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Given the amount of material on the site now, I have previously asked questions about curating content better so it is more accessible. So this is an idea that may not work, but is designed to think about how we display the best of the site to new users and make the best content more accessible.

The tentative idea would be to have a "model question" tag - sadly this would only likely work if able to be used by more experienced site members. But if such a thing were to exist it would be awarded, for example, in respect of subjects that are regularly duplicated, to questions that are well posed and explained, and have an appropriate range of good answers which explore the mathematics in the question at the various levels of sophistication at which it might be asked.

I think the "tone" of the site has got rather sharper and more critical over the last three years, and that barriers to entry may be higher than previously. That has been the subject of much debate and a reasonably settled policy has emerged. This is one attempt to think about how the site might be made more accessible. It may not work as a suggestion, but I hope to prompt other better suggestions by making this one.

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't know about this particular proposal, but I've upvoted for thinking about how site should mature. $\endgroup$
    – JonathanZ
    Commented Jun 28, 2022 at 16:07
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    $\begingroup$ There's the faq tag. Is that what you need? $\endgroup$
    – Arctic Char
    Commented Jun 28, 2022 at 16:07
  • $\begingroup$ Would the new tag be for new questions, or involve assessing 1.5 million existing questions for suitability? $\endgroup$
    – Peter Phipps
    Commented Jun 28, 2022 at 19:03
  • $\begingroup$ @ArcticChar No - there would be a quality implication too $\endgroup$
    – Mark Bennet
    Commented Jun 28, 2022 at 20:21
  • $\begingroup$ @PeterPhipps I think one would do it incrementally. The idea came from noticing some of the questions which have been linked as duplicates recently and how good those are and how good some of the answers are. It would serve to give models of good questions alongside other possibilities. $\endgroup$
    – Mark Bennet
    Commented Jun 28, 2022 at 20:23
  • $\begingroup$ Of course, this would be a meta tag - the recommendation it to avoid such tags (or at least not to have too many of them). See: The "meta-tags". and The Death of Meta Tags. (Another natural issue is that there are only five spots on tags - and this would sacrifice one of those places for something which isn't useful for finding the question.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Jun 29, 2022 at 5:17
  • $\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak Perhaps there is another way of doing something similar as a kind of "badge of excellence". Perhaps there is something to do in relation to "How to ask a good question" which involves linking to examples of how to do it. Just thinking overnight, that aspect of showing as well as telling might be helpful? $\endgroup$
    – Mark Bennet
    Commented Jun 29, 2022 at 5:24
  • $\begingroup$ @MarkBennet One of the things you've mentioned is questions that are frequently duplicated. I will point out that there are some threads on meta dedicated to such questions. And every tag has a frequent tab - questions which have many duplicates will appear there. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Jun 29, 2022 at 5:31
  • $\begingroup$ The other thing you've mentioned is high quality questions or high quality answers - there were some related discussions in the past, none of them lead to anything: Examples and counterexamples of good questions and answers, Standard example of well asked question. or Suggestions for examples of well-asked questions. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Jun 29, 2022 at 5:32
  • $\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak One thing I am thinking about is how to make all that accessible to someone who is new to the site and perhaps doesn't immediately know how to find what they want. It is a long time ago now that I was new, but I remember having a lot to learn. It is very easy for those of us familiar with the site to think that basic navigation knowledge is essentially trivial. Maybe there is a case for (clickbait warning) "ten common mistakes to avoid" or "ten ways to make the site work better for you"?? $\endgroup$
    – Mark Bennet
    Commented Jun 29, 2022 at 5:37
  • $\begingroup$ If you with (and if we can both spare a few minutes), we could discuss this for a while in chat. (If nothing else, to avoid making the comment thread too long and digressing too much.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Jun 29, 2022 at 5:47
  • $\begingroup$ Oh YES, let's do this. On a more mild note : any way of recognizing the right way of doing things contrasts with the voting system and will provide a constantly positive reinforcement of the guidelines we expect while asking questions. That, and providing excellent answers to such questions are the best way we can recognize them, and tagging serves a great purpose. Honestly, I answered a great question yesterday, and I recognize the need for excellent questions to receive special attention, whether in tags or as a separate queue. $\endgroup$
    – Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer
    Commented Jun 30, 2022 at 5:31

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