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I am trying to get to the bottom of what Mi Yodeya is all about. It's hard. Is it a place to ask halacha? Find out about tradition? Get answers to assist with homework questions? Run ideas by each other? Jewish history? Get help with sources?

The highest scoring question of all time: Implications of Samoa skipping a Friday

The highest scoring question (by far) since the stack exchange moderator fiasco: Why does my bottle of Kosher grape juice say that it's 'for sacramental purposes only'?

Halacha and sources are the most popular tags

The least scoring question that's not closed or untznius: Where did Moses' applied scientific knowledge disappear?

Here is the lowest scoring answer with over 10,000 views (that isn't closed, offensive or downvoted because it was an obviously wrong question): What are the exact Shmita dates (in Gregorian) since 1900 or a general formula for determining the dates?

So what sort of question would people like to see more of, and what sort of questions would people prefer to see less of? Especially lately.

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    Note that score, especially extreme high score, is not a perfect proxy for value to the community. The highest-scoring questions tend to be ones that get featured on the network-wide "Hot Network Questions" sidebar and that are sufficiently interesting to a wide cross-section of the Stack Exchange world (mostly programmers) to get many click-throughs. "Samoa" is an example of this.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Jan 19 at 22:30
  • Related: Is there a way to encourage specific types of questions?
    – Alex
    Jan 22 at 3:36

1 Answer 1

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In my opinion, the ideal question:

  • Follows all of the general guidance for ideal Stack Exchange questions found in How do I ask a good question?
  • Is about Judaism
  • Is written from the point of view of genuine curiosity on the part of the asker
  • Expresses the motivation for the asker's curiosity, including relevant sources the asker is already aware of
  • Is written in well-formed, well-organized English, with a minimum of jargon, such that it is pleasing and clear to read for any English-speaker who is interested in the topic
    • Therefore, is as long as it needs to be to clearly express the question, and no longer

If a question post includes all of these qualities, I would be very likely to consider it ideal, regardless of what topic within Judaism it's about. I may be personally more or less interested in the question depending on the topic, and may choose to allocate my attention accordingly, as may any other reader.

However, I would strongly encourage you to mostly ignore others' interest in a topic as a primary consideration, and focus on asking what you are interested in. Niche topics may get less attention and, for what it's worth (not much), fewer votes, but if they're well-written, they'll stick around, and Google searching will eventually bring them the niche love they deserve.

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