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I started to ask a question on JLU today. Here's what I typed in:

How do you describe upvoting and downvoting on Stack Exchange in Japanese?

I was interrupted as I was typing with a warning that said the following:

The question you're asking appears subjective and is likely to be closed

This warning shows up if you use words like "you", "hardest", or "best" in a question title, which is (in my opinion) not very useful on language sites. It's already been disabled on English Language & Usage, and disabled on English Language Learners as well. I think we should disable it here, too.

It's true that my example could be rephrased (something like: "How are upvoting and downvoting described in Japanese?"). But take a look at these question titles I made up that trigger the warning:

  • Ways to say "thank you" other than ありがとう

  • If かたい is "hard", then how do I say "hardest"?

  • Distinguishing between words for "you"

  • Why is 気に入った translated to "favorite"?

  • "Worst case scenario" in Japanese

Right now, if anyone types one of these questions in, they'll get a warning telling them not to bother asking the question because it's likely to be closed. I think this is counterproductive.

I think we should disable the subjective warning on JLU.

Here's a picture of the warning:

Subjective warning

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2 Answers 2

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It is better to either disable the warning or weaken the words of the warning. The natural language processing based on string matching works only when you are lucky, and the current wording “The question you’re asking appears subjective and is likely to be closed” is too confident for its accuracy.

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  • I think the word may could fix the warning a lot: The question you’re asking may be subjective and could be closed. Commented Dec 7, 2013 at 17:57
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Disabled or not, if you know your question isn't subjective in nature, just ignore it and post anyway. That's what I do.

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    That's a good point, but I'm afraid some new users might be deterred from posting legitimate questions. That's why I think it should be disabled.
    – user1478
    Commented Nov 16, 2013 at 15:46

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