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The average score of the 50 most recent questions is currently -1.44 and only 16% of them have a positive vote score, for it's -1.22, 26% positive. Most of them are downvoted because they don't show any research effort. I'm probably not the only one who is annoyed that 90% of Minecraft questions are noise about basic game principles or similar things that answer themselves when googling a few related words. It takes away the motivation to follow the tag and answer actually good questions.

According to this, flagging these questions isn't allowed. But that leads to almost always at least one of these questions being on the start page of Gaming.SE. It drags down the overall view on this page and if someone specifically looks at the tag, they might think that these questions are welcome here, since most of them are of this type anyway.

What can be done about this situation?

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  • 3
    Why do you think downvoting is not enough?
    – Wrigglenite
    Dec 31, 2017 at 11:21
  • 2
    Because they still remain on the main page and there's no obvious indicator for new users like the big banner on closed/on hold questions. Downvotes can mean a lot of different things on different websites, so closing a question is a way better way to show that they are not wanted. And there are some other questions that are better, but have a close reason assigned, so they get closed. Also: I rolled back your edit, because the direct tags don't work here on meta, "minecraft" is about the family of tags, "minecraft-commands" doesn't work at all.
    – Fabian Röling
    Dec 31, 2017 at 13:55
  • Oh wait, the tags actually work. But why? How would one then link to a meta tag on meta?
    – Fabian Röling
    Dec 31, 2017 at 13:57
  • 2
    [meta-tag:minecraft] is how you'd do it
    – Wrigglenite
    Dec 31, 2017 at 14:12
  • 4
    Questions with a score of -4 or lower are hidden from the main page, so your worry is a non-issue if enough people downvote.
    – Wrigglenite
    Dec 31, 2017 at 14:12
  • 1
    But there aren't enough people who downvote.
    – Fabian Röling
    Dec 31, 2017 at 18:29
  • 4
    So that means people think those questions are worth having. And if they're not off-topic, there's no reason not to have them.
    – Wrigglenite
    Dec 31, 2017 at 18:44
  • Most of those questions are about programming and using non-gaming related concepts. It just happens that those concepts are then copy pasted into a game. I still don't understand why programming is on topic here, instead of having those users use game dev or stack exchange
    – Oak
    Dec 31, 2017 at 20:32
  • No that doesn't mean that people think those questions are worth having. Then the average score would be positive. It just means that this site isn't very active (compared to SO for example).
    – Fabian Röling
    Dec 31, 2017 at 22:06
  • 4
    If you can't get four people to downvote, what makes you think that you'll get enough people to close and delete?
    – Brythan
    Jan 1, 2018 at 0:34
  • Downvoting is expensive. There are many more questions to be downvoted than to be answered
    – phflack
    Jan 1, 2018 at 6:11
  • @Oak It's not really programming. It's using a scripting language that can only be used in one specific place - during the gameplay of a video game. Sure, there's a bit of overlap, but there's a huge difference between the audiences of SO and Arqade, and who would be able to answer those questions.
    – Mage Xy
    Jan 2, 2018 at 15:23
  • The best solution? Ignore the Minecraft tag. Headache solved.
    – Ellesedil
    Jan 5, 2018 at 19:02
  • I'll repeat what I wrote under the answer: "No, that's the exact opposite of what I want. I follow that tag, because I want to answer good questions. It's just annoying to have to filter out all the crap all the time."
    – Fabian Röling
    Jan 5, 2018 at 20:45
  • 1
    Answering over a year later: @Brythan, close votes go to the close vote review queue and are usually handled in minutes, downvotes go nowhere and even really bad questions don't arrive at -4 even years later.
    – Fabian Röling
    Feb 8, 2019 at 11:17

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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  1. If the question is just crap, you can downvote. With four or more downvotes (net), the question will disappear from the main page.

  2. If the question has been asked before and has a decent answer, flag as a duplicate. Note that if you answer a lot of questions under that tag, you can get a gold tag badge that allows you to close questions as a duplicate alone.

  3. If the question does not have enough details to be answered, flag it to be closed as Unclear What You're Asking. It is preferable to add a comment explaining what details would make the question clear.

  4. If the question is Too Broad or off-topic, flag it to be closed.

  5. If the question is simply trivial to answer, then answer it. Preferably broadly enough so as to allow other questions to then be closed as a duplicate of this question. Trivially found on Google is a damn poor criterion for dismissing a question on its own. Just answer it, take the cheap rep, and move on with your life.

While I'm sure that Stack Overflow is a busier site than this one (true for every non-SO site), this site is rather busy compared to most stacks. It is actually the fifth busiest site by traffic.

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  • This is basically what I'm already doing. But apparently it's not enough to keep all these really bad questions from coming.
    – Fabian Röling
    Jan 1, 2018 at 9:53
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    @Fabian Let's pretend for a moment that every Minecraft question with a negative score was closed and/or deleted right now. Do you think that would stop bad Minecraft questions from being asked? If these questions show such little research that you want to get rid of them entirely, not just downvote them, do you think the people who asked them have looked at other Minecraft questions to see what is appropriate to ask and what isn't? The only way to be sure to stop all bad questions from being asked is to close Arqade.
    – Wrigglenite
    Jan 1, 2018 at 10:24
  • So, then? Any other ideas to at least improve the situation?
    – Fabian Röling
    Jan 1, 2018 at 21:27
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    @Fabian That's it. There is no other recourse we can take that doesn't fundamentally change how the site works. Minecraft is a game that is very popular with a younger audience - that audience is tech-savvy enough to know how to ask for help online, but isn't mature enough to realize that maybe they should be reading the rules of where they're posting first. Combined with the fact that Minecraft is one of the most popular games in modern times, and you've got the problem you're asking about. Until either the game is less popular or the audience matures, there's nothing to be done.
    – Mage Xy
    Jan 2, 2018 at 15:27
  • If it bugs you that much, you can add [minecraft*] to your list of ignored tags, which will gray those questions out on the front page for you.
    – Mage Xy
    Jan 2, 2018 at 15:29
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    @MageXy No, that's the exact opposite of what I want. I follow that tag, because I want to answer good questions. It's just annoying to have to filter out all the crap all the time.
    – Fabian Röling
    Jan 2, 2018 at 16:08

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