New Rule Suggestion for Main Site

Question

I spent forever researching the answer for a question about Pokerus. It was my first time being selected. This was also one of my first answers. The next day, poof, question closed. I can't remember exactly, but the points I gained from getting my answer selected were gone, too.

The suggestion is a new rule, which is, "if a question is not answered within 3 days, and matches the criteria for being able to be taken down, it can be taken down."

My reasoning for this is the fact that people work hard on answers, and the fact that new users gaining points is good. The question I answered was a dupe, which I didn't know at the time. Some questions marked, "finding an answer would be too hard" have real answers that people spent at least 30 minutes digging through the internet to find, though. If all of the questions on here were answered already on the internet and are easy to find there, we wouldn't need th Pokebase anymore. Not everyone is willing to dig through the internet for at least 30 minutes to find answers. Please do take this into consideration, Pokemaster, for the greater good of the site.

Comments

Maybe don't answer duplicate questions?

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No. This is basically saying "allow questions to completely disregard the rules if they've been answered within three days".
EDIT: We generally only close questions for being overly difficult to answer because the information it is asking for is trivial and any application of it would be extremely niche. I can't recall any instance where we've closed a question like this that's already been answered. If it's already got one, there's no point in taking it down.

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Ht, i wish i knew how to link questions on my phone so i could link you to a question fitting that description.

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Users get points by helping other users. When being helpful requires 30 minutes of digging, and you're not willing to do that, you don't deserve points.
The link button should look like a circle with an arrow.

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sumwun, the button won't show up

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You can try typing
[<displayed text>][1]


[1]: <URL>

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I'm slightly confused by this suggestion; are you essentially suggesting what HT said? (Not taking down questions for being dupes etc. as long as they're answered within 3 days?)

A couple counter points for your suggestion however;
'My reasoning for this is the fact that people work hard on answers, and the fact that new users gaining points is good. The question I answered was a dupe, which I didn't know at the time. '
The purpose of the site is not to provide points, but to answer questions. Points are an arbitrary metric for personal and administrative purposes. Whether someone has answered the question or not should not be a determinant of whether the question is a dupe, and therefore, whether it is removed or not. Adding your suggestion (or how I have interpreted it) means that you add clutter + junk onto the site for no real benefit.

'Some questions marked, "finding an answer would be too hard" have real answers that people spent at least 30 minutes digging through the internet to find, though.'
As HT said, I have no clear recollection of this ever happening. See HT's comments. Questions are also closed for having no real answer (eg. Nintendo's choice pog)

'If all of the questions on here were answered already on the internet and are easy to find there, we wouldn't need th Pokebase anymore. '
Some questions are easily searchable, others require some level of calculation, whilst others require compiling information that other users cannot be bothered doing; hence a question. There are a countless number of question permutations that can still be considered 'easy to find' for the most part, but still suffice as a question.

Answer 1

I'm not Pokemaster, but I'll fill in for him.

The next day, poof, question closed. I can't remember exactly, but the points I gained from getting my answer selected were gone, too.

I just tested this using a recent question. The person who has BA on that thread lost no points while the question was closed, so you wouldn't have lost points when the question you answered was closed, either. I can't find the question you're talking about, so I can't check if something else happened that would have caused you to lose points. (You don't lose points when the question you answered is hidden, either.)

The suggestion is a new rule, which is, "if a question is not answered within 3 days, and matches the criteria for being able to be taken down, it can be taken down."

So, what you're saying is that no thread should be taken down until it is three days old? ...And that any question answered within those three days should never be removed?

Taken literally, the result of this would be that we never hide a question again. 95% of PokeBase threads (that aren't closed) receive answers within three days, and your own experience answering questions that were eventually taken down suggests that statistic wouldn't change much if we left them up.

We're not about to make this site lawless. Sure, we could make exceptions for spam questions... and poll questions... and ROM questions... wait, I'm just re-creating the ruleset we started with!

My reasoning for this is the fact that people work hard on answers, and the fact that new users gaining points is good. The question I answered was a dupe, which I didn't know at the time.

I appreciate that people put effort into their answers; but ultimately, it's the answerer's responsbility to make sure they aren't spending time on a question that will be removed. If you're really struggling to determine whether your question is a duplicate, then try googling it with the search operator site:pokemondb.net/pokebase. (And, again, answering questions that break the rules is not costing you points.)

If your answer is as good as it sounds, then nothing is stopping you from opening up the original question and putting your answer there. You are allowed and encouraged to improve upon old answers!

Some questions marked, "finding an answer would be too hard" have real answers that people spent at least 30 minutes digging through the internet to find, though. If all of the questions on here were answered already on the internet and are easy to find there, we wouldn't need th Pokebase anymore. Not everyone is willing to dig through the internet for at least 30 minutes to find answers.

This sounds like an entirely separate issue to me.

I want to be very clear: there is no rule that says you can't ask a question whose answer is hard to find. However, we will use our discretion for questions like 'What are all the times Ash's Pikachu has electrocuted something?' which are jointly difficult to research, extremely niche, and not very interesting to the average reader.

If somebody successfully answers a question of this description, then we're obviously going to question whether it fit those criteria in the first place. If you think we removed something we shouldn't have, then please link it.

Comments

fizz cucked me as i was typing a comment, what a scam :(

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"I appreciate that people put effort into their answers; but ultimately, it's the answerer's responsbility to make sure they aren't spending time on a question that will be removed." How can the answer be sure that the question will be removed? It isn't one of their responsibilities?

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If the question doesn't break the rules, then you can be sure we aren't going to remove it (unless it's spam or whatnot). I like to think we're fairly transparent about how we apply the rules -- and if we aren't, then that's a separate issue that needs addressing. Put bluntly, my point is that it if you answer a question that breaks the rules, you only have yourself to blame for spending time on it.
And Sempi, I'm no scammer. I just have finesse that you don't. I thought you would know by now. :)

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You don't need Google. I catch a lot of duplicate questions just by looking at the "Related questions" list.

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You won't catch all of them, though. The point of the question is that the duplicate questions checker doesn't pick up everything, and the same list is used for the related questions.