@HDE226868 I have been somewhat less active on main recently. But seeing that the current challenge was your suggestion, one might think you'd be interested...?
If a question is on-topic for us, it doesn't matter if it's also on-topic on some other site. @HDE226868, are you seeing a pattern that should be raised on meta?
I'm told that question migration paths don't just appear automatically, but we ought to discuss which ones we need.
(Why not? I always expected the list to be populated the same as the upper-left corner button, and never knew why it never worked.)
So, what other SEs do we find useful for this ...
We've had minimal migrations to Physics and Astronomy, yet there's loads of support for sending questions there.
I agree with this comment:
Keep in mind - public migration paths are primarily for there actually being enough of a load that moderators basically are insufficient. If there's only a handful a month, that's something very easily handled by flagging for a moderator. It being a logical migration path is secondary - for example Arqade has never had a migration path to Game Development, despite the obvious logical link, because in the long run so few questions asked actually need to be migrated there. At the moment these statistics demonstrate a lack of need for a public migration path update. — Grace Note ♦Nov 18 at 13:53
Daring proposal: no migration paths (other than meta). Here's why:
We have a lot of questions that are on-topic here, but collect migration votes to sites where they are also on-topic. That's not how SE is supposed to work. As discussed in Respect the Community -- Your Own, and Others', we sh...
what items would you bring with you to another world with the budget of 2million dollars.
You were given the information that they are not technologically advance and they have magic. On top of it you deducted upon questioning that it is a medieval-like age as well!
You are asked to save the ot...
How's a good way to get answers to feedback-type, or general-advice type, or really open worldbuilding questions? Where it's about the 'gestaldt' of the thing, all-these-things-together type questions; so it's kind of pointless to try to break it down into very specific questions. Or at least very hard, without losing the main question. If that makes sense. It seems all my questions I need help with fall under this category.
@spicklesandwich I think most people in this chat also frequent the meta board and saw your question about the same idea.
@spicklesandwich What about the existing answers was insufficient?
@micovillena Edit the question to be less opinion based. Provide a more concrete way to determine a best single answer. Once you do that the question will be able to be re-opened.
I guess I'm more wondering, based on the idea that I really am looking for, that this statement best sums it up. "For the moment, your post is asking for a discussion or a brainstorming. This doesn't suit the Q/A format of Stack Exchange well. It would be much easier and efficient to have a discussion on chat or on a forum." Where it'd honestly be a huge pain to have a big discussion, just so I can ask a bunch of smaller questions. I'd rather just have a discussion, and get a few opinions, or at least a couple good directions to research. Because usually, that's the biggest issue; I'd rese…
@micovillena Yeah, I agree. That whole genre of question "what's your ideal list of things to accomplish X" is not a good format here. It is fundamentally opinion based.
@spicklesandwich So you're looking to have a discussion about how to split your question up?
Mm kind of the opposite. I don't want to have that huge discussion. My question really is, if we've established that this isn't a good place; Where IS a good format for open-ended questions? Do we have a favorite, reliable forum? Is the chat acceptable? Or do we prefer to use it to narrow down or split things up until it's acceptable?
@micovillena I'm at a loss there. The most similar valid question I can think of is when someone asked which single melee weapon would be best in a zombie situation. Or the single best location to hole up.
@micovillena You could perhaps list a couple of resources (e.g. food, water, etc.) and ask about what device would best help acquire one of them. But you'd have to know what you're looking for.
@spicklesandwich I can't recommend anywhere besides some place that's not going to give very good answers, like Yahoo Answers. Chat is acceptable. My main concern with you having a question that you can't break into parts is that you don't actually have a really clear idea of it yet.
@spicklesandwich I would highly recommend chat, as @Samuel says. We have folks knowledgeable about everything from economics to history to physics to linguistics, who can help point you in the right question.
Right. And I can see that. I have broken it down into more digestable questions, though. Breaking it down into sections is not really the issue. It just irks me to ask questions about asking questions so I can finally ask the question I really want answered. Lol.
@spicklesandwich The best test of actually understanding any topic is if you can teach it to someone else. If you can't break it into coherent pieces, then you may not actually have a complete picture in your mind yet.
@spicklesandwich The entirety of life is that way.
You can also try a lie-to-children approach. Simplify the question in a way that's not actually true but is simpler to approach and will eventually lead to a complete understanding of the whole picture.
Well, I guess as long as it points me in the right direction. I can deal. Methinks there should be a way to migrate people to the chat, make it a little clearer that it's an 'improve this, let me help you' way instead of just 'bad question'. Thonk. A little abrupt, maybe, to just block a question.
@spicklesandwich If it was once a month and people like you I think we would do it that way. But it's far more often and usually from kids who aren't interested.
aren't interested in improving the question*
@micovillena Depends on the world, what's available there, and how long it takes to get there.
K. Cool. Then I'd like some feedback, if you'd be so kind. So basically I'm building a random/custom encounter generator for my tabletop game. Has 2 sections - Environment and Civilization.
Each section has 10 variables in sets of 2, and I roll/rate them on a simple scale, and put them together for an idea. If necessary I can drill down into some meta-variables for more specificity. The idea is to be as flexible and descriptive, and potentially thorough, as possible. I'll just mention the variables I have so far.
Variables are rated by 'Value', roughtly - on a 0-A scale, or sometimes an A-vs-B scale.
Meta-variables: Variety, Balance (stagnant-/-eratic), Contrast (with surroundings), Weirdness (in general), and Scale (Tiny-/-Grand)
Environment: - Hour of Day // Season - Ecology (by life or size of ecosystem; optionally then into flora and fauna.) // Population (by density) - Altitude // Geology (basically flat-/-rugged) - Weather (amount or extremity) // Water (percentage and/or proximity to land) - Climate (mostly temperature) // Terrain (Um... Kind of a wildcard for 'percentage of normal earth versus special landforms' like volcanoes, snow/glaciers, fault lines, etc. I can then sort of roll this versus any of the other variables to see what 'type' it could be.)
Can also do Moon-phase or Tidal Season, if you want.
That's pretty close to what I've had for years, but I've done some updating.
I'm told that question migration paths don't just appear automatically, but we ought to discuss which ones we need.
(Why not? I always expected the list to be populated the same as the upper-left corner button, and never knew why it never worked.)
So, what other SEs do we find useful for this ...
Daring proposal: no migration paths (other than meta). Here's why:
We have a lot of questions that are on-topic here, but collect migration votes to sites where they are also on-topic. That's not how SE is supposed to work. As discussed in Respect the Community -- Your Own, and Others', we sh...
The Factory Floor
The Factory Floor