I'm asking due to this question in particular.
It's a question about the 7th Sea 2e RPG, and we have a new user who was a designer for the game. Currently the answer he's supplied has a post notice requiring additional references, which seems a little absurd.
Is there a method to handle users like this who, in essence, are themselves a top-tier reference? Or should they just be treated as normal users?
There's no firmly established way to handle a game's own designer, mainly because it's so uncommon such a person shows up here to answer questions about their game.
We treat game designers like regular users, but slightly more lenient. We're more patient with introducing and explaining things to them because naturally we'd like them to stick around — their contribution is immediately and clearly very valuable as foremost experts on their own material! (Plus a lot of us just give more respect and patience to the authors of the games we love.)
But we also have content expectations. We expect designers' contributions to meet those just like anyone else — a low quality answer by an authoritative source is still a low quality answer. If citations and references are important and expected, we can and should request those of a designer as much as anyone else. (And we'll probably just be inclined to be a bit nicer in asking for them than if we're asking some random.)
Prior discussion: Do Authors Overrule Users?. SevenSidedDie and KRyan both explain that designers' answers aren't inherently correct or right or any good at all, they're still subject to our usual site standards.
In this case, the post notice was applied before he identified himself as a designer. "I'm a designer for that game" is a valid source citation, and now that he's added it the post notice has been removed. It's really as simple as that... Prior to that, his simple "Only one!" answer was treated as a low quality answer by the community like any other would be.
And before someone says it, no, putting your affiliation in your profile isn't enough; posts should stand on their own. (Plus, I don't read through people's profiles to try to determine the validity of their posts). Cite your reference, if it's yourself because you're a designer that's fine.
Though do also keep in mind Do Authors Overrule Users?; just because a designer asserts something doesn't mean that the community or OP is constrained to accept it as the "right" answer. But yes, designing on that game counts as a valid source citation (backing up with game text makes it better...).
