Short Version
The purpose of this post is to have a vote count of the community support/opposition of the recent HNQ block list proposal. If you don't want to read the long version of the post then please go directly to Aim of this post and vote accordingly.
Long Version
In the last couple of weeks there has been an effort from the mod team about a the creation of a possible list of words (or phrases) that will filter questions out of the HNQ list (see Autofilters for Hot Network Questions, Which words (if any) in the title of a question should prevent inclusion in the HNQ list? and Discussion around voting on what words should be on the HNQ block-list for more details). This list, heceforth, I will refer to as HNQ block list.
In the post Autofilters for Hot Network Questions, the response of the community has been very much mixed and no conclusion could be drawn about the support or opposition of the community regarding the creation of such a list. One reason for this, I believe, was that the central question was not precisely asked. To be more precise, we were not directly asked whether we really need a HNQ block list. For this purpose, I posted this answer. But I have been told,
This is ultimately unhelpful. We can change the list, it's not a one-off request. So the question should first be, is there a community support for a list. Then we start weeding things out of the proposed list in the post itself. – Asaf Karagila♦ Apr 7 at 18:04
@AsafKaragila: In that case I don't understand how this can be unhelpful. Can you be more specific? For example, you wrote, "So the question should first be, is there a community support for a list.". Why not edit the question to include only this and see how it goes? – user 170039 Apr 8 at 6:18
@user170039: Of the +9 voters, it is unclear, who is just in favour of a filter, and who is also in favour of the list, and who is in favour of some part of the list. Similarly for the -9 voters, are they against all filtration, or just the word "puzzle", or anything else? – Asaf Karagila♦ Apr 8 at 6:20
@AsafKaragila: Indeed. That's why a rewording is necessary. Otherwise, I don't see much value in this post. – user 170039 Apr 8 at 7:38
Furthermore, in the post Which words (if any) in the title of a question should prevent inclusion in the HNQ list?, suggestions for inclusion of words in the HNQ block list is asked. While this is definitely a welcome effort, I think, it is a bit rushed. I also metioned this in a comment,
I would say that this question already presumes that the community wants a list. Which was not really established. — user 170039 6 hours ago
Yes, I have heard that argument that there is already a list, it's just the case that the list is empty (see here). But to me it looks like pointless rhetoric and I am looking for a concrete way to measure the support of the community for the proposal of creation of a non-empty HNQ block list. Note that voting on the answers of the last linked question doesn't really show support/opposition for the creation/need of such a list. It implies that if such a list is going to be created then $n$ people agree with the proposal of including "[word]" in such a list.
So we are again back to the same question,
Do we need a HNQ block list?
Aim of this Post
It has been argued by the author of this post that the bold part of my text is false. Whereas I do not want to include myself into pointless rhetoric, note that I am not asking whether we want a list. I am asking whether we need a list or not. There is an important difference here (even though there is an effort to brush it off as "tangential").
Furthermore, the question which is stated to allow the community to decide if it wants a list via voting on words has an interesting feature. It seems to me that here that the above mentioned "decision procedure" has already been decided on behalf of the community, but I may of course be wrong. What is most puzzling to me in this whole episode is the following,
If you want to know whether the community wants/needs a HNQ block list or not, why not ask them directly and wait for their feedback instead of already presuming the process it to be "abstract"?
This poll here is to have a vote count just to get a clear picture of the voice of the community regarding this issue. I will be posting an answer. Please consider upvoting/downvoting it as you see fit. Please don't post any more answers.
$
. $\endgroup$ – Xander Henderson♦ Apr 15 '20 at 13:59