What is "meta"? How does it work?

> Meta Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange is the part of the site where users discuss the workings and policies of Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange….

I concede your point that there are a lot (at least several) of them on meta already. And I get how this is meta-y. But it’s not meta-BH.SE. It’s meta-hermeneutics. IMO we should figure out a tag for these sorts of “tools of the trade” questions and get them all over to main. (Were the DSS ever in Paleo Hebrew, by the way? I thought that was older.) @Davïd

I've had a long standing objection to field specific resource questions being handled on meta (which should be for SE related issues) in the first place, but I don't have time to fight that right now and I've already conceded in the past that allowing it there is better than not allowing it at all and until I convince people to allow it on main I'm not going to object to it being on meta.

@Caleb Alright, migrated. I’ll get it together and open a discussion on meta at some point and maybe we can reconsider.

@Susan @Caleb @Davïd The problem with "tools of the trade" questions are that they tend to fall easily into avoided categories of questions, specifically being subjective in nature (often asking for "best" tools), "every answer is equally valid," and the "what do you use?" concept.

They also are not asking about the process of hermeneutics nor the act of interpreting a specific text, and other related on-topic categories. They probably belong in a Google or Amazon search (since many are "shopping list" type questions), not even on the site at all. Recall, this is supposed to be a site "for experts," and experts do not have such "tool" questions.

Yet we want to accommodate enthusiasts and amateurs as well, which may be interested in "tools," so they go to meta. Is this best? I don't know, but one policy of BH.SE is "showing your work" and that requires "tools," so since meta is in part about "policies of Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange," tools are part of helping people properly answer on BH.SE per policy and seem to belong there.

Yet one can argue tools are required for "doing" hermeneutics, and so belong as part of BH.SE main.

Not an easy answer either way in my opinion, but I know I do not want main cluttered with "shopping list" questions.

@ScottS I don't buy that usage of the "expert" scenario. If that was the case we could shut down StackOverflow because experts would never ask more than 5% of the questions on there. I rather think of it as question for people working towards becoming experts in their fields (as in not idle curiosity and expecting some research before asking is fine).

@Caleb Certainly the "expert" aspect is an issue. I somewhat like @Tau who noted the site is more for enthusiasts, as that is the "reality" of the situation, despite SE's goal of building sites "for experts," as the question Tau answered noted.

I'm personally fine either way (keeping such questions on meta or moving to BH.SE), but the questions would still need to fit some of the parameters of not being too open-ended I think. Take the "Dead Sea Scrolls" question above, where it seems an Amazon search would "answer" the question.