used to justify the VTC as Opinion-Based and how can we avoid using this VTC reason in the future?

I'm a firm believer in quickly closing questions that need improvement — but I'm also a believer that the "Opinion Based" VTC reason is the least useful, if not completely useless, reason to ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 117k
-7 votes
2 answers
253 views

Purposeful offensive-contents in a question [closed]

I always wondered in policies regarding offensive contents that have a meaningful purpose in a question like actual politics, and scientific and objective perspectives on horrible atrocities like the ...
Mephistopheles's user avatar