I am thinking about asking a detective brainteaser/riddle which would contain different parts. One part might tell you where to find the next clue. ie: You find a letter at the crime scene that tells has hidden clues telling you to go to a certain address. I was thinking that I could ask this question over a span of 10 or so days, a clue every 1 or 2 days. Would it be acceptable to put this question into several different parts (Murder - Part 1, Murder - Part 2, Murder - Part 3, etc.) or would that be looked upon badly by the community and receive downvotes?
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2$\begingroup$ If each of them qualify as "questions" within this site's perspective, I dont see any reason for it to be downvoted, referring to a previous question is rather a common trend $\endgroup$– skvNov 5, 2014 at 2:42
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1$\begingroup$ @skv I think I'm going to try it. $\endgroup$– michaelpriNov 5, 2014 at 2:44
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1$\begingroup$ I can see this getting downvoted. If each "question" is just a clue, and does not contain an answer to it, then I can see it getting downvoted, flagged, and deleted. $\endgroup$– warspykingNov 5, 2014 at 10:35
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$\begingroup$ @warspyking Each clue would be a riddle with many different parts and that clue wouldn't have much to do with the next part. $\endgroup$– michaelpriNov 5, 2014 at 12:34
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2$\begingroup$ I'd post them together and put a notice for "answers in spoiler tags" on each of them so people aren't being time-limited. I'd also probably post #1 first, then link back to it from #2, then link back to both of those from #3, etc so if someone arrives at part 4, they can easily get to part 1. I'd probably then go back through them all and edit in links to the future parts $\endgroup$– JoeNov 5, 2014 at 13:55
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$\begingroup$ @Joe Should i put them in one post or seperate them $\endgroup$– michaelpriNov 5, 2014 at 15:06
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1$\begingroup$ If they're substantial then I don't see any problem splitting them out to make it easier to digest. If they're just a few lines each, then one post makes more sense $\endgroup$– JoeNov 5, 2014 at 15:13
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$\begingroup$ @Joe Theyre probably going to be sort of long $\endgroup$– michaelpriNov 5, 2014 at 15:52
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$\begingroup$ In that case, do what feels right :-) If you think they are long enough to be separate posts, do that and then interlink them all - I don't personally see that as a problem $\endgroup$– JoeNov 5, 2014 at 16:00
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$\begingroup$ @Joe Thanks for your feedback I'm gonna do the first question tonight. $\endgroup$– michaelpriNov 5, 2014 at 16:01
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1$\begingroup$ @skv that sounds like it could be an answer. $\endgroup$– TheRubberDuckNov 5, 2014 at 18:04
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$\begingroup$ @EnvisionAndDevelop No problem, I shall post it $\endgroup$– skvNov 6, 2014 at 2:57
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3 Answers
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As noted in comments, If each of the questions qualify as "questions" within this site's perspective, there should be no reason for it to be downvoted, referring to a previous question is rather a common trend followed in other questions asked by many.
By qualifying as "question" I and others mean each of them cannot be just clues and each of them are substantial enough to be questions. I think an example would help here
The above is a question where there are multiple riddles and they all come together to form a grand solution, but some of these riddles have already been solved in this site and some of them are so simple that if they are formed as questions, they may not be challenging enough, so I combined them.
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2$\begingroup$ You may have seen the first part of the murder case I posted today. Murder of the President Would several questions like that be okay? I would reference past parts in the intros of each part. I would also say where you are now based on the last part. $\endgroup$ Nov 6, 2014 at 3:36
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2$\begingroup$ Yes, I guess that was a good question, and probably contrary to your fear, you may have noticed that you got upvotes :) $\endgroup$– skvNov 6, 2014 at 3:40
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I'd like to throw in my two pence here and state that while this is certainly a good concept, it may suffer from the fact that some of the riddles may have already had responses posted, making it easier for future visitors to jump in halfway through the chain.
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As long as each question can be read and answered without referring to the other questions in the series, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with having a framing story that spans multiple questions.
If you need to have answered the previous questions to answer the next one, then no, that's not acceptable. Questions on Stack Exchange do not expire. Sooner or later, a vast majority of readers will be people who found the question in a web search, not people who read the question when you posted it. These people won't know or care about the series unless they happen to take an interest. It is part of the social contract when you post a question on Stack Exchange that your question should be useful for these future visitors.
If you have a series of questions, each of which builds on previous answers, a good way to satisfy both series-hoppers and individual-question-readers is to give all the relevant answers to previous episodes in a spoiler block. People who want to solve this question can read the spoiler block, and people who want to work the series can leave the spoiler hidden and jump to the first question.
answered Nov 20, 2014 at 0:50