@DavidStratton Maybe you're talking about my voting. I mean to bring up that the user I've linked to has only had one upvote out of the total seven votes on his posts.
@DavidStratton That one's certainly good for pastoral advice question.
It think there may be a need for a post that spells it out generally why answering off-topic questions is bad.
The more experience I get with questions posed on the Internet, the more I become aware that the questions least likely to be mocked or answered sarcastically are most likely to be very technical in language and esoteric in content.
@DoubleU Maybe you should rephrase your original statement. Or was I making a leap by connecting "technical" and "esoteric" to someone having done the research?
@Mr.Bultitude I believe what I said above has more to do with perception than intention.
A person may ask an innocent question, only to be answered sarcastically.
Alternatively, a person may have an ulterior motive while asking a question, and the answerer takes the asker seriously, even though the asker is not serious at all.
@Mr.Bultitude Some people may ask a joke-question; others may ask an insincere question. The latter is usually more grave than the former (but that depends on the content). Both questions may be asked by a person who is not serious.
Then, there are questions that are very difficult to ask, because they are extremely sensitive.
Any question related to a controversial topic that personally becomes a part of a person's identity is a sensitive one.
@fredsbendtheGrinch Expired, which thankfully doesn't happen to often here.
@fredsbendtheGrinch I don't think so. It'
It isn't asking who the apostles thought the twelfth apostle was, or whether Paul thought he was one of them, it's asking what the Holy Spirit thought. It's a mind of God question. Maybe it could be ontopic if it was edited heavily, but I think it would change the topic considerably. Consider the answers the question has gathered - they're all opinions about the ultimate truth of who the Twelve are, and of course, the answers don't agree with each other.
There are two seemingly contradictory accounts of creation in the Bible.
The first is in Genesis 1:1-2:3.
The second is in Genesis 2:4-25.
Why the differences in the accounts?
One of them old questions attracting bad new answers. I feel like there's something wrong with the question itself (now that the site has evolved) but I can't put my finger on what. It doesn't seem to show research effort, and seems to call for opinion. I don't know how it could even be reworked to not call for opinion though, except by asking what "prominent theologians" have said or something.
In Ciseri's painting Ecce homo, the background features a tall, stand-alone column which looks identical to Trajan's column:
Trajan was born after Christ supposedly died, and the column itself was built a century later. This leads me to ask whether there is any reason as to why the painter may...
There are two seemingly contradictory accounts of creation in the Bible.
The first is in Genesis 1:1-2:3.
The second is in Genesis 2:4-25.
Why the differences in the accounts?
In Ciseri's painting Ecce homo, the background features a tall, stand-alone column which looks identical to Trajan's column:
Trajan was born after Christ supposedly died, and the column itself was built a century later. This leads me to ask whether there is any reason as to why the painter may...
The Upper Room
The Upper Room