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We have many old meta questions that restrict, corral, or allow content on this site. Things like spy-fi, what's on or off topic, fan-fics, etc.

Many of these policies were made and voted on before the vast majority of our current user base joined (back in 2011), by users/mods who no longer exist or are no longer active.

Do we as a community feel like we should have the ability to re-visit some of these policies, by creating new meta questions and having our current community vote and decide on how to handle these issues?

Potential issues to discuss:

  • fanfics
  • spy-fi (I know we have a lot of users who would like to include this onsite)
  • Watership Down.

This is not to say all of our policies need to be revisited, just that we are open to change and potentially re-ask meta questions that some of us feel don't fit the current user base.

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    @anaranjada the community regularly chats about old policies im simply asking if people want to actually bring that conversation to meta, on some bigger issues, not every issue of course, but generally people are scared of approaching bigger issues like this
    – Himarm
    May 4, 2016 at 16:44
  • Oh, FFS. Are we still on about Watership Down?
    – Valorum
    May 4, 2016 at 16:54
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    @Richard it was a joke, i already got it declared on topic :P
    – Himarm
    May 4, 2016 at 16:55

3 Answers 3

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This question is way too broad.

If you have a particular policy for which you'd like to reopen discussion, then feel free to start a more specific meta discussion. Depending on how the community feels about that policy, such a discussion may end up changing community consensus, leaving things as they are, or possibly getting closed as a duplicate. If you make it clear that you're not asking what our policy should be when we've already fixed it, but instead asking whether our policy should be changed, then the new question shouldn't be closed as a duplicate. In short: yes, feel free to propose changes to specific existing policies (although nobody can guarantee how these proposals will be received).

But we don't need to rebuild the site's scope from scratch. For better or worse, the 5-year-old Science Fiction and Fantasy Stack Exchange now has a shape and a direction, and it's a successful enough site that we don't need to tear it all down and begin again. Certain particular aspects of site policy may end up being changed, but let's not place all our policies and consensuses on trial just because they were made a long time ago.

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    The question is not broad. It's very simple: do people want to revisit old policies? If consensus is yes, then move on to opening specific questions per policy.
    – phantom42
    May 4, 2016 at 16:19
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    @phantom42 So a simple "yes" on this question would then be a free titcket to reask every policy question on a monthly basis disallowing duplicate closure on them? Where's the limitations and individual considerations? It doesn't really seem to be as easy as that.
    – TARS
    May 4, 2016 at 16:28
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    You can re-ask them every month now if you want. There's no rule saying you can't. The question is whether or not the community viewpoint has shifted enough to warrant rehashing the discussion. Re-opening the discussion should include evidence that the policy should be in question.
    – phantom42
    May 4, 2016 at 16:34
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    And that seems to be what this answer here encourages. Feel there's a change needed? Propose it by pointing out why you feel it should be revisited. This answer doesn't seem to discourage individual meta questions for changing policies, merely an attitude of considering every existing policy free game.
    – TARS
    May 4, 2016 at 16:38
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    @phantom42 "do people want to revisit old policies?" looks very broad to me. If there's a specific old policy that someone wants to revisit, they can open a meta question just about that. Revisiting all old policies would be essentially rewriting the entire scope of the site, which isn't really necessary or desirable. TARS has nailed it with his second comment above.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    May 4, 2016 at 23:33
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    The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun, the Scope War has.
    – Adamant
    May 5, 2016 at 19:19
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Yes, I think we as a community should have the ability to re-visit old meta policies and take new votes. Without the feel of instantaneous dupe hammering, to the exact question we are re-visiting.

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    Why did you provide two contradictory answers?
    – Adamant
    May 5, 2016 at 19:21
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    @Jonah users vote on which answer they most agree with, its a common method used on our meta
    – Himarm
    May 5, 2016 at 19:24
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    Agreed, considering the fact that old users can and will. E.g., : Are expletives (cursing, swear words or vulgar language) allowed on SE sites? That used to have more than one answer, showing that the community was clearly divided on this topic (use the way-back; see for yourself). Now it's been hammered by the creator of the site, who as I understand it, doesn't participate much at SE anymore.
    – Mazura
    May 11, 2016 at 23:07
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No, I think our old meta policies are fine, and there is no need to re-visit them.

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