https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnthropology/comments/1i8e3et/introducing_a_new_feature_community_faqs/
created by CommodoreCoCo on 23/01/2025 at 21:08 UTC
55 upvotes, 5 top-level comments (showing 5)
Fellow hominins-
Over the past year, we have experienced significant growth in this community.
The most visible consequence has been an increase in the frequency of threads getting large numbers of comments. Most of these questions skirt closely around our rules on specificity[1] or have been answered repeatedly in the past. They rarely contribute much beyond extra work for mods, frustration for long-time users, and confusion for new users. However, they are asked *so* frequently that removing them entirely feels too “scorched earth.”
1: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnthropology/wiki/rules/
We are introducing a new feature to help address this: Community FAQs.
Community FAQs aim to increase access to information and reduce clutter by compiling resources on popular topics into a single location. The concept is inspired by our previous Career Thread feature and features from other Ask subreddits.
Community FAQs are a biweekly featured thread that will build a collaborative FAQ section for the subreddit.
Each thread will focus on one of the themes listed below. Users will be invited to post resources, links to previous answers, or original answers in the comments.
Once the Community FAQ has been up for two weeks, there will be a moratorium placed on related questions. Submissions on this theme will be locked, but not removed, and users will be redirected to the FAQ page. Questions which are sufficiently specific will remain open.
The following topics are currently scheduled to receive a thread. These have been selected based on how frequently they are asked compared, how frequently they receive worthwhile contributions, and how many low-effort responses they attract.
If you’ve noticed similar topics that are not listed, please suggest them in the comments!
Contributions to Community FAQs may consist of the following:
Questions about these topics that would be redirected include:
Questions about these topics that would *not* be locked include:
The first Community FAQ, **Introductory Anthropology Resources**, will go up next week. We're looking for recommendations on accessible texts for budding anthropologists, your favorite ethnographies, and those books that you just can't stop citing.
Comment by ahopefullycuterrobot at 24/01/2025 at 00:42 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Awesome! Maybe I can polish up one of my answers on hunter-gatherers and post it in a future FAQ. If it is actually good enough lol.
Comment by the_gubna at 24/01/2025 at 04:44 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I would suggest “why were x people still living in the y age when…” or some variant thereof as another topic worthy of a FAQ. I know there are sections of r/askhistorians that are good for this, but I would argue that an anthropological take on that question would cover both the constant questions about North Sentinel and the broader Sid Meier’s approach to cultural evolution.
Just my $0.02.
Comment by 7LeagueBoots at 24/01/2025 at 07:44 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Excellent. Hopefully it will help filter out some of the most commonly asked questions.
Comment by fantasmapocalypse at 24/01/2025 at 15:42 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I think I may have started a "rubber stamp" reply in a doc file to frequent questions somewhere, but if there's anything specific I can help with (e.g., cultural anthropology textbooks) lmk!
Comment by -thelastbyte at 23/01/2025 at 23:51 UTC
0 upvotes, 1 direct replies
So who gets to decide what information does and does not get to go in the FAQ? What are you going to do when there are multiple or contradictory schools of thought on an outlawed topic?