<p>Yeesh. So besides the whole deleting the link off the front page, what's the next action? Should we add a section in our own forums dedicated to answering questions? </p><p>In the last few weeks that I saw the wiki running, it seemed the hardly had traffic anymore, with only a question or two every few days. Do we need a forum category for questions? </p><p>EDIT: @UltimateSupreme removed the link to it (thanks!). So all we gotta worry about is whether or not it's necessary to create a forum category for questions or not </p>

<p>It never made sense to be directing questions elsewhere. This wiki is dedicated to informing readers about <i>Naruto</i>, and answering questions conceivably aids that purpose. There's even a chance that a question would draw attention to some shortcoming of the wiki's article(s) on a particular topic, and so by asking the question the wiki is improved. </p><p>Even if the questions on average are dumb, dumb questions are more appropriate to this wiki than dumb debates or dumb theories. </p>

<p>The problem is that most questions are either unanswerable or simply answered by reading the manga or articles. Yesterday, I deleted a thread that asked how Madara learned Edo Tensei. Madara can't even use Edo Tensei and the user would know that if he had read the manga or the articles. </p><p>We're not an alternative to reading the manga, neither is it our job to answer questions that can be answered by reading the wiki articles. That's the reason they exist in the first place after all. </p>

<p>That example satisfies the definition of a dumb question. And, being dumb, it's easily dealt with: "He can't use it", and then close the thread. Or, infer that the person asking maybe meant where did Madara learn the hand seals to undo IWR, in which case: "We don't know", and close the thread. On those occasions where the answer is known: link to the relevant article, maybe quote the relevant passage, and close the thread. </p><p>I'm not defending the the quality of the questions or whether or not users should be able to find answers on their own. But of all the things this wiki's forums can be and are used for, asking and answering questions is the most consistent with the wiki's objectives. </p>

<p>Is it, though? Ideally, the process should be something like this: A user wants to know something about the <i>Naruto</i> manga that wasn't evident from reading the manga. They come to us, look up the relevant article, where their question is hopefully answered. If not, they put up a thread in the forums. And that's perfectly fine. It's the same for the rules, after all: We expect users to read the rules before they use the wiki, edit articles or whatever. </p><p>However, in reality, the process looks like this: A user has a question about the <i>Naruto</i> manga. Instead of reading the manga or our articles, they go to the forums and post their question, expecting others to basically do the user's work <i>again</i>. Emphasis on the last word, because 1) we pre-emptively answer the question by writing articles and 2) we <i>again</i> answer the question by answering the forum thread. </p><p>However, that is <i>not</i> a wiki's purpose. We're an encyclopedia first and foremost. Our objective is to answer questions before they're even asked. Every user should first visit the relevant articles before asking their question. Else, what sense would those articles even have? If users ignore them and just go straight to the forums. </p>

just remove the dead link

<div class="quote"><i> <p>Sage of infinite paths wrote: just remove the dead link </p> </i></div>
<p>If you read above, you'd know that's already been done days ago </p>

<p>It's not the wiki's purpose, no. Which is why we don't need to <i>encourage</i> people to ask questions. But I don't feel we should be turning the questions <i>away</i> either. If somebody wants to use the wiki to ask a question, they should be allowed to. And if the question is dumb or is easily answered, the wiki's editors are allowed to ignore it. Nobody is forced to ask the question, just as nobody is forced to respond. </p><p>And as a half-hearted defense of dumb questions: </p>

• The wiki doesn't document negatives. So you won't find an article that explicitly says "Madara can't use IWR". Ideally a person should be able to take lack of mention as evidence against, but maybe they think the wiki's out of date. Maybe they think the wiki's been vandalized and nobody's corrected it yet. Maybe the schools didn't help them with basic reading skills.
• The <i>Naruto</i> manga lasted for many years, spanned hundreds of chapters. It can be difficult to remember where specific things were explained. As an example, I've been meaning to rewrite Living Corpse Reincarnation. To prep for eventually doing that, I simply grabbed volumes 20 through 24 because I don't remember which of them actually say anything useful about it. I'm familiar enough with the series to at least narrow it to that range; average users probably wouldn't be sure where to start.
• Add to this that the wiki's referencing is very poor. The LCR article currently has this line: "Unknown female — for replacing the hand Itachi Uchiha severed". I know where to find a reference for the female body, I know where to find references for the severed hand, but I don't know where to find a reference connecting the two. Because so much of the wiki is without references, it's understandable that readers might have some doubt about its information, in which case they might ask about things that, in our eyes, the wiki's articles adequately explain.

<p>> If somebody wants to use the wiki to ask a question, they should be allowed to. </p><p>That would open the gates to a potential flood of stupid questions that could easily be answered by reading the articles. As I said, I'm not against people asking questions. I'm against people that are too lazy to look it up in the articles first. So if it's a question that can be answered by reading the article, I will continue to delete it. As I said, it's not our job/purpose to spoon-feed the visitors. I expect at least basic reading comprehension and willingness to use the articles at hand. </p>

<p>I recently vented about the same thing and was told I was whining- https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Thread:274233. I wasn't trying to whine, just talking about the same issues. </p>