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I really don't get why people are so opposed to this question. I'm hoping someone can explain it to me.

First I asked whether, given the success of the previous posts which had a small selection of these questions, it made sense to have a place where we didn't try to keep the list short. That question got a net -8 downvotes (at least), with absolutely no comments. Clearly people disliked the idea, but no one cared enough to actually post an answer explaining why. (That question was eventually deleted - I don't know if it was a moderator or automatic.)

So I went ahead and created the question, and although it's not in the original form I had in mind, I think it's better for it. One question, one CW answer that anyone can add question links to, broken down by category. It immediately got at least 10 downvotes, which I can only assume came from people active on meta. It has since climbed up to positive 19, and got 15 "favorite" stars, which means almost twice as many people approve of it as disapproved. Yet it was closed as a duplicate of the memes question, and someone's attempt to go "Oh, it's a duplicate, lets move all the links over there" was reverted.

I find it mildly irritating that it was closed, and I've voted to reopen it, but that hasn't reached the threshold yet. In the meantime, while I wish it wasn't closed, it's not an inconvenience because there's no need to add more answers - it's just editing the existing one. But now it's managed to collect two of the four delete votes it needs to just vanish, and I still don't understand why people are so opposed to it.

Is everyone going to agree that all the question titles on the list are funny? Absolutely not. There's a few that other people have added that I looked at and went "Meh", and I'm sure that's true for everyone else. But I don't understand how the subjectivity of humor means that said humor should be so reviled in the first place. I don't find toilet jokes or "you mom" jokes funny at all, but I don't go around telling people they shouldn't tell them. And smaller versions of these lists have been really highly voted in the past. Aside from a short-term locking of the memes post, none of them have been downvoted like crazy, closed, and (as far as I'm aware) threatened with deletion.

So please - help me understand. What is it about this question that is provoking such negative reactions? Why not just leave it alone, if you don't find it interesting? A few comments on the question said things like "I don't see the point", and I can understand downvoting because of that, but after that, why not just move on?

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  • Sorry for the length. I got a bit carried away. But I'm really confused by the difference in reaction.
    – Bobson
    Sep 22, 2014 at 18:54
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    My main reason for voting to delete it is that it was a closed meta question that kept getting updated and bumped to the top of the active list. This was obscuring actual relevant topics. I would be okay with all fun questions going away, so I didn't hate this one in particular over the rest. I'm also not on a crusade to get them, though. This one just earned a delete vote since it had already been closed.
    – Sterno
    Sep 22, 2014 at 19:37
  • Probably my fault; I added a bunch yesterday. Sorry.
    – SQB
    Sep 23, 2014 at 7:47
  • @SQB - Nah, that's just when I noticed it'd picked up a second delete vote, which prompted the above rant and the accompanying discussion in chat. It'd have happened eventually anyway. I still disagree, but it is what it is.
    – Bobson
    Sep 23, 2014 at 10:57

2 Answers 2

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I was one of the people who voted to close, and if I had the rep to do so, probably would have also been on the list to delete it.

I really like those question titles. I get a kick out of them all the time. And I sometimes visit the other meta post to see if I missed any good ones. But Meta does have a purpose, and while it may seem that SE or Arqade hates fun, we don't. We just need to make sure that meta is able to properly serve its function. And if we have an ever growing list of "funny question titles" that basically gets pinned to the top as people try to add their question to the list, then it starts to break down a little.

Every time you edit it, or add an answer, it'll get thrown back to the top of the front page, and get more attention. Which can be great for questions relevant to the site or policy, or guidelines or something, but for fun posts is actually bad. It adds to the noise of the system and potentially buries something that needs attention. And too many of these types of questions makes that worse.

With the format it is in now, the small list gets edited on occasion but not a lot. It has been edited about 30 times in roughly 3 years, which is high, but not crazy considering. And some of those edits happened in a row, so it didn't spend too much time on the front page. But if each of those answers is broken out into a question, and all of them turn into giant lists, meta becomes pointless.

So, basically, we like the fun. We want to keep it around. But we also don't want it to get in the way of being a useful site. And that's why we closed your question and deleted it. Those of us who have been around for a while and earned enough rep here to vote on the matter thought it might distract from being a good site. So we closed it. And I imagine it got deleted because the closed question got edited and put back to the top of the list again. The one question about memes and a small list of examples is more than enough to enjoy it without getting in the way. A giant list, however, would (and in my opinion is unnecessary).

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  • Thank you for actually answering this in the spirit it was intended. I definitely appreciate it. And it makes even more sense now than it did in chat. I'm not sure I agree, but I do understand.
    – Bobson
    Sep 22, 2014 at 19:48
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    Although, it could also be treated like the SO programmer jokes question
    – Batophobia
    Sep 22, 2014 at 19:51
  • Why "It keeps getting bumped to the top" was so hard for everyone to describe before not, I don't know.
    – Bobson
    Sep 22, 2014 at 19:54
  • @Batophobia - It's too new to be of historical relevance, although that would be appropriate for every other "fun" post from before, for this reason. Of course, all my flags just got declined... (also, not = now in the previous comment)
    – Bobson
    Sep 22, 2014 at 19:54
-1

For the record, I went to the Arqade chat and got my answer: It's a difference in opinion between casual users (who only have the ability to up/down vote) and the community of dedicated users (who have earned enough rep to be able to close/delete). The latter feel that there is no need for a dedicated list, that there's enough examples covered in the memes post, and that fun questions aren't as appropriate as they used to be but no one has cared to try and purge them.

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  • @Frank - Downvotes are neither an explanation nor a discussion. This all could have been avoided simply by someone answering the original discussion question the way Ktash or Sterno does above. All the downvotes told me was that EITHER people didn't like the idea themselves OR that they didn't feel like it needed to be discussed in the first place. In the absence of anyone giving a reason not to do something, I went along with the precedent set by other questions.
    – Bobson
    Sep 22, 2014 at 20:41
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    I don't think it was necessary to actually answer the question. The downvotes told you everything you needed to know, I feel, especially in light of the accompanying chat discussion. You had your clarification. You decided it wasn't good enough.
    – Frank
    Sep 22, 2014 at 20:56
  • @Frank - I'm referring to the original discussion question which I don't think had much, if any, discussion in chat. I'm not sure what you're referring to by "it wasn't good enough" at this point.
    – Bobson
    Sep 22, 2014 at 20:59
  • I'm misremembering when we had the conversation. I was sure we had had a decent discussion, but all I find was me stating I saw no need for the list. Other than that, I don't see anything at all about it. Hmm. Downvotes on meta, though, definitely mean, "I disagree with this idea". That should have at least gave you some pause before going ahead and ignoring the feedback you received.
    – Frank
    Sep 22, 2014 at 21:02
  • @Frank - As I said, it was entirely unclear whether the feedback I was getting was "This is a bad idea" or "Asking whether you can ask is stupid". I interpreted it as the latter, when I shouldn't have..
    – Bobson
    Sep 22, 2014 at 21:09

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