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Last year (2020) saw some changes to the question closure system across the SE network. One of the changes was to introduce audience-specific texts for custom close reasons, so that the OP, close voters, privileged users, and the general public can all get slightly different versions of the same essential explanation of why a question is unsuitable for the site. By default, all versions for existing close reasons are set to the same thing, since there didn't use to be any option to have different versions. Some sites already changed their close reasons by creating separate texts as the system now allows. While Puzzling has the maximum of 3 site-specific custom close reasons, I’m only doing the Needs Attribution one for now.

The current text (taken from here and clocking in at 395 characters) is:

This looks like a puzzle you found elsewhere. For content you did not create yourself, proper attribution is required. If you have permission to repost this, please edit to include (at minimum) where it came from, then vote to reopen. Posts which use someone else's content without attribution are generally deleted.

The following image shows the different boxes that can be filled by mods/CMs with different text. The first two appear in the close/flag dialogue before the post is closed; the last three appear in post notices after the post is closed.

Please note that there is a 500 character maximum for what we can put in any of these boxes, and that’s counting formatting (such as links). With the exception of the first, which has a limit of 100 characters.

  • The Brief description is the bold header for the close reason.
  • The Usage guidance is what will appear in the close menu, advising people when to use the close reason.
  • The Close description will be shown to everyone in the post notice and should be relatively short.
  • The Post owner guidance appears in the post notice and is how the OP should fix the question (if possible).
  • The Privileged user guidance is informative for the people with close privilege regarding what the close reason is.

enter image description here

Let's get a consensus on what we should put in each box.

We need CM help to edit an existing close reason, so a clear meta consensus is essential, then we can it and get them to help us making the necessary changes. I'm going to post an answer below with my proposed texts; please vote and give feedback or suggested improvements if necessary.

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    $\begingroup$ Looks good, implemented these changes! Thank you very much for the clarity of writing here - it helped a bunch when making these edits. FYI - made one small grammar change (switching a period and a parenthesis). $\endgroup$
    – Slate StaffMod
    Commented Feb 22, 2022 at 20:35

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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These are the drafts I’ve come up with. Please comment with any improvements (and please don’t edit this post directly without consensus). Are there any other meta posts that might need to be summarized/linked here? (The links I’ve added are relatively recent ones because, well, that’s what I know of). See here for ideas.

Brief description

The name shown to flaggers/close-voters when seeking an option in the close menu (currently 24/100 characters):

Needs proper attribution

Usage guidance

The description shown to flaggers/close-voters after choosing this close reason (currently 208/500 characters):

This looks like a puzzle that was not created by the poster and/or one with insufficient attribution. Proper attribution is required for non-original puzzles.

Close description

The text shown to everybody, even non-users, viewing the closed question (currently 149/500 characters):

This question was closed for lacking proper attribution. It is currently not accepting answers.

Post owner guidance

The more detailed text shown, under the general close description, to the OP only when viewing their closed question (currently 447/500 characters):

This looks like a puzzle that you may have found elsewhere. For content that you did not create yourself, proper attribution is required. If you have permission to repost this, please edit to include (at a minimum) where it came from, then vote (or flag) to reopen. Posts which use someone else's content without attribution are generally deleted.

Privileged user guidance

The more detailed text shown, under the general close description, to any 3k+ rep user viewing the closed question (currently 247/500 characters):

If the poster has provided proper attribution, either in an edit or a comment, please vote to reopen this question. (If the attribution was provided in a comment, please edit it into the question).

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  • $\begingroup$ Perhaps the text of the 'proper attribution' link needs to be customized as well? It doesn't talk about puzzles at all, and it talks about answer-plagiarism, we are talking about questions. (Also it seems harsher than the 'owner guidance' ... "Hmm, this looks like it might be a puzzle you found somewhere else" versus "Plagiarism... CONFESS!!") $\endgroup$
    – deep thought
    Commented Jul 27, 2021 at 11:33
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    $\begingroup$ @deep, we can't edit that part of the Help Center - it's standardized across all sites (reference). $\endgroup$
    – bobble
    Commented Jul 27, 2021 at 13:53
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    $\begingroup$ If the generic /referencing page isn't enough to help educate, consider linking instead to a meta FAQ that asks "Why and how do I sufficiently attribute my question if it's not an original puzzle" and the answers explain that. $\endgroup$
    – Catija Staff
    Commented Jul 30, 2021 at 4:34
  • $\begingroup$ @Catija we don't have such a thing, unfortunately :/ It's spread across a bunch of meta posts; I've linked the ones I consider most important, and left room for more links if needed. $\endgroup$
    – bobble
    Commented Jul 30, 2021 at 4:38
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    $\begingroup$ ... I mean... there's nothing preventing y'all from creating it, is there? If you want to ensure that people will be best able to understand how to fix the problem, making good guidance in post notices is a start but referencing excellent meta or help center pages is the other part of it. :) It's an ecosystem. (Also, note that you'll be linking to /referencing twice in the post notices for both the asker and high-rep users, since both the description and the other section are visible simultaneously.) $\endgroup$
    – Catija Staff
    Commented Jul 30, 2021 at 4:40
  • $\begingroup$ @Catija I would love it have it all, but I'm fighting one battle at a time here. More important to have proper post notices than an FAQ that few people will read. I was also worried about people getting meta fatigue, since this place can be pretty quiet. And yeah, there are double-links but it's an important one. $\endgroup$
    – bobble
    Commented Jul 30, 2021 at 4:48
  • $\begingroup$ (On another point, there are some posts that seem like they would be good FAQs (example) but they're either outdated or incomplete. There are quite a few wrinkles to the policy so that any FAQ would have some serious bloat) $\endgroup$
    – bobble
    Commented Jul 30, 2021 at 4:49
  • $\begingroup$ Insisting on "proper attribution" is intended to not let people say "I found this on some website" or "I copied it from a book" and have that be sufficient. The /referencing link is useful guidance that, where available, an actual link and author's name are expected at SE; similarly, for offline sources, we expect enough information to be provided to serve as actual, functional attribution. We're looking for more than acknowledgement that "I didn't write this"; we want to give the creator their due. I am concerned that the "absolutely no attribution" guidance makes useless attributions OK. $\endgroup$
    – Rubio Mod
    Commented Aug 13, 2021 at 17:22
  • $\begingroup$ @Rubio that was an (admittedly not good) attempt at summarizing this answer - feel free to suggest a better one which adds in context like how it must be as much attribution as possible etc. Honestly I was really hoping for someone to suggest an edit there $\endgroup$
    – bobble
    Commented Aug 13, 2021 at 17:43
  • $\begingroup$ I've been considering whether it would be worth it to create a central FAQ like Catija mentioned above... it's hard to squish the policy into 500 characters. $\endgroup$
    – bobble
    Commented Aug 13, 2021 at 17:50
  • $\begingroup$ @bobble Consolidating existing commentary and answers about attribution and plagiarism into a single policy/FAQ is an excellent idea. I think it's important to note that Rand al'Thor's good thoughts notwithstanding, it is not sufficient that people do not (appear to) claim someone else's work as their own, i.e. plagiarism; especially given that at PSE many people are creators themselves, we have a keen interest in ensuring that people actually provide proper attribution as well (which happens to also address the plagiarism issue). The policy/FAQ should reflect this. $\endgroup$
    – Rubio Mod
    Commented Aug 13, 2021 at 18:21
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    $\begingroup$ @Rubio the proposed texts have now been rewritten to use the new attribution FAQ. $\endgroup$
    – bobble
    Commented Nov 21, 2021 at 4:48
  • $\begingroup$ Usage guidance: "This looks like a puzzle not created by the poster and/or one with insufficient attribution. Proper attribution is required for non-original puzzles." →"This looks like a puzzle that was not created by the poster and/or one with insufficient attribution. Proper attribution is required for all puzzles not created by the poster." $\endgroup$
    – PuzzlingFerret
    Commented Nov 21, 2021 at 18:41
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    $\begingroup$ @Pureferret I've made most of the changes you requested, and also added a few other implied words while I was at it. $\endgroup$
    – bobble
    Commented Nov 22, 2021 at 18:24
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    $\begingroup$ Thank you @bobble for pushing this forward; the FAQ and the textual revisions look good. This post has been featured (thanks Gareth) for greater visibility and additional community feedback. After a suitable period for further input, I believe we should be in a good place to ask the CMs to make the new texts live. $\endgroup$
    – Rubio Mod
    Commented Nov 23, 2021 at 7:40

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