With this thread I'm hoping to start a discussion regarding questions that ask us to provide advice on an in-game team or a moveset, and which of these threads are ones we should allow.
We're quite stringent on questions that ask 'What is a good moveset/team for [x]?', as these are supposed to be for movesetbot (reminder!) or a moderator to cover. I am not asking about these questions: I want for us all to decide whether questions that supply an in-game or moveset and ask us to provide some sort of advice are allowed.
Bear with me on this: you might already be thinking 'no', but I want to go over some of the variances of these threads that under our current rule set, I don't think I can justify taking down. You have probably encountered posts like these:
- 'What move would be best to finish this moveset?'
- 'What Pokemon would be best to finish my team for [game]?'
- 'What Pokemon can do [a, b, c] for my team?'
- 'Which team member should I replace for [Pokemon]?'
- 'Which Pokemon of [a, b] would be best for my team?'
- 'Does [Pokemon] fit my team well enough?'
- 'Would this moveset/strategy work?'
- 'Is this team good enough for [game]?'
In my opinion, these questions differ from your vanilla 'rate my stuff' kind of post, where someone asks you broadly and generally to rate their moveset or team. Those posts I take down without question: they're directionless as to what the asker wants you to address and therefore it's impossible to answer them 'correctly'.
But the ones I listed above aren't directionless: they prescribe a team or set and ask you to make a specific assessment of what the best option is -- even better when they restrict those options for you, like many of those above actually do. They are not asking, 'rate my team/moveset': they have specifically outlined one part of their build they want advice on. In this way, I don't think we can lump them into the same category: we need to make a separate decision for them.
As you might have anticipated based on my making this thread in the first place, I am personally advocating that we actually allow these types of questions. In my opinion, the whole issue with in-game team and moveset-rating posts is supposed to be that they're directionless and non-specific, which makes them difficult and annoying to answer. But again, the questions listed actually prescribe what they want you to do, which means they're not open-ended and can be answered objectively. If I'm not mistaken, this is the basis of our entire Q&A platform.
I've heard it said that these questions are a waste of time because in-game is easy anyway and anything can work, but to me this is such a non-argument: if people are asking these questions and others answering them, then clearly people care. It would be on poor grounds for us to simply take them down because our perspectives don't align.
I've also heard it said that we should ban any question where there is more than one response that could be correct, but then we'd be banning all kinds of different questions that I think bring quality content to the site. (For example, threads like 'Is Quagsire or Swampert better?' are often really great to read and answer.) I also think it's unhelpful to arbitrarily pick a number and say, 'any amount of options above this amount is banned'.
I'm sorry this ended up so long lol, but I want this whole issue to be over with. In my opinion the rule should be that if the question limits the options enough that it has a direction and isn't just 'open-ended', then it should be allowed. But obviously I don't run this place, so I want to know what you all think :)
