13
votes
Requiring sources for "tacit culture" and "common knowledge"
Any source is always better than no source, and no source is ever required.
For instance, in increasing order of preference:
We wash our hands in the morning.
My parents taught me to wash my hands ...
Double AAMod
- 95.1k
12
votes
Someone scraped Mi Yodeya and is selling it as a book
This compiler, George Duckett, does that a lot. It is legal so long as he follows the CC-BY-SA license requirements, which require (1) attribution and (2) that he similarly license the product.
(2) ...
- 55.7k
11
votes
Refresh of the Purim Torah Policy
This was implemented in 5778.
I move to change
All Purim Torah questions must include the following disclaimer code at the bottom:
---
#This question is [Purim Torah](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Double AAMod
- 95.1k
11
votes
Old posts that cite a since-disgraced rabbi
Don't edit or delete. We are not in the business of deciding who is a legitimate rabbi. Cite your sources and let others evaluate their value. After all any source is better than no source.
If you ...
Double AAMod
- 95.1k
9
votes
Requiring sources for "tacit culture" and "common knowledge"
Tack-on point to DoubleAA's answer:
A decent rule of thumb is that if someone feels moved to challenge you for a source, then your assertion is probably one of the following:
Unknown to at least one ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 46.7k
9
votes
What's the policy in regard to Kabbalah questions?
The FAQ says:
Please respect that in the Jewish tradition certain questions, especially certain questions relating to sexuality, are discussed only in private. Such questions will be closed or ...
Double AAMod
- 95.1k
9
votes
Threshold for removing questions from the HNQ
I can't think of any instances in which we've had a significant problem due to a post going on the HNQ.
Therefore, I think the rule should be that we take one down only in extreme situations. I ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 46.7k
8
votes
Inappropriate user images
A profile is the user's space to use, within reason. There are limits, as described in this Meta.SE post from a leader of the community team at SE:
We will probably not allow:
Most terms ...
- 55.7k
8
votes
Are there any M.Y. criteria or policies in deciding when someone should post an additional answer vs. editing the first answer?
See What is the official etiquette on answering a question twice? on MSE. The top answer there states:
When you have two distinct answers.
It's better to post two different answers than to put them ...
- 22.8k
8
votes
Refresh of the Purim Torah Policy
Note: I think that if we want to ensure that all relevant users will read and apply the entire policy, we need to make it more inviting and readable than the incumbent version, especially if we're ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 46.7k
8
votes
What do you do when a moderator is saying insulting or belittling things?
In the title of your question you ask "What do you do when a moderator is saying insulting or belittling things?" and the answer to that is: the same thing you do if anybody else says insulting or ...
- 55.7k
8
votes
Should psak-seeking questions edited out of the first person be reopened?
The other answers suggest reopening as soon as possible given the content of the question (either because those are the rules or because there is no longer the appearance of approving of Psak ...
Double AAMod
- 95.1k
7
votes
Accepted
What do we do about insults and personal attacks that don't meet the "offensive" threshold?
For guidelines on what counts as "rude or offensive," one of the categories of comments we're encouraged to flag, take a look at the Help page that explains the "Be nice." rule of interaction on Stack ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 46.7k
7
votes
What do we do about insults and personal attacks that don't meet the "offensive" threshold?
I don't see why such comments can't be flagged as offensive if they're thought to be offensive. Otherwise, you can flag them as too chatty or as not constructive if they're thought to be such. As far ...
msh210Mod
- 73.4k
7
votes
Accepted
Professional advice disclaimer (post-launch re-request)
I see now that two other SE communities, Health and Law, have professional advice disclaimers in the top-right corners of their front pages:
This would seem to be the right place to put our ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 46.7k
7
votes
Parameters of Jews not Judaism
According to the help center:
If you have a question about...
Jewish law or practice (what to do or why)
Jewish philosophy
a Jewish text (explaining a passage)
history of Judaism
...
- 23.8k
7
votes
Accepted
Clarifying Hebrew language policy
If a question asks whether there's Judaism significance to an observed phenomenon, and if it provides some motivation for why we might expect there to be Judaism significance to that phenomenon, then ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 46.7k
7
votes
How to deal with religious trolls
I would say to treat it as you would any other post. If someone posts bad content — whether incorrect, unsubstantiated, or any other flaw — you can downvote it.
You are never required to justify ...
- 47.8k
6
votes
Is it better to ask a new question or place a bounty on an old one?
If what you really want is that same question answered, but not with that answer, then yes, a new question post would likely be a duplicate of the first one
Here are some things you can do to try to ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 46.7k
6
votes
Accepted
Should we publish a policy to prevent people from citing G-d's name in Hebrew?
I think our existing editing policies cover this already. If you see a post that can be improved, edit to do so and leave an informative edit summary. If it's a new user I usually also leave a ...
- 55.7k
6
votes
Edit off-topic question with valuable answer?
In my opinion, no, it doesn't still hold true in such a case. A closed question is one that should have no answers. (In an ideal world, it would be closed before it got answered.) It should indeed be ...
msh210Mod
- 73.4k
6
votes
Old posts that cite a since-disgraced rabbi
I can see this situation turning into a hot political issue. Let's keep Mi Yodeya a neutral community where people of all persuasions can safely ask and answer questions.
I also see little gain from ...
- 5,181
5
votes
Refresh of the Purim Torah Policy
My additions in bold. Please edit as you feel appropriate.
Generally, we expect all questions here to be written from the point-of-view of genuine curiosity, and we expect all answers to be genuine ...
5
votes
Can questions be asked that might challenge belief?
I think that questions that are respectfully asked are generally fine even if they involve heretical ideas. Some readers may be working in kiruv or teaching children and may have to contend with such ...
- 55.7k
5
votes
If a question has multiple closeworthy problems with it, what should the close vote be for?
I recommend closing using any reason that is relevant, with priority going to whichever would be most likely to point the author in the direction of a constructive edit1. Then, if you think that the ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 46.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Does the policy for closing as a duplicate of a broader post apply if that broader post is too broad?
It seems like a bad idea to close a question as a duplicate of another question that's closed for any reason. The point of closing as a duplicate is to direct people interested in the new ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 46.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Suspended accounts
Generally speaking (and I can't think of any exceptions of the top of my head, though they may well exist), Mi Yodeya's moderators use suspensions for the standard reasons used network-wide, or close ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 46.7k
4
votes
Should we have a policy similar to Skeptics.SE for answers?
We make known our expectations about sources (as in the posts you linked). Our actual definition of source is fuzzy and context-dependent. If I heard Rabbi Ploni say such-and-such at a public ...
- 55.7k
4
votes
Accepted
Jewish Life vs. Opinion-based
From our (and every Stack Exchange site's) FAQ page on "What types of questions should I avoid asking?":
To prevent your question from being flagged and possibly removed, avoid asking subjective ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 46.7k
4
votes
Should psak-seeking questions edited out of the first person be reopened?
We should evaluate questions based on their current state.
If a question were asked theoretically in the first place, would we be concerned about the author's motives? Demonstrably not, or we'd ...
- 55.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible