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I've posted this question both on SE and on Reddit.

The question was about necessity of alts in Eve Online. I asked, since gameplay is versatile in Eve online, what activities required alts and what did not. ("alts" means second, third, etc. game characters, in addition to your "main" one)

On Reddit I get plenty of clear answers and upvotes, and now have a solid list of activities, that actually require alts. Many players also agree that you do NOT require alts for the most of the things you do in Eve (having an alt makes things easier though).

On SE the question was downvoted and called "decision paralysis" in the comments, then flagged as "unclear what you're asking".

It turned out that the first downvoter hasn't played Eve Online. He downvoted without understanding that alts were relevant to the question.

I've modified the question to make it shorter and clearer, but the damage already has been done - the question is "on hold", no more hits, no further answers, no upvotes (since you need a strong reason to upvote a -3 on-hold question).

So is it really a bad question? If it is, how can you explain its success on Reddit?
Or did just a bad start spoil it (and how could I prevent this)?

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    Well, for one thing, StackExchange isn't Reddit. We have a fairly different model, and questions that amount to little more than an opinion survey are not a good fit here. They often work well on more discussion oriented websites, like Reddit however.
    – LessPop_MoreFizz Mod
    Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 20:38
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    There are many questions that fit a reddit (or other forum) format much better than Arqade. One of the most common examples are questions that people ask about game-identification with no resource, we often direct users to the /tipofmyjoystick subreddit. With Arqade being a question and answer format, questions that have a concrete answer are better received. Your question was pretty open-ended. Even by someone who doesn't play the game extensively, you can see how it could garner entirely opinion based answers, which puts it off-topic.
    – king14nyr
    Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 20:46
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    @king14nyr I don't say SE and Reddit are the same, but I can't agree the question was open-ended. Turned out there are only three roles that require an alt: 1. cyno char, 2. market char, 3. OOC char. That could be a concrete answer.
    – enkryptor
    Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 20:55
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    Knowledge of the game isn't required to close a question here. Its enough to know there are types of questions that don't work, and vote accordingly. So that argument is void. Incidentally, I did vote to close it as primarily opinion based. Looks like the majority chose unclear, however.
    – Frank
    Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 21:15
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    A question is something such as "Why do people wear warm clothes?", not "Should I wear warm clothes today?" The second one is your own decision. What I'm trying to say is that questions should not ask an opinion of what you want to do, it should be there for everyone to know the facts and then make their own decision. (The examples I gave are not real questions btw)
    – Jacques Marais
    Commented Aug 16, 2016 at 17:39
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    @JacquesMarais I've asked what options were available. The decision is up to me.
    – enkryptor
    Commented Aug 16, 2016 at 18:29
  • That's the crux of the issue though. Arqade works best when there's just one definite answer, but it requires the question to be solid as well. If the question causes a debate as to "what the question is about?", then it's going to get weak answers that are no better then blind luck. In that case, the right answer for you will not work on the hundreds of others that have the same question but different context. They'll find the "answers" to be a complete waste of time.
    – NBN-Alex
    Commented Aug 16, 2016 at 20:23
  • In comparison, look at Microsoft's Technet and support networks. If you ever had to lookup "How do I fix this issue" on their sites, it's a complete mess since the questions and issues that users have are not solid with complete information. - The correct answer requires a ton more context before any attempt at the issue is made, but even then a passerby (like myself) needs to wade though 20 generic office questions just to find 1 where the context matches my own issues. Compare that to Arqade where most Q/A can boil down to "Help with X -> X is solved like this."
    – NBN-Alex
    Commented Aug 16, 2016 at 20:33
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    @NBN-Alex the fun thing is, based on the reddit thread, there actually are short solid list of activities that do require alts. There are close questions where opinions differ though (should you make alts, how many, is it necessary or just convenient, how do you use alts, etc). But the main answer is quite clear.
    – enkryptor
    Commented Aug 16, 2016 at 20:42

1 Answer 1

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I suspect your question isn't really proper for the site because it's looking for opinions across a rather broad range of game activity.

There are a lot of activities in EVE and making an answer that clearly states what cannot be done without an alt could cause further debate. A player can do most things in EVE (It may simply take an astronomical amount of time). A player with an alt can do those same things but more effectively if they have the knowledge to do so. The direct answer to your question is that not having an alt only locks out activities that require you to be in two or more places at once. So it is more a measurement of how much time activities are, rather than being unable to do them at all.

Since your question seems to provoke discussion on what you may be unlikely to do rather than what you cannot do, Reddit may give you better results if you are looking for opinions based on experience.

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  • But it is "opinion based", isn't it? "Unclear what you're asking" is just wrong.
    – enkryptor
    Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 20:51
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    @enkryptor the site put "unclear" as the close reason because it had to pick one, but there was not an unanimous consensus on the specific close reason; "too broad" and "primarily opinion-based" were also chosen. I wouldn't focus so much on the specific close reason on the page -- those blurbs are by necessity pretty generic -- so long as you can understand what is actually the problem with your question.
    – badp Mod
    Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 20:55
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    From how I read the question, it's primarily opinion based (What game activities and what corporations should I choose from?), and provokes discussion (And why do people create so many alts, is it really necessary?). These are clearly indicated in the site tour as topics to avoid.
    – user973
    Commented Aug 10, 2016 at 20:58

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