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I see a lot of posts on Gaming Stack Exchange that resemble forum posts. It is common to see people thanking others, adding an 'argument' as an answer, and even another question as an answer. Seeing how most gamers come from other forums to ask questions here, they might be used to a different format, style and rules of asking questions and joining discussions.

I would suggest that the FAQ should be mandatory checked before new users can ask questions. Other Stack Exchange sites such as Stack Overflow have users that are more likely to pick up on how Stack Exchange functions quicker than gamers.

As an example of what I mean, when you try to answer your own question, you get this dialog box :

'Are you sure you want to answer your question?' dialog

Why not incorporate this idea when posting answers for the first time? or every time until you get 10 rep? Some rules such as Answers must not be an added discussion, a comment or argument about the actual question or something along these lines. Might be a good idea, what are your thoughts?

Update: Has this issue been addressed? Or is it not considered an issue at all?

As Gaming Stack Exchange becomes more popular, more users will start signing up to ask questions, it might be a bit hectic for the community to manage all the errors that can result from new users' posts.

Would like to hear what you think about this topic and if it is an issue at all.

Note: I did not ask this to hint that moderators and the community are not efficient enough at moderating Arqade, it's a simple question I had in mind after I witnessed many repetitive mistakes by new users. This question is not meant to bash anyone's effort to maintain and moderate the site.

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    There's no way to enforce making new users read the FAQ. There's a badge for doing so, but no requirement. Besides, new users get LOTS of help when they post their first questions and answers, that specifically tell them what it's about. Stackoverflow has this problem, too, just an order of magnitude worse than we do. – Frank Mar 7 '13 at 0:10
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    The page that people must click through on Stack Overflow isn't the faq, but How to Ask. – badp Mar 7 '13 at 0:11
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    I am a new user and I read the FAQ (twice) before I posted an answer. – SimonL Mar 7 '13 at 0:12
  • @fbueckert See what I mean that users are quick to downvote ? – Render Mar 7 '13 at 0:19
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    Dude, this is Meta. You're proposing a solution to something that isn't a problem. Of course people are downvoting. They don't agree that there's a problem here that needs resolving. – Frank Mar 7 '13 at 0:19
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    @fbueckert chill, it's a question for discussion :) – Render Mar 7 '13 at 0:20
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    Yeah, and people disagree. This isn't proof at all that people downvote too quickly. I can do the same thing by posting, "Disallow anonymous users from posting.", and I'll also get buried in downvotes. – Frank Mar 7 '13 at 0:21
  • @Fendi Just one man's opinion, but try to ignore the downvotes. On Meta voting is more about agree/disagree and less about good question vs. bad question. You probably can't see it at your rep level, but there are several upvotes on your question as well. I find it a valid question, but it is one we've been dealing with for a few years and you can see most folks don't consider it a big problem. – EBongo Mar 9 '13 at 14:53
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    Let me also add - thank you for wanting to make the site better, and thank you for bring up this discussion in the right place. – EBongo Mar 9 '13 at 14:55
  • @EBongo Thank you, at least that lifts up the negativity from people bashing me here about it haha. I'm not used to posting in Meta and perceive downvotes as a 'bad question' just like other non-meta stackexchanges. But thank you for replying :) – Render Mar 9 '13 at 17:28
  • "So why not incorporate this idea when posting Answers for the first time ? or every time until you get 10 rep ?" We do. There are how to ask/answer pages the user is shown and must confirm they've read before posting their first question/answer. – Ben Brocka Mar 9 '13 at 19:35
  • @BenBrocka You really think every user reads them before confirming ?? Or just scroll down and tick the box ? Just like ToS, very high percentage of people just tick the confirmation without reading. Otherwise, new users posting what I mentioned above won't be happening frequently. – Render Mar 9 '13 at 20:18
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    If they don't read the box that's already shown, why would they read the extra box you're proposing that seems to be the exact same thing with the exact same intent? Not everyone's going to read everything you give them, but just adding more and more copies of the same thing isn't the solution to that problem. – Ben Brocka Mar 9 '13 at 21:40
  • @BenBrocka Then why constantly prompt that dialog box up when a user tries to answer their own question ?? Might as well put it in a page to be read and confirmed only once .. – Render Mar 9 '13 at 21:53
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This might have been a useful question two years ago when Gaming.SE first opened.

Two years later, I think evidence has shown that there isn't really any need for any special ruleset in this regard. While it's true that we do get different sorts of problem posts than say, StackOverflow (if I had to guess, we probably get less spam, more outright vandalism), it's nothing that quality moderation hasn't been able to handle, and I suspect, won't be anytime soon.

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  • We are also the biggest Stack Exchange 2.0 site, I think. – Raven Dreamer Mar 7 '13 at 0:18
  • I agree with your argument. I was only thinking if this might be an issue in the future when gaming.stackexchange becomes more popular and many new users starting flowing in daily. – Render Mar 7 '13 at 0:18
  • @Fendi Let's worry about that when the time comes, then :) – badp Mar 7 '13 at 0:21
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    @badp No harm in being prepared I guess !! But yeah, sure :) – Render Mar 7 '13 at 0:23
  • @RavenDreamer Not quite, though you're definitely up near the top of the list by traffic. – Adam Lear♦ Mar 7 '13 at 6:15
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Mandatory FAQ/Help Center viewing? No.

Having said that, a lot of the useful information that is imparted in the Help Center is now prominently shown right where new users will need it - included along the right-hand-side of the 'Ask Question' page:

Ask question page

As you continue to fill out a question, this help info will change. There is also now a 'review' step, that the asker has to click through - making them go over their post one last time, before submitting the new question:

Review your question - button

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