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Go to the main site and click the "Ask Question" button. You get a big box to type your question into, a box at the bottom for tags, and a box at the top for the title. Before you type anything into the title box, it says:

What's your creation and solving of puzzles question? Be specific.

Presumably this is because way back in the private beta stage, Puzzling.SE was only for theoretical questions about the creation and solving of puzzles and not for actual puzzles posted as challenges. Some of us will remember the lengthy and sometimes heated discussions that went on last autumn and winter when the site underwent some major changes in scope and direction. But this hasn't yet been taken account of in one of the most important places on the site! We want new users to know, when they sign up to ask their first question, that the site isn't just for questions about the creation and solving of puzzles.

I've seen this answer which says such a change would be impossible to make, but I think they're mistaken. The Science Fiction and Fantasy SE used to be only for science fiction, changing to include fantasy during the public beta stage, and the title box now mentions both science fiction and fantasy.

Assuming I'm right that this is possible, we need to discuss what should go in the title box (hence the tag as well as ). Jon Ericson suggested the following succinct version:

What's your puzzling question? Be specific.

I also thought of something like:

What's your puzzle or question about puzzles? Be specific.

Edit: after a Word of Mod response saying it's doable, I've turned this into a polling thread. Please see the answers below for proposals, and upvote the ones you like. After some reasonable period of time (a week? 2 weeks?), I'll accept the most-upvoted answer and ask the mods if they can get it changed to that.

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  • $\begingroup$ The answer you linked implies that it isn't possible to have a prompt not of the form "What's your _____ question? Be specific." This is consistent with the Science Fiction and Fantasy change. $\endgroup$
    – Julian Rosen
    Commented Jun 23, 2015 at 21:58
  • $\begingroup$ The old post is a little confusing. To me is sounded like WendiKidd's answer says it isn't possible to deviate from the format "What's your ____ question?", but her comment on Jon Ericson's answer doesn't quite jive with this. $\endgroup$
    – Julian Rosen
    Commented Jun 23, 2015 at 22:16
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    $\begingroup$ I checked, and this is likely doable. $\endgroup$
    – user20
    Commented Jun 27, 2015 at 22:53
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    $\begingroup$ @Emrakul Great, thanks! Now we just need to decide on what to change it to. Maybe I should post a couple of suggestions as answers for people to vote on? Also, would the suggestion at the end of my post work, or does it have to be of the form "What's your ___ question? Be specific." as Julian Rosen conjectured? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Jun 27, 2015 at 22:59
  • $\begingroup$ I'll have get back to you on that in a couple days. Should have asked at the same time, sorry. $\endgroup$
    – user20
    Commented Jun 27, 2015 at 23:02
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    $\begingroup$ My problem with the current prompt is that it isn't well-formed English. "What's your puzzle or puzzle-related question? Be specific." isn't great, but it seems like it's the best we can do with the nutty technical limitations. $\endgroup$
    – COTO
    Commented Jul 5, 2015 at 19:31
  • $\begingroup$ @rand I'd say feel free to make suggestions. I doubt we'll be able to break out of that form, so a suggestion sticking to it is more likely to be implemented. $\endgroup$
    – user20
    Commented Jul 5, 2015 at 23:57
  • $\begingroup$ @Emrakul I assume punctuation in the middle is allowed? I haven't seen this done anywhere else, but "What's your puzzle, or puzzle-related question?" is better and less ambiguous than "What's your puzzle or puzzle-related question?" $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 16:35
  • $\begingroup$ @rand Who knows! Probably fine. $\endgroup$
    – user20
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 16:37

3 Answers 3

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Rand's suggestion was reasonable, except for the abomination that was the comma - so I stripped it of this demon and made the change:

What's your puzzle or puzzle-related question? Be specific.

At Curmudgeon's suggestion, I also added an extra "your":

What's your puzzle or your puzzle-related question? Be specific.

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  • $\begingroup$ Does the SE structure not allow punctuation between "What's your" and "question"? If it does, why did you make this change when there were 11 upvotes from the community sitting on my suggestion with the comma? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 9:44
  • $\begingroup$ I can understand where you're coming from regarding the comma, but why not go further and make it "What's your puzzle or your puzzle-related question?" Otherwise, because "your" qualifies "question" and not "puzzle," "puzzle" sounds like an adjective -- "What's your puzzle question?" $\endgroup$
    – Curmudgeon
    Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 12:28
  • $\begingroup$ I like that, @Curmudgeon. Done. $\endgroup$
    – Shog9
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 4:34
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What's your puzzle, or puzzle-related question? Be specific.

Suggested by @COTO. Edited to include a comma after suggestions from @Curmudgeon. Hopefully nobody will mind such a minor change, but feel free to change your vote if you do!

Upvote to support this proposal. Please don't downvote; proposals will be compared on the number of upvotes they've had.

(OP note: this would have my upvote.)

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  • $\begingroup$ Just to be clear, do you intend this to be read as "What's your puzzle question? Or, what's your puzzle-related question?" ... OR ... "What's your puzzle? Or, what's your puzzle-related question?" It seems nit-picky, but I keep reading it the first way, in which "puzzle question" is nonsensical. $\endgroup$
    – Curmudgeon
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 15:10
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    $\begingroup$ Didn't think of this until just now, but it might be clarified better as "What's your puzzle or your puzzle-related question?" if it's intended to sound closer to the second example in my previous comment. $\endgroup$
    – Curmudgeon
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 15:31
  • $\begingroup$ @Curmudgeon Or in true panda style, how about just inserting a comma? "What's your puzzle, or puzzle-related question?" Also, I forgot the "Be specific" - oops! $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 16:31
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks, good enough for me. Never forget to be specific! ^_^ $\endgroup$
    – Curmudgeon
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 17:45
  • $\begingroup$ Looks like we're going to have a clear winner! $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 19:56
  • $\begingroup$ I think it's fine without the comma, but I don't really care. $\endgroup$
    – xnor
    Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 1:48
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$\begingroup$

What's your puzzling question? Be specific.

Suggested by @JonEricson

Upvote to support this proposal. Please don't downvote; proposals will be compared on the number of upvotes they've had.

(OP note: this would not have my upvote, since it'd be a stretch to say an actual puzzle posted as a challenge was a 'puzzling question'.)

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    $\begingroup$ lol. the human urge to down-vote can be so strong as to down-vote even in the face of short simple instructions that say "Don't down-vote" wow, and no, it wasn't me! $\endgroup$
    – JLee
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 14:07
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    $\begingroup$ There's one downvote on this answer so far. $\endgroup$
    – user88
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 15:31
  • $\begingroup$ I do like the pun though. $\endgroup$
    – kaine
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 21:46

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