Ask Lemmy

I love the way people seem to think they are obligated to answer a question they don't think others should be allowed to ask. As if reading the question and moving along is such a huge burden. LOL.

I could snooze the "is a hotdog a sandwich" question or "what superpower would you choose" one for a year or two, if we're talking about real life questions.

I also dont really know the correct answer to, "Do you know how fast you were going?". I dont think the right answer is, "I am invoking my constitutional right to an attorney. I am invoking my right to stay silent." But maybe it is? Idk.

No. Some questions bear repeating because:

Users have a tendency to delete their accounts, taking their posts with them including what they asked.

Newer users and even frequent ones, can't be bothered to comb through pages and pages of previously asked questions. Plus, it's gravedigging old posts.

Restricting questions would just be too limiting, however, there are reasons some questions should not be asked and that falls in line to the rules of the sidebar that get constantly ignored.

No, because there are always new users who haven't seen the question yet.

I don't think it makes sense to permanently stop people from posting certain questions. Answers to questions are affected by who is in the community, how the question is asked, and recent world events. Over time, those factors change.

Take "What's your favourite ice cream?" for example: would you get the same responses today as you would've gotten last year, 5 years ago, etc.? Maybe some company just released a new hit ice cream flavour that's trending on social media and you'll get a lot of answers talking about that. Maybe there's vanilla shortage and all the ~~boring~~ vanilla folks are forced to try other flavours. Or maybe the vegan community finds the thread and submits all their much better ice cream flavours (shout out to coconut milk ice cream).

If you really want to avoid the question getting asked over and over again to the point where everyone is tired of it, I think it would be better to set a minimum time limit before a question can be re-asked to make sure the answers will be different enough since the last time it was asked.

You can always answer with a link to a previous iteration of the question if you feel that the responses are still relevant.

No, I think there's always merit in new discussion. Perspectives and answers shift over time, so a question asked this year might have very different responders and responses 10 years from now.

Take an open question like "What is your go-to TV series/movie/game/book that you recommend?" A discussion on that topic that is 10 years old isn't as valuable as one asked today, because new media will have released and older media will be recontextualized. Even if a lot of the answers are still recommending timeless classics.

And I also wouldn't trust moderators not to be heavy-handed with posts that are "close enough" but not quite the same. A question like "How do you deal with the loss of a loved one" versus "How do you support someone going through a great loss" might seem similar, but are targeting two different purposes.

I understand this from a moderator and frequent user perspective, but I'd warn for the slippery slope. If the goal is to build a community, then this is a bad approach as it alienates new users and people who haven't visited much. Might see well automate a lmgtfy link for ever question at that point, or an automated search for askreddit sorted by top and direct them there...

You mean, kind of like a FAQ? Most people would not read it, alas.

I haven't seen the same question repeated outside of some users asking the same question in new wrapping periodically (Looking at you, /u/Grimreaper@sopuli.xyz . "Why don't people hate teenage superheroes who date with an age gap and engage in street racing?")

You mean like Google?

I just block people who repeated post rage-bait and other low hanging stupid nonsense.

They are just here to troll and/or they are really dumb people, both of which do not contribute anything positive to my experience. It's also one thing if it's like once a month or something, vs every other day.

When I mod I do similar and one of the reasons I got so sour on reddit was many of my communities just devolved into nextdoor like bullshit.

Better would be a top level link to previous posts of the same question. and then maaaybe close the post to comments

I hate to say it but this is a good use case for AI filtering. it could filter content we're already familiar with yet allowing it through once the content changes enough to warrant some threshold of new learning. It'd help older folks from nlt getting left in the dust by these young whipper-snappers.

Do you want Stack Overflow because that's how you get Stack Overflow.