What should the "Back it up" policy look like for The Workplace

Question

Nearly two years to the day since "back it up" was introduced to Workplace, there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding what the principle looks like on The Workplace.

Here is all our on-topic says about this:

Please note that answers should be backed up either with a reference, or experiences that happened to you personally. You should always include in your answer information about why you think your answer is correct.

I have spent a lot of effort over the past year and a half using community tools available to me to keep this as part of our site culture (editing, voting and commenting) . However, it quite often feels that there is a very small number of site regulars doing this or supportive of "back it up" via voting. The first part of this meta post is my perspective on how the community is split.

Previous discussions and FAQ discussions indicate nearly universal support for this to be part of the site.

I am concerned as a community we send conflicting messages when some users downvote/comment content not answering "why" while the majority upvote it. I am hoping for a frank discussion answering two questions:

• Should this site retain the "back it up" principle as articulated in the FAQ material?
• If so, how should the primary method be to encourage answers to satisfy it?

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^{Relevant and related meta discussion on why should answers be long}

Answer 1

Should this site retain the "back it up" principle as articulated in the FAQ material?

No. The first half of the current policy should be removed and the second half elaborated.

I care about the question, "is this answer useful to future readers with similar questions?" The answer is generally no when an answer is "do this." The answer is generally yes when answered, "do this because of this reason."

Seeing the "why" allows future readers to understand how the answer may apply in their similar yet slightly different situation. Very few people will have identical questions to previously asked questions.

I propose that paragraph be changed to:

Please note that answers should provide sufficient explanation as to "why is this answer correct?" Don't just answer "do X" but rather answer "do X because..." Additional information can be found here*

*this would link to a meta post with examples and detailed explanation. Note that for some types of answers "because of these reasons" and for others a link to official documentation is "why." This meta post would also allow everyone who is downvoting answers missing the "why" to provide a link with more than "workplace has back it up principle, yo" as a comment.

Answer 2

I'm relatively new here, but I feel that for the types of questions asked on Workplace, it's impossible to always have firsthand experience or even a reference that backs up your answer.

I know that my most upvoted answers did not come from direct experience, and most of my workplace knowledge has come to me secondhand. In other words, I've heard a lot of stories from around me that allows me to give out good advice for some situations. It's impossible to cite references in those instances, as those stories were never posted online in a written fashion, but it doesn't deter it from being good advice. I also have upvoted (and downvoted) others' answers, not because they were referenced or cited, but because it was sound advice (or bad advice).

From what I've gathered, the point of the voting system on SE is to be able to agree as a community on what the best answer is to a question. Frankly, it's up to the community as a whole to determine what makes for sound advice and what makes for bad advice. Though it's nice to have references attached to answers to help the community to decide that, references aren't necessary for that decision. Finally, if the community for some reason loses its collective mind and upvotes an obviously bad answer, we have moderators to step in and fix the problem.

Furthermore, the "back it up" policy is practically impossible to enforce. I could say that everything in my answers comes from firsthand experience, but that would be a lie. However, you couldn't prove that; you just have to assume good faith in the matter and vote on the quality of the answer as a whole.

Overall, I don't feel like the "back it up" policy should stay in place. The community seems to have, by default, reached the opposite consensus, and again, it's really unenforceable.

However, the 2nd sentence of the policy should absolutely stay in place:

You should always include in your answer information about why you think your answer is correct.

This part is what determines the quality of any answer here, and already seems to determine whether an answer is voted up or down.

Answer 3

Yes, the site should use the Back It Up! policy on questions that contain subjective elements.

I'm a mod on RPG.SE. We have seen a very strong differential in quality of answers based on our site learning to adhere to the Good Subjective, Bad Subjective rules. Theoretical answers, even when popular and backed with votes, are very low quality compared to answers coming from real experience. They "sound good" and get votes from people who like (that person, their mindset, their grammar, their opinions) but that has little to do with whether it works in the real world.

In my opinion Good Subjective, Bad Subjective should be normative guidance for all SE sites and it is what raises Stack Exchange above the "Yahoo Answers" level of "look I too can write an uninformed opinion."

Of course, references count as backing it up:

• Something that happened to you personally
• Something you can back up with a reference

Having seen it happen to someone else counts, reading it in a source counts. Wishful opinions of "I'm sure this is how it would happen, though I have no basis for that" does not count.

Do your SE a favor for the long term and fully understand and implement Good Subjective, Bad Subjective as normative guidance for your answers.

Answer 4

Yes it should be kept but the enforcement of it needs to be increased. But I am infavor of a change in the wording.

You should always include in your answer information about why you think your answer is correct. Don't just answer "do X" but rather answer "do X because..." Additional information can be found here.* Please note that answers should be backed up with references and/or experiences that happened to you personally where appropriate.

We are past the point of needing to worry about retaining users and keeping the site growing. Our recent growth has shown a rise in the amount of low quality content I and many visitors consider noise. These are answers that do not answer the question, just comment on some tangent, or provide an opinion on the subject. People agree with these sentiments so they end up getting voted up because anyone can vote reguardless of rep. This prevents the higher rep people from removing the posts and puts the noise on top of the actual useful information, the signal.

We fought hard to get through the low quality days of the early site. It doesn't take much searching of the posts from the first month or 2 of the site to find the low quality posts, some of them from me. But we made that effort and got through it and got to the point where we had a working site that was attracting new visitors and now contributors. Most of those contributors will eventually figure out how to post good content. If we keep the bar high they will pick it up faster and our site will stay high quality. If we lower the bar it takes longer and we will lose more than we gain. This site will become a site for commiserating and sharing war stories just like all the other workplace forums on the internet.

It is time to stop worrying about scaring off users. If they are only posting low quality answers and refuse to try to meet site standards, their answers should be deleted quickly, and only undeleted when their posts meet site standards for quality. If these users decide not to return the community will survive and continue to grow because we have a library of high quality content already. Because of the sympathy votes many times this will take moderator action as the result of flags. But we need to flag these, and the mods need to take that action.

How should it work:

• All answers must be complete, authoritative, and explain why.

We should start by pointing out the policy and helping to edit to correct where possible, when not it should be tagged with the explain why banner. (Ideally as long as this or any other banner remains the upvote arrow should be disabled) After 7 days of non compliance if the post is still voted above 0 the mods should delete the post. Then the OP should flag when they have corrected the issue.

• Answers that make a claim of fact should be required to be referenced or clarified that it is merely the opinion of the poster.

Claims of fact are like "90% of workers do this at some point during the day",
"Most employers have adopted a policy similar to X", "The law is that you do X", or any other claim that is definitive. If it is the answers's opinion experience, then stating that provides clarification that it is up to the reader to evaluate the truthiness of the statement. A reference provides the reader with a source for the claim.

Answers in this category need a back it up banner that states the need to clarify if this is an opinion or to provide a reference to back it up.

Answer 5

I am a bit newer here but I think that the rule is a bit silly and removes the ability to post common sense, thoughtful answers simply because it is something you know, not something you have experienced. I have read SEVERAL psychology books, I utilize this on a daily basis with my professional life. I have no clue exactly where I read, or what lead to my knowledge, for a lot of what I know. Should I not answer the question because I can not remember where I learned about it?

I however do not think that portion should be removed. Instead, add a single word into it and it is fixed. That word being preferably.

Please note that answers should preferably be backed up either with a reference, or experiences that happened to you personally. You should always include in your answer information about why you think your answer is correct.

Answer 6

I am concerned as a community we send conflicting messages when some users downvote/comment content not answering "why" while the majority upvote it. I am hoping for a frank discussion answering two questions:

Should this site retain the "back it up" principle as articulated in the FAQ material?

I agree that the "back it up" policy is only sporadically followed. And it's even more sporadically enforced.

And I agree that the community is receiving mixed messages.

I think the way to examine the question "Should this site retain the 'back it up' principle" is to consider: Is the site being harmed right now by the lack of a consistent following of this principle? I would argue that it isn't being harmed at all.

Workplace has graduated out of Beta in spite of having no strong consistently-followed "back it up" policy. And to my untrained eyes the community is thriving (am I mistaken? is it not thriving?)

I like to follow a policy of "no unnecessary rules", and I just don't see that there is currently a problem requiring this rule.

So I'd vote No - we shouldn't retain the "back it up" policy.

Just my $0.02

Answer 7

The Back it up Policy should be abandoned completely.

It is not being embraced by the flood of new users who are coming to dominate the site and they want a site that allows for opinions and discussion on the questions.

If this site fails as a result we can come in after and cull the good answers from the ashes and rebuild the site and enact more stringent policies.