The post for kombucha is borderline on the Community Wiki / call for recipes. Is the question refining a problem or extending a technique in a Question and Answerable way? Is the question explaining the poster's current recipe and asking for more recipes?
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I don't see much difference (besides not being a "what is your favorite ...") from this closed question: cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/5998/…– hobodave ModCommented Sep 14, 2010 at 17:54
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1 Answer
It is indeed borderline. In fact, most of the question does not need to be wiki:
I have been making kombucha for several months now. I use green or white tea, flavored with hisbiscus, peach tea or other fruity teas to the mix. Since the elderberries, and rosehips are coming in season, I wonder if adding some to my tea brew prior to straining it into the kombucha making jar would be possible and beneficial.
That's a perfectly reasonable, not-too-subjective question and I would not have made that CW (I don't think any of the other mods would have either).
But unfortunately, he then added this bit:
Also, I am interested in other potential combinations for delicious kombucha flavors.
And that makes it very similar to the much-debated green tea question.
As moderators, all we can really do is enforce the rules; the question asked for a "list of X", therefore it needs to be CW.
On the other hand, there were 5 hours between the time the question was asked and the time it was made wiki. If somebody from the community had chosen to edit out the last sentence of the question, and the author had accepted the edit, then it would have been fine to remain non-wiki. (I'm against moderators making such significant edits because in practice, the author will feel as though he's being forced to ask the question "our" way as opposed to simply being asked or suggested to).
As it is now, the question is basically a two-parter, which is already a problem in my book, but not actually against the rules; that being said, the second part is what makes it wiki-mandatory.
Unfortunately, Community Wiki mode is irreversible, so there's nothing more we can do about it now. However, at the moment, the question has no answers, so if the author is really upset over this (I doubt he is) then I would have no problem with him deleting the wiki'ed question and re-asking the same question without the last sentence. That's if it actually matters to him.
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2Ah I totally misunderstood mfg's question. I thought it was questioning whether it should be open (I see a close vote). I didn't realize he was questioning whether it should have been made CW. I did make it CW simply because it was phrased as a "list of X" both in title and the body (final sentence). For the record, I'm also not in the habit of editing a question so that it isn't calling for a "list of X" so that it wouldn't be turned CW, because I don't see converting something to CW as any form of punishment or something to be avoided.– hobodave ModCommented Sep 14, 2010 at 18:04
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BTW, unless you were using he in a gender neutral sense, the OP - mamadalgas - actually seems to be a female.– hobodave ModCommented Sep 14, 2010 at 18:07
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@hobo I am having trouble altogether determining if it should be CW, or closed. This is mostly because it seems like a long tail, subjective discussion-y question, dressed up with three sentences of a quickly answered 'if I X, is Y a good idea' type question? (Especially considering that the post doesn't commit to a hard format for solving the question; ie is it green or white tea?) [I tried to keep this meta question 'close/open/CW neutral though.']– mfgCommented Sep 14, 2010 at 18:32
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@mfg: I see, confusing. :) I'm of the opinion that it should be closed, due primarily to the standards of the site and the precedence of the green tea question. I didn't close it outright based on some entirely subjective criteria on my part: (1) it's better phrased, (2) it's not a "what's your fav", and (3) it's about a rather uncommon thing, as opposed to green tea. It just wasn't definitively close-worthy to me so I withheld the bananasmash vote in favor of seeing the community feedback.– hobodave ModCommented Sep 14, 2010 at 18:52
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@mfg: BTW, if one of those close votes is yours, would you mind leaving an explanation? The S&A description is a rather crappy one that doesn't apply here. Plus it gives me a comment to potentially upvote to indicate that I agree with the closing.– hobodave ModCommented Sep 14, 2010 at 18:54
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@hobodave - what would be better than S&A? I cast a close vote, following the S&A that was already chosen. It seems to fit because (and only because) of the "delicious kombucha flavors" phrase. Define "delicious?"– justktCommented Sep 14, 2010 at 19:00
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@justkt: S&A is supposed to be used for things that are blatantly going to start an argument, hence the word "and" instead of "or". I see this being used rarely on Cooking. I see you have an SO account, so an example SO question would be "What is better Python or Ruby?" - something ridiculous like that that would incite a "religious war". If some idiot asked "What is better Italian or French food?", then yea I guess I'd use it there :). As it is, it's either off-topic of NARQ. Aaronut has a post laying around on meta that describes which criteria he uses to determine that.– hobodave ModCommented Sep 14, 2010 at 19:09
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@hobo I did put up the first close vote, primarily because there is the inherent subjective nature of the question PRIOR to asking for delicious alternative recipes. I think the question is probably better listed as NARQ so I chose the wrong tag in closing it.– mfgCommented Sep 14, 2010 at 19:52
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FYI @justkt, this is the post of mine that hobodave is referring to. If I want to vote to close a poll, I would ordinarily use the Not A Real Question close reason (polls are really not questions, they just look like questions).– Aaronut ModCommented Sep 14, 2010 at 21:20
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@mfg: Were it not for the content that came before the last sentence, I would close it. But there is a real question in there; it just happens to be paired with a statement (
Also, I am interested in other potential combinations for delicious kombucha flavors.) that does not really belong in a question here. I think it is up to you - and the rest of the community - to decide whether or not it should be closed. I have no strong feelings one way or the other, aside from thinking that a fairly minor edit could probably salvage it.– Aaronut ModCommented Sep 14, 2010 at 21:25 -
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@hobodave - CW doesn't give rep. To people to whom rep is important CW is a punishment for incorrect phrasing. (Not saying I feel this way.) Commented Sep 15, 2010 at 13:24