Questions tagged [questions]

This tag is for general questions about questions. Answers should be applicable to the vast majority of questions. Do not use this tag for questions on a single question, use the [meta-tag:specific-question] tag instead.

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36
votes
1answer
7k views

Inactive Sandbox 2017-18 [duplicate]

In order to make the Sandbox easier to use, a new Sandbox question will be posted when the old one becomes too full. This Sandbox has been retired. You can check here for the full list of past and ...
55
votes
44answers
7k views

Inactive Sandbox 2014-2017 [duplicate]

This sandbox got a little full, so we've created some more. You should still link to this one as we will update it whenever a new one is created. Current Sandbox: Sandbox for Proposed Questions ...
24
votes
5answers
7k views

Inactive Sandbox 2018 [duplicate]

This sandbox is inactive. Please visit the next Sandbox for Proposed Questions In order to make the Sandbox easier to use, a new Sandbox question will be posted when the old one becomes too full. ...
27
votes
2answers
2k views

What's wrong with “idea generation” questions?

We now have a dedicated "Idea Generation" close vote/flag reason!! What does it mean? What is the problem with "idea generation" questions?
11
votes
15answers
796 views

Catalog of Question Types

In an effort to start building consensus after asking: Enough is enough. NOBODY can obey rules that are only in someone's head, I'd like to start with what I hope will become a canonical catalog ...
13
votes
7answers
3k views

Sandbox for Proposed Questions

The Sandbox works best if you sort posts by "active" (click here to do so). Welcome to the Sandbox! This "Sandbox" is a place where Worldbuilding.SE users can get feedback on prospective questions ...
36
votes
0answers
1k views

How to write the perfect question

Writing good questions can be difficult. To help you, the community came up with ten yes or no questions that will guide you and help you prevent common errors. Follow the links for more information ...
14
votes
1answer
442 views

Hypothetical situations and broad questions

I am seeing alot of questions that are very broad like in case of X what would happen, or if the world were made of X then how would life evolve? I think we need to be extra careful to ask more ...
7
votes
4answers
198 views

Challenging Questions' Premises

This is something I've seen cropping up quite a bit lately, and has made me pause and think. Sometimes questions are based on faulty or questionable premises, one such question would be this one, ...
6
votes
1answer
147 views

Are questions based on movies okay?

Are questions based on movies OK? More specifically, is something like this acceptable, or should it be kept in chat: reality-check evolution creature-design Anatomically correct (insert creature ...
19
votes
3answers
327 views

Should we have weekly topic challenges?

A long time ago (four months) on a site far, far away (roughly two clicks), a great suggestion was made. Jon Ericson came up with the idea of weekly topic challenges. For those not willing to make the ...
10
votes
5answers
755 views

Lessons in writing Questions

There are other posts on offering advice for writing questions, such as this list of suggestions. This post is different: it will give detailed lessons worked out on complete texts, showing before ...
12
votes
3answers
278 views

How to approach worldbuilding ideas about gender and sexuality?

Recently I had a porn dream, which I wanted to put into a story. And then suddenly, instead enjoying porn/erotica aspects of the idea, I got myself into worldbuilding mode and asked a question about ...
11
votes
3answers
158 views

Do questions HAVE to be for some greater cause?

I love this stack. I've just recently gotten into it and have been absolutely enthralled with the deep discussions and thought provoking responses that I've witnessed in my short time here. That ...
4
votes
1answer
87 views

How can I remove the “hard science” notifice from my question?

I have a question that I had initially tagged hard-science. I then changed my mind (before any answers came in) and changed the tag to science-based. However, there is still the warning box: "This ...
10
votes
1answer
167 views

How do I create open ended questions with subjective answers?

I wanted to ask an open ended question whose answer will be entirely subjective. But I think the question and answer would be beneficial to the site. This is technically something that should be ...
7
votes
3answers
126 views

Reality Checking on questions not tagged “reality-check” | or ask questions differently?

In respect to the question here on Meta: Does adding context hurt questions? I was checking out that discussion because I think my most recent question (and, I feel like a lot of my questions) is ...
11
votes
3answers
181 views

What's the preferred reaction to “bonus points for…” addendums?

I did a quick search and we ususally see someone try to sneak questions past the basic "one question" rule by using a "bonus points for..." clause a couple of times a month. It felt like I was ...
3
votes
1answer
50 views

Is it considered good practice to edit your question after answers have been given?

Though only being around for a short while, I noticed that sometimes people edit the question they asked, even after one or several answers have been given. In some cases, follow-up questions that are ...
2
votes
2answers
53 views

Topic-Specific Vocabulary

Worldbuilding is an amalgamation of dozens of topics, geared toward building fictional worlds using expertise that pertains to those topics. Usually, this system runs smoothly. However, sometimes ...
2
votes
3answers
127 views

Would a 'Handwavium' tag be a bad idea?

We have magic which is well used, and Handwavium is basically a technology/physics equivalent... We have many questions that involve this physics-bending stuff, so I think there's a market for it. It ...
2
votes
2answers
75 views

A tag for speculative questions

I was re-tagging questions and it occurred to me to make a speculative tag for all those questions that are "what if"s and the like. Alarms went off in my head about what that encourages, considering ...
2
votes
1answer
112 views

Clarification for new users: when is a “fishing for ideas” question on- or off-topic?

Over the last couple of months I've seen a lot of what I call "fishing for ideas" questions. Questions that are either too broad or, more often, primarily opinion-based because the OP hasn't thought ...
0
votes
3answers
106 views

Unfairly put on hold

My question about measurement system formation is there for a good reason. People on forums would probably say something along the lines of "Whatever" or "Just use earth measurements or even no ...
16
votes
5answers
490 views

How many questions here are really about worldbuilding?

Some of the recent questions on Worldbuilding have been interesting, and not just content-wise. Lately, we've had quite a few questions that seem (at best) tangentially related to building a world, ...
10
votes
2answers
124 views

Does a world in a given question need cohesion?

Today I caught myself almost entering a downvoting spree. Not because I was enraged, hungry or somehow ill tempered, but because some of the questions that I read were a bit... hard on my mind. I'm ...
15
votes
1answer
154 views

What the scope of Worldbuilding is NOT about

... taking any question that isn't accepted elsewhere. This should be a reminder, or refresher. These days, there are many questions about trying to set objective and clear limits for the scope of ...
15
votes
6answers
415 views

How to deal with “funny questions”?

I am in nit-picking mode today. While my question about Christmas on Mars got great reception and loads of positive votes, and personally I totally enjoyed answering both questions about dining ...
13
votes
3answers
354 views

About children and sex

It may be just me, but sometimes a question pops out describing a world that somehow justifies mixing kids and sex in the... "wrong order". While I think that people should be free to write about ...
12
votes
5answers
199 views

When to use in-universe point of view?

Assistance to fight off a silicon-based lifeform was asked from an in-universe point of view, and another user added a comment to the question that suggested making the in-universe approach "the ...
19
votes
5answers
160 views

Can a [hard-science] question be a duplicate of a non-[hard-science] question?

I bring before the assembly Exhibit A, A cure for the 'Kessler Syndrome'?, tagged science-based science-fiction hard-science as of revision 1. That question was closed as a duplicate of Dealing with ...
12
votes
5answers
169 views

Can we encourage people to put more research into questions?

There are many examples of questions that are perfectly valid and on-topic (in my opinion), but show very little research effort. I feel like some users are posting whatever comes to their mind on ...
10
votes
3answers
167 views

The difference between helpful editing and vandalism

In relation to How to play recorded music without electronics?. Over the course of time I have encountered questions where people other than the OP edited the question in an effort to resolve issues ...
10
votes
3answers
166 views

Should workarounds be suggested when the question implies an impossibilty?

The title is awful but I couldn't come up with a better one, feel free to edit What I'm wondering about is this: when presented with question such as this, this or this, where the answer is most ...
8
votes
3answers
89 views

What are the qualities of a great question?

After providing an answer to this recent site-favorite question, I got to wondering about what makes some questions so much more popular than others. As of this writing, we have 14 questions with at ...
8
votes
5answers
271 views

How to deal with questions that are clearly not meant seriously?

Yesterday there was a question by someone implying the real earth is flat and how a round world would keep all the water on it. It has been heavily edited since. The original question was: Water on ...
7
votes
2answers
109 views

Can I ask questions based on a specific creature of my world?

I know that questions that are based on "Actions of individual characters, rather than elements of the world they inhabit" are off topic, but if I had created a specific creature, would it not count ...
6
votes
4answers
65 views

'More Ideas' questions

I have a question brewing in my head, and already written up, and I wanted to check and see if it would seem appropriate here. I know that a question like this would not be appropriate over on Stack ...
6
votes
3answers
107 views

“Resource ID” questions

SF.SE has a (hotly debated) story-identification tag, used for questions about speculative fiction works which the querent vaguely recalls but can't find on their own. We could help people track down ...
6
votes
3answers
101 views

Does adding context hurt questions?

Something that I'm sure others have noticed, but that always seems to plague my questions, is the fact that answerers tend to focus on parts of a question that don't actually matter. For example, ...
6
votes
2answers
93 views

Systems of measurement

I've ran into several posts where the author used 2 systems in the same post. Personally, I use the metric/international system all the time. Other people might use other systems, namely the US system....
6
votes
3answers
142 views

Are questions about characters and personalities on-topic?

A fictional world is more than just the physical setting and the biological and psychological nature of whatever inhabitants it may have, it may also be filled with people, each with their own ...
5
votes
5answers
116 views

Should we be adding [science-based] to questions?

I noticed that in the question Dermott's Law and Major Moons, revision 4 (edit made by diamond moderator JDługosz) adds science-based to the question. Originally the question was tagged only moons. ...
5
votes
2answers
99 views

Idea for an unofficial contest

I have been scanning through the question feed here from time to time, because some of the titles (and in some cases, even the descriptions) of questions are very amusing when taken out of context: ...
5
votes
4answers
229 views

How do we reconcile “rate my plausibility” questions with “primarily opinion-based” questions?

I feel like a very high percentage of the questions asked here concern plausibility, which is something that's hard to avoid where any kind of fiction is concerned. Some questions purport to be ...
3
votes
3answers
233 views

Should we generously allow questions that should be elsewhere but would never survive the VTC process?

In relation to this question. Edit: The original question has been edited. I'm delighted to see the OP working to make the question more appropriate for this site, but to fully understand my ...
3
votes
2answers
78 views

Asked a bad question, can't delete, can't close by myself. What is the correct thing to do?

I asked a bad question today (How to defeat an AI wizard?) and I'm not sure what to do. I was going to edit the question when the answers kept popping up. I can't delete or close the question myself. ...
2
votes
3answers
64 views

Do the titles of questions need to be in question format?

The whole point of stack exchange is that it is a Q&A style site, and an overwhelming majority of questions have a question as a title. This is surely a nit-picky thing but it really bugs me when ...
1
vote
1answer
53 views

Are off-site resource requests off topic here? [duplicate]

I just saw this: Any websites with exhaustively long lists of dead planet types? on the homepage. Seems like it's​ just asking for a website with a list of x. I know this sort of question is frowned ...
-2
votes
3answers
122 views

The Completionist's Dilemma

For those of us who are completionists (individuals who are driven to complete whatever they start, whatever that may entail), the badges can be a bit of a nuisance. I asked previously if it would be ...
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