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I have a question about my Medical Sciences Stack Exchange post: Why can't Asian flush be treated in a similar way to lactose intolerance?

I spent time answering a question on Medical Sciences SE only to have it deleted by @CareyGregory who wrote that answers "are required to provide supporting references ... just one or two credible citations...".

So why doesn't this SE state this clearly on the answer submission form? This requirement is very different from all the other SE that I have ever submitted answers to. If you have an unusual requirement for an SE, then state it very clearly in the answer submit form for this SE.

If I had known this was a requirement I would not have bothered spending time writing an answer and responding to @CareyGregory. The lack of declaring this requirement upfront is just causing a waste of time. It was a waste of my time and I assume it was a waste of @CareyGregory's time too.

There are many potential take-ways here, but my suggestion is that you should make it really clear in the answer submission form that this is a requirement.

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I told you directly that references are required. Not suggested or desired, but required. Your response to me was:

Yes, a much better answer provides supporting references. This is part of the reason I point this out in my answer. I failed to quickly find references and I do not plan on spending more time on this. Feel free to down vote my answer if you honestly think this is a problem. It will help me decide how much time to spend volunteering to answer these types of questions.

Since you won't take 5 minutes to add a link or two, and expect others to do it for you, that leaves your answer non-compliant and subject to deletion. Sounds like it might be a good answer, but without doing homework myself, it could be utter nonsense for all I know. After all, mods here can't be expected to become subject matter experts on every question posted here.

So if you won't take the time to write answers that meet site requirements, there probably is no reason for you to spend any time on it at all because you're right that it just becomes a waste of time for all concerned.

I suspect you could have found a reference or two in the time you spent writing this post. If you would care to do so now, I'll undelete the answer so you can edit it.

As for highlighting the rule in the answer box, we have no control over what that box contains. It would probably require SE to make programming changes, and I doubt they would do that.

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  • Your suspicion that I "could have found a reference or two in the time you spent writing this post." is false. Before posting my answer I probably spent 15 minutes or so searching my reference and the web., but did not find a reference that directly supports what I remember learning in the past.
    – Castedo
    Commented Mar 7, 2023 at 22:52
  • And no, I do not care to spend more time on answers that meet your requirements. I regret spending time on this SE and do not plan to spend more time on it in the future.
    – Castedo
    Commented Mar 7, 2023 at 22:54
  • Regarding not having control to message the requirements, I find it hard to believe that you have no way to provide a message about requirements to posters BEFORE they post an answer. How about putting template text inside the starter text like what I saw posting this meta question. You are using the site software optimized to encourage posting answers without requirements and then you complain that answers don't meet requirements and delete the work people did. Why don't you try to learn to use the SE site software and prevent this waste of people's time?
    – Castedo
    Commented Mar 8, 2023 at 2:44
  • That guidance you see when you post a question here isn't controlled by us. We tried to change what you see on the main site and SE wouldn't accept it. They wrote it, not us. Instead of just criticizing us, how about you get involved and spend some time learning why the rules are what they are? They weren't arrived at easily. And you should know that this rule you think is so unusual is actually very common on the science and academic sites. Your answer would have been deleted on many of them. It's best to learn the culture when visiting a new land before criticizing people who live there.
    – Carey Gregory Mod
    Commented Mar 8, 2023 at 4:36
  • StackExchange is not a new land for me. All the other SE sites I have posted answers to and the UI of StackExchange is not consistent with the culture and land you have in this SE. Specifically, a process where you don't state the requirements of answers, then after posters have written answers you tell them the requirements and if they are not met then you delete the answers. It's a bad design, a waste of posters time and worthy of critique.
    – Castedo
    Commented Mar 8, 2023 at 12:12
  • You've posted in a few sites, none of them science or academia. This site's policy is not unusual.
    – Carey Gregory Mod
    Commented Mar 8, 2023 at 14:40
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    @Castedo The site's software is designed to support StackOverflow. That's the cash cow that keeps us all here. Even very modest requests for software changes for a small site like MedicalSciences go to the very bottom of the barrel. There is nothing that the actual people that are here can do about it. A much larger problem is the constant parade of medical advice questions, which persist despite the company adding a very large disclaimer. Turns out even when you provide the information, people either don't read it or think it doesn't apply to them.
    – Bryan Krause Mod
    Commented Mar 8, 2023 at 17:25

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