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As described in this Meta Stack Exchange post, individual Stack Exchange communities are able to customize particular elements of the "Ask a public question". The exact things that can be modified are quite particular, so please consider taking a look at the linked Meta.SE post.

We encourage you to open the "Ask a public question" page in an incognito/private window to refresh yourself on what it looks like currently.

Frequent, off-topic questions requesting personal medical advice are a constant frustration to many of our regular users. Although we are unlikely to be able to reach every new user, we can at least try to discourage these types of questions and those that do not show any prior research.

Therefore, the moderator team suggests that we provide additional guidance in the Asking a good question and Step 1. Draft your question dialogs.

Here is the current state, along with an initial suggestion for improvement.

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What we need from you.

  1. Below are community wiki answers containing the text to be added. We invite you to make edits to improve what is presented.
  2. Please upvote the answers if you agree that the proposed changes effectively communicate the community consensus.
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2 Answers 2

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Asking a good question

  • Questions requesting medical advice are not allowed here. This includes questions regarding specific medical cases or those related to your own or anyone's health. Such concerns should be taken to your personal healthcare provider.

  • We expect you to have done at least some research prior to asking. Please include links, quotes, or references to what you have found.

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    Because there have been so many complaints recently that questions were somehow not „asking for medical advice“, maybe we can reword that part? How about: „Questions regarding specific medical cases and questions that are personally related to your own or anyone‘s health cannot be asked here“?
    – Narusan
    Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 16:14
  • Although this is not as succinct. Alternatively: „Questions that are related to your (or a relative‘s) health and questions asking for medical advice cannot be asked here“, which is a bit shorter and more succinct?
    – Narusan
    Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 16:15
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    How about a new sentence after the bolded one, "This includes questions regarding specific medical cases or those related to your own or anyone's health."?
    – Ian Campbell Mod
    Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 16:17
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    I like that suggestion!
    – Narusan
    Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 19:15
  • "Cannot" is not the right word.
    – user1271772
    Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 20:52
  • @user1271772 That's fair, how about "may not"?
    – Ian Campbell Mod
    Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 20:53
  • Or "are not allowed". Or better "will be closed" (since that is literally what will happen, it seems).
    – user1271772
    Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 20:56
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    @user1271772 "Will be closed" is obvious to us, because we know the Stack Exchange network, but if you land here from Google and ask your first question, it's probably just jargon.
    – Ian Campbell Mod
    Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 20:59
  • I think it's fairly clear to non-SE users with enough English vocabulary to ask a question here in the first place.
    – user1271772
    Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 21:14
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Step 1: Draft your question

Questions about your own health or anyone else's health are off-topic. Such concerns should be taken to a personal healthcare provider.

We expect you to have done some research prior to asking. Please be sure to remember to include links, quotes, or references to what you have found so far.

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    This is more about the comments on the other question, but I wonder if it makes more sense to add further detail here and also to use complementary language. If I understand correctly, this part is text that will appear continually for question-askers, whereas the other is a one-time popup. Perhaps, "Questions about your own health or anyone else's health are off-topic. Such concerns should be taken to your personal healthcare provider."
    – Bryan Krause Mod
    Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 22:12
  • @BryanKrause I think this is the best wording yet.
    – Narusan
    Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 8:41

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