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Should questions which ask "do any poskim say such and such" or "are there any poskim who permit such and such" without specifying parameters of who qualifies as a posek be closed as either unclear what you're asking or primarily opinion based? The definition of a posek is very subjective.

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As Mi Yodeya should not be in the business of deciding who is or is not a posek, and as it is often very difficult to describe (let alone get an OP to describe) precisely from what group of individuals one seeks an answer, I propose that we take such questions as referring to anyone who is so identified as a posek by a significant* number of people worldwide.

This answer applies equally to other similarly ambiguous terms, such as "Orthodox" "traditional" "mainstream" etc. when left unqualified.

* I'm thinking on the order of at least 5000 people.

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As Mi Yodeya should not be in the business of deciding who is or is not a posek, and as it is often very difficult to describe (let alone get an OP to describe) precisely from what group of individuals one seeks an answer, I propose that we take such questions as referring to anyone who self-identifies as a posek.

This answer applies equally to other similarly ambiguous terms, such as "Orthodox" "traditional" "mainstream" etc. when left unqualified.

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  • I don't know if that is a good way to measure. Many Conservative Rabbis also consider themselves to be poskim - should they be included? Jul 2, 2014 at 0:43
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    @YEZ If you only want Orthodox poskim, just say so.
    – Double AA Mod
    Jul 2, 2014 at 1:00
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I'll agree with Double AA but I would add that a specific statement (say as the conclusion to this question) that is easily linkable would be helpful to let askers know that their term is ambiguous and they would get better answers if they specified.

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  • "they would get better answers if they specified" This is almost universally true.
    – Double AA Mod
    Jul 1, 2014 at 15:24
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As Mi Yodeya should not be in the business of deciding who is or is not a posek, and as it is often very difficult to describe (let alone get an OP to describe) precisely from what group of individuals one seeks an answer, I propose that we take such questions as referring to anyone who is so identified as a posek by a significant* number of people worldwide.

This answer applies equally to other similarly ambiguous terms, such as "Orthodox" "traditional" "mainstream" etc. when left unqualified.

* I'm thinking on the order of maybe 50 people.

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