5

Among of the proposals I participate in, there are several I consider myself experienced enough. They are "...Language and Usage" sites, if that matters.

In addition to the limit of 5 questions, I can think of much more example questions which not only clearly define the topic of these sites, but also represent interesting linguistic problems about the respective languages.

I also want to encourage the subscribers to submit good questions (and gain reputation), even if they did not yet think of these problems.

Is it prohibited if I raised a new discussion listing possible questions so that the others picked them up and posted as these questions were theirs? Like this:

Dear followers, please feel free submitting questions from this list
(I will remove them as soon as I see them submitted)
* Question 1
* Question 2

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

I'm not sure if I would consider it an off-topic use of the forum. That would certainly be outside the intended purpose creating the discussion zone. But it certainly would not bode well when we evaluate the proposal.

The end game of the Area 51 is to assess the participation and viability of the community building the proposal. If a community cannot come up with 40 questions during a proposal Definition, that would not speak well to the future health of the site. And if one (or even just a small handful) of users are asking the questions, that makes the future of the site particularly vulnerable.

3
  • 2
    I was not planning to abuse the system in any way. My question was mostly theoretical, it's kind of a technique quite similar to re-arranging your upvotes (by taking out upvotes from Q's of 10+ and upvoting less popular answers instead). Please agree this also indicates possible further vulnerability of the proposal. :) So I understood your answer like this: this is not explicitly prohibited, but neither encouraged. Is this correct?
    – Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
    Sep 24, 2012 at 14:12
  • 2
    @bytebuster That's a good analogy — when communities get so heavy into "re-arranging their votes", it's obvious they are no longer voting on the best question. That does not reflect well on whether to create the site. Let's put it this way: I wouldn't recommend it because it will either (1) be removed as off topic, or (2) look even worse if all your questions end up being used because the community cannot (or doesn't bother) coming up with their own questions. Area 51 isn't supposed to be a video game where cheat-codes or walk-throughs replace legitimate "play".
    – Robert Cartaino
    Sep 24, 2012 at 14:28
  • 6
    @RobertCartaino 60 followers times 5 votes is 300. 40 questions times 10 votes is 400. So, it is already impossible to fulfill the requirements with 60 followers. Even with 200 followers, it would be difficult if people actually vote for the questions they think best, because this would give some questions with 20 to 40 votes and many questions with votes below 10, or even worse, people actually agree on which questions are the best, then you would have 5 questions with 200 votes. You are forcing people to rearrange their votes.
    – user11235
    Sep 27, 2012 at 10:58

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