And if NOT, can we write a decent "how to ask valid /r/AskHistorians question" FAQ that (a) leads to answerable questions and (b) as a subset of that, bans yes/no questions in the submission title?
Yes, this is a meta meta post.
Hi,
We have the following accessible through the rules page and the broader wiki:
[What it means to write a good answer in AskHistorians] (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1jsabs/what_it_means_to_post_a_good_answer_in/) by /u/NMW
Rules Roundtable #16: There Are No Stupid Questions by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov
[Rules Roundtable #18: How to Ask Better Questions] (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/505nw2/rules_roundtable_18_how_to_ask_better_questions/) by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov
Ultimately, the uniqueness of AskHistorians is that it accepts questions from anyone and demands high-quality answers. We can offers suggestions for writing better questions and hope for the best. But so long as questions fit within AH rules, we permit them in the interest of historical education, even if it's something asked daily whose answer is easily accessible on Wikipedia.
In fact, one of the reasons for not allowing brief answers was made quite apparent in our recent census. Users overwhelmingly come to AH after having done a bit of research elsewhere--Wikipedia and sometimes academic articles. We expect that in AskHistorians, question-askers expect more, because they know we demand more.
:)
What is the purpose of disregarding the body of the question? And why are yes/no questions "unanswerable?" Why on earth would someone come to this sub if they were content with reading, "Yes, there were reviews of Mein Kampf. See ya later!"
If someone is actually qualified to answer the question then nothing is stopping them from elaborating beyond the yes/no. And if they can't elaborate (even without a question that guides them to elaboration) they shouldn't be answering. Nothing about that Mein Kampf is unanswerable in accordance with sub rules.
I think you are overestimating the number of answers that get deleted for being yes/no answers to yes/no questions because you witnessed me deleting such a one and the answerer arguing back about it. In truth, this makes up a very small percentage of deleted answers.
The truth is that there are a lot of questions that, to someone with a basic high school history education, look like they should be answered with just a few words. The apparent yes/no questions are no different. The entire ethos of the sub is not to give the most direct and simple answer but to give detailed explanations based on research or expertise, and googling "review of Mein Kampf" and posting a link to said review by itself as a comment does not demonstrate either research or expertise. Generally speaking, someone who does have an in-depth knowledge of the topic will be able to answer even a simple yes/no question at some length - which is part of the fun of answering at /r/AskHistorians! And you know that this is possible, because you responded to /u/the_Alaskan's excellent response in the thread that sparked this one. If somebody genuinely just wants the yes/no answer and doesn't care at all about getting the kind of responses we require here, they are welcome to ask /r/AskHistory or Google it themselves rather than posting the question in a forum where a yes/no answer is not allowed. And in the case of the question that sparked this thread, only the heading seemed to call for "yes" or "no": the body was clearly requesting a proper /r/AskHistorians answer. (If they exist, who wrote them, what did they say, what can they tell us about how the world in the 1930's understood German National Socialism?)
Because this is a meta thread I'm allowed to engage in counterfactuals, so let me speculate: if we were to hold questions to higher standards than we already do - and we do hold them to certain standards, and delete questions that don't meet them - and delete all those that could be answered very briefly ("yes", "no", "only twice", "Superman") there would be a lot more Redditors angry with us for cutting off the stream of content and setting the bar for entry way too high. The better way to solve comment graveyards is for people not to post answers unless they have actually done research beyond Google. The rush to give the first "right" but short and uninformed answer happens on all types of questions, and will always result in deletions.
Do you have some examples of where yes/no questions have led to lots of bad answers? I can see the problem you're talking about but can't think of where it's actually occurred.
Particularly in the absence of any other answers. I'm totally sure that this dynamic and notoriously flexible moderation team will take anyone's opinion besides their own into account when deciding that following arbitrary rules is more important than getting answers to questions.