Meta-PokéBase Q&A
4 votes
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For example, I recently answered "Is it possible for a Pokemon with Fake Out to make a Pokemon that's behind a sub flinch?" by stating, "A Pokemon with infiltrator can bypass a sub and flinch the Pokemon with fake out. For example, a Meowstic, which has infiltrator as an ability, can learn fake out." Even though this answer is correct, the question was asked in 2013, where meowstic did not exist. Is this allowed?

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1 Answer

4 votes

Good question. This is something I covered extensively in this thread with some of my thoughts on the subject. The rule will generally go that you can post new answers to old questions if the existing one(s) are incorrect, or if you can add substantial new detail to the answer that is helpful and relevant to the topic.

However, the situation you're brought up is a bit different. I briefly touched upon this in the thread linked above, but I guess I should've explained what "reservation" should be made if the answer is simply outdated. I might not speak for Pokemaster here, but I would personally advise posting a comment on the answer as opposed to adding a new answer. Some questions that fit into this category could be updated any number of times based on new game releases or other changes, which would end up being an obvious disruption to the site. For that reason, posting a comment would be better for the site's organisation, in that it won't bump the question up in as many different pages, but would bump it in the full activity area so it can be discussed if need be.

I'm also of the belief that the answer to the question should link with when the question was made to maintain consistency, so posting a new answer might disrupt that. Though this shouldn't prevent the question from being up to date since it might be accessed again by players looking for answers for the current generation. So I think the comment is a fair balance between the two. Let me know if you have any of your own ideas as to how this could be handled.

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I'm of the opinion that appropriate tagging will help a lot for questions. Make it obvious which generation you're referring to, always. There are obviously many duplicate questions, with some referring to different generations at a point the mechanics have changed (nobody catches every duplicate >.>); knowing which is which is a lot easier if you tag properly. Although, good tagging should always be a thing.
Yeah, good point. Anything that makes the question more specific and restricted is helpful in general I think.
Yeah, I probably wouldn't have answered if there was a "gen IV" or "gen V" tag. However, if there wasn't a tag on the specific generation, it would be good to update the answer to the question with another answer. I will concede that updating an answer should specify which generation, so I should probably edit my response to include "As of Generation 6..."