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I'm noticing many questions on the SuperUser beta which, in my opinion (based on how SO and SF work), should be community wiki questions, not being marked as such. The list goes on, but some examples are:

I know SU is young, but apparently the rules aren't exactly clear for what goes on SU and how community wiki works. So:

  1. What kinds of questions should go on SU and how does CW apply? Is there room for more of subjective, discussion-like questions, or should it mainly stick to the question(answerable problem)/answer(solution) methodology?

  2. I know there's this FAQ entry on SO, but is there a clear place that describes what should or shouldn't be community wiki, especially as it applies to SU?

  3. Judging by this question on meta (What's with the 'should be a wiki' comments?), this isn't really clear. Can/should we put this in a more prominent location so people understand how it works and (hopefully) use it correctly?

  4. As Welbog pointed out in a comment, perhaps this battle is not going to be won. Should we then revamp or remove the idea of CW as it applies to SU? If so, what do you suggest?

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You're going to lose this battle. SU is where all the people on SO who ask this kind of question are being directed. They didn't use CW on SO, and they're not going to use on SU, either. – Weblog Jul 15 '09 at 13:59
@Welbog I partially agree with you, but I don't really like that answer. There's either a)some way of educating users about how to use the site, b)some way of forcing/moderating these questions to fit the guidelines, or c)a way to change the guidelines so it can be used properly. If I'm truly going to lose the battle, maybe we should change the idea of CW on SU (edited post to reflect this)? – lc Jul 15 '09 at 14:03
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@lc: Glancing through the most recent questions in the last five or so minutes, I conclude that roughly half of the questions can't be answered objectively, and are largely speculative or polls for preference. I think you're approaching this wrong. You shouldn't be asking what CW should be for, you should be asking what SU itself should be for. Are questions about your favourite browser or whether managed operating systems are viable suited for SU? This is a question for Jeff more than anything. The guidelines in SU's FAQ are very general, but the result might not be what was intended. – Weblog Jul 15 '09 at 14:12
@Welbog: Agreed. Perhaps it's improper to try to force SU and SU's CW to conform to those ideas in place on SO/SF. Let's see what people (read: Jeff) have to say about this. – lc Jul 15 '09 at 15:42
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3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

I think some of those people might be riding the coat-tails of a question that should be wiki'd, but won't until they have enough rep to fully-participate. They're basically short-cutting everybody else to the front of the reputation line by asking questions that will be wildly popular, and accepting all reputation from it.

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Which is exactly what I'm afraid is happening. The question is is this going to be accepted SU behavior, some gray area somewhere, or just not "playing by the rules". – lc Jul 15 '09 at 15:47
I don't know how it could be prevented. "Oops" is difficult to refute. It'll be touch to determine who did it on accident, and who didn't - unless it takes the author 3 days to CW their post, of course. – Jonathan Sampson Jul 15 '09 at 16:04
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up vote 1 down vote

One of those is mine and all I can say from the experience is "oops" and "fixed."

When I posted, I just didn't think of "community wiki" any more than I think about tagging (I always forget). But at least I get a reminder to tag.

Isn't there a "vote to wiki-fy" function somewhere deep in the bowels of 10K-repdom? It seems as appropriate as an editing or a re-tagging function.

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up vote 0 down vote

Mark a question (or answer) as community wiki if you want to lower the reputation threshold allowing other people to edit your post.

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