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The body of this question asks specifically about the case where editing isn't possible. I'm going to give a broader response based on the question in the title.
We have a custom here of not editing people's p'sak-seeking questions for them, even when it's clear how to fix the question. I understand that we do this for educational reasons and to impress ...
8
I can't speak for others, but when I leave such comments I'm seeking clarification, not challenging the question. If somebody says "I've heard" or "I've seen", I naturally ask "where?" -- not as a challenge but, rather, because if you tell us where you've encountered the teaching/practice/idea, it can help prospective answer-ers to investigate. We want to ...
8
I endorse both msh210's answer and Monica Cellio's, which I'll summarize as two alternatives for what to do right away:
msh210: Close the question, leave a nice, welcoming, explanatory comment, and leave it for the author to come back and edit so that it fits our mission.
Monica Cellio: Edit the question so that it fits our mission, and leave a nice comment,...
8
Yes, it does. This is apparent from the official SE blog post on the subject and also from the fact that my MY reputation just jumped quite a bit.
7
I think that the [mi-yodeya-series] tag is particularly vulnerable to this. I propose that a policy similar to the PTIJ policy be enforced on this tag.
The format of the post must look like The first ones, and that procedure should be followed.
The posts must be in sequence. You cannot make a question about n until a question about n-1 has been asked and ...
7
Questions must be judged for fitness to Mi Yodeya on their own merits, not on those of answers that have been posted to them. My standing proposal for how to evaluate the topicality of questions of this nature is given in my answer to The Parameters of "Jewish Life" Scope, which you linked here:
I believe that the guiding principles (though not a ...
7
It depends on the subject and relevant body of source material, but generally, something like "I've studied this subject extensively, including all of the relevant sections in the Talmud, etc., and have never come across such a thing." can be a valid answer. The more basis you include to back up your assertion, the stronger your answer is.
For some examples ...
7
The primary benefit of combining is readability. All of the extra borders, voting buttons, links, etc. adds a lot of bulk to the page, and in many cases (especially Parshanut questions) there can be a large number of possible answers. (Also you don't want to look like you're fishing for reputation points.)
The primary benefit of splitting the answers is ...
6
83998 is the ID number of that post. Every post (question or answer) has a unique ID number associated with it.
5275 is your user ID number. It's not needed to get to the post, but if you share a link with your user number at the end, then credit is given to your user towards badges like Announcer. When I share the link to that post it looks like https://...
6
If you have the ability to improve the quality of the question without taking away from its intended meaning, you should go ahead and do so.
In this case, the question would certainly be improved by the addition of sources for its assumptions, as indicated by multiple comments to that effect. The only reason I can think of not to add a source would be if ...
6
Some questions looking for sources (you linked to one in your question, and that user has had several similar questions) clearly start with a source, but they are hiding the ball. It is too specific to be otherwise (how did they know that elephants are only required for the north west, but north east allows for horses?).
Essentially they saw something ...
6
I think that it's fine to post the same question (or very similar questions) to Mi Yodeya and another SE site, as long as:
The two posts are on-topic on the two target sites.
They are phrased appropriately for the two target sites.
The question posts on the two sites each contain a link to the other.
There are questions that would benefit by being ...
6
I think it's important for askers of such questions to realize that this site is not meant for p'sak and that they should consult a rabbi. While it's possible to improve the post by editing out the p'sak-iness of it (and I've done so myself), it is probably wiser to leave it closed until the asker has had a chance to read why it's closed, to read the caveat. ...
5
I think if some random question shows up that doesn't seem to have any reasonable motivation (such as your 4 examples), it could be considered "unclear what you're asking". Part of writing a clear question includes explaining motivation and relevance.
If you're uncomfortable about using UWYA, an "off-topic" reason, either preset or custom, could apply also.
4
I believe that these questions are not primarily opinion based, though I don't have case-studies to back this up.
The reason I think that they are on-topic is because a question like that is effectively asking for sources, looking for answers along the lines of "R' Elchanan says X, although R' Baruch Ber disagrees because of Y, etc," and not asking for ...
4
Try searching for: closed:yes
You can see more search tips here.
4
I think that that's important information that should be in the question body itself. Quite obvious, as i was the one who asked the OP to edit in the source. :)
From the help center:
When should I edit posts?
Any time you see a post that needs improvement and are inclined to suggest an edit, you are welcome to do so. The original author of a question or ...
4
You can find all questions sorted by votes at https://judaism.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&q=is%3aquestion and all answers sorted by votes at https://judaism.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&q=is%3aanswer
Currently the top voted question is Implications of Samoa skipping a Friday and the top voted answer is at Rejecting others' friend ...
3
I don't think so. But if you use the web version, click on Questions, sort by newest (on top), go to the very bottom and click on the last number (816 today).
3
This is not a complete answer on its own, just one aspect of an answer.
Questions that arise from Jewish practice, but aren't specifically about Judaism, can be on-topic. An example of this is the question about sukkah lighting; it's pretty hard to fulfill the mitzvah without solving that problem. At the other extreme, though, just because your context is ...
3
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....
2
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 ...
2
Well, the way you worded the question implied that you were looking for a definitive answer to the question, rather than a general review of what sources say.
A standard cop-out to the "opinion-based" problem is to ask for only answers that quote sources. That is fine, but my only point was that as written the question wasn't asking for both sides, it ...
2
At 10k, you can access "Moderator Tools" which includes a list of recently closed questions, and questions that include recent close votes.
2
I think this question should be decomposed into a few components.
Is the question "What is the Judaism significance of number N?" ever on-topic?
I think the answer to this is yes, as it is very easy to contemplate a clear Judaism-based motivation to want to know what the Judaism significance of a particular number is, and it's quite reasonable to ...
2
Asking for the existence of a particular Judaism book is about Judaism and therefore certainly on-topic.
This is, sort of, a special case of asking for the existence of X within Judaism, which is discussed in this previous Meta post. The community consensus seems to be currently that such questions are fine even without clear motivation, though motivation ...
1
Here are my thoughts, which I took my moderator cap off to think and post. (The cap restricts thought, as various users have long suspected.)
The Meta post you link to has been accepted by the community, and the criterion is that the post is [net-]upvoted. I didn't upvote the sacramental-exemption answer, and don't think it was a great one (because, as you ...
1
I think that some users do not know the nuance. Look at the Ritba Eruvin 63a about to teach Halacha when the Rabbi is here:
...דלא מתסר אלא בששואלים ממנו הלכה למעשה, אבל כשאין שואלים ממנו אלא פסק הלכה בלבד שלא לעשות מעשה באותה שעה מותר, דהא לא חשיבא הוראה, והכין משמע בפרק קמא דהוריות.
The only difference between a psak and an answer to halacha question ...
1
The question was deleted by its asker and only he can say why he deleted it. Note that the Stack Exchange software allows any question author to delete his question so long as it has no more than one answer and that answer has no more upvotes than downvotes. In this case, the only answer was yours, and it the same number of upvotes and downvotes, so the ...
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