@HDE226868 @Yannis @Semaphore any ideas on how to get more activity (i.e. more questions)? The myth of the month doesn't seem to be working well this time (I'm the only one whose asked questions)

My idea about asking bloggers to write answers didn't really work out: when I asked bloggers to help answer questions posted on the site, they emailed back instead of posting on the website (and their emails rarely contained sources)

@Hamlet Yeah tbh I don't really know where to go from here.

Well, I really don't think a strict approach towards sources in answers is such a constructive position to take, especially in terms of encouraging participation, but that's the position the membership appears to have taken, which I find regrettable.

@Semaphore I don't think that's as big of a problem as you think: although it may have turned some people away from the site, we honestly didn't get that many people participating in the first place, and the people who don't cite sources are also less likely to stick around regardless because they know less about mythology

I think it's a matter of spreading the word out: I've seen a lot of blogs/websites produced by amateur mythology enthusiasts who aren't part of a university: I'm sure if they saw out site they would want to participate (lots of high quality answers, several experts, etc)

@Hamlet Partly because of the very strict source requirements. I am unable to answer anything with these requirements.

@C.M.Weimer thoughts about activity

@Arperum I do not think they are that strict. We aren't requiring people to cite from 20 books: if you were to just quote from a single myth that would fulfil the requirements.

@Hamlet I disagree. I think it's a huge problem. And it is very strict: there is no reason to downvote sources citing wikipedia for basic facts, and yet people routinely do that.

@Semaphore (let me just preface this by saying that although I am one of our strongest activists for sourcing requirements...

And it's pretty arrogant to think that people who don't cite sources to your satisfaction is "know less about mythology"

There's any number of traditional myths I might relate, and which I cannot easily find sources in English for

Just because sometimes I spend the effort to translate them doesn't mean I think it's a reasonable standard to be set for answers

We can improve our answers quality by leaving comments asking for sources, but negative reinforcement simply tells people to go away.

I'm willing to come to a compromise/relax the policy, although I think that changing the sources policy alone won't solve our problem: we need to recruit outside the site as well).

let me respond to your points:

(1): citing wikipedia for basic facts: I'm willing to relax on this, but I don't want answers that just copy and paste from wikipedia

Neither do I - I think copy paste wiki articles should just be a comment with a link

(2): with traditional myths in foreign languages: I would be comfortable with answers that don't have an english translation, but I would like a sign that the answerer isn't just remembering them. I would be fine if the answerer just quoted from a book in a foreign language, didn't provide a translation, and used that as a source. (It doesn't even have to be a quote, just some sign that the person has the source infront of them and isn't making mistakes)

@Semaphore (3): I guess I worded that badly, but I honestly think it's reasonable to think that someone who knows what sources to cite probably has read a lot more about mythology than someone who hasn't

(4): We could (and probably should) relax the source policy a bit, but that doesn't change the fact that there are not that many people on the SE network who are interested in mythology, know enough about it to answer questions and ask decent questions, and who have time to participate.

You can't assume everyone who comes to the site knows they should be citing stuff riguoously instead of simply relating their knowledge

It's one thing to encourage answers to have sources, it's another to enforce it as a requirement

@Semaphore is the downvoting the problem: I could stop doing that

Well yes, I think it's not constructive.

@Semaphore OK, stopped, and edited this post where I advocated for downvoting unsourced answers

I do agree we need to broaden our membership, I just think retention is just as big of an issue.

I do think that having a sources policy is important for recruiting: if someone like ArthurGeorge or CMWeimer would have participated as much as they do if the site had answers w/o sources.

@Hamlet Copy paste from anywhere is copyright infringement, and should never be allowed anyway.

@Arperum your right, sorry, I meant answers that are solely based on wikipedia (if someone wanted to use wikipedia they could have used it; it's extremely easy to find)

@Semaphore speaking of retention, I think that also means upvoting more quality answers. For example, the answers to this question (which are very good) only have 1-2 upvotes, which isn't very encouradging.

That does seem like a surprisingly low number of votes. Perhaps not many people has looked that question since the answers.

@Semaphore perhaps, but it seems like just as big of a problem

For example, my answer here got only half of the votes as the question, despite being a good answer.

@Arperum question about the sources policy: as someone who doesn't answer questions, what parts do you find the most difficult to follow?

@Hamlet I haven't really looked at the site much lately, I sort of poked at it from the sidelines early on. So I can't give an up to date view on how it currently is, but I know the very strict source policy gave me the feeling like I could never give answers as good as others who properly sourced, because my knowledge is lacking.

IIRC at some point there was also a thing about downvoting question if you could easily find the answer in one of the "common" sources. But that is kinda vague.

@Arperum that's less of a thing now (I think)

@Arperum if you answered question, what would that look like (source wise -- i.e. would you use no sources, specific sources, etc.)

@Hamlet I don't know, I still have some kind of an interest in the site, but I'll probably always be more someone who looks from the sidelines.

@Hamlet With my current knowledge Idon't know if there are many questions I could answer, my mythology knowledge is hidden deep in my brain. I haven't really been reading anything about it lately.

@Hamlet I haven't been thinking about Mythology for a while; I just got back from vacation.

I'm also not too active on social media, nor am I a blogger.

@HDE226868 I just got back as well

@HDE226868 neither am I, but I'm trying to reach out to people who are and getting them to link to the site

@HDE226868 for example, I just posted a link on the alt.mythology newsgroup: groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.mythology/oXO9E3bUM4I/VDe--kWsCwAJ

To summerise what I think has been discussed so far:

(1) we need to be nicer to new users: we shouldn't downvote them for sources if it's their first or second answer (though we should leave comments)

(2) we should upvote more questions and answers: for example, the answers to this question are really good but are upvoted about half as much as the question itself

I would like to hear more about:

(1) how to get other websites to link to our website

(2) how can we get established users to ask more questions (is the myth of the month not working)?