New ask page: How do we want to use it to help new users specify their system?

Question

The stack exchange network recently got a new question page (our meta post which links to the MSE post). With it comes an expansion of customization for the individual site (which needs to be implemented by a Community Manager, who will do that following a meta on the site).

Questions being posted without specifying the system in question is a long standing issue, and how to address them once posted has been much discussed. Most recently in this Q&A which included an answer suggesting to preempt the posting by adding guidance to the new ask page. (I don't believe this will solve that issue, but should reduce the number of cases). So now it is time for that.

What guidance, changes, additions, and/or warnings do we want to add to the new ask a question page, to help new users specify what system they are asking about?

The list of customizable fields is summarized by JNat in the MSE post under the "What's per-site customizable, and what's the procedure to get it live?" heading. Perhaps of particular interest to this discussion is the welcome modal, the draft your question sidebar and the how to tag popup.

Answer 1

I've had to make a few adjustments due to how our customization options are actually implemented, but this is done and hopefully in a way that doesn't ruin y'all's intent.

The modal on the Ask Question page:

Sidebar:

How to tag:

Answer 2

Let's at least throw the basic "Make sure to specify your system" on there

There are three spots on the new ask page which I think can benefit from telling (new) users to specify their system (and I think we'd rather have it up once too many).

First, as new users will see it, in the welcome modal (italicized here are the bits we can't change, which I've included for context):

You’re ready to ask your first question and the community is here to help! To get you the best answers, we’ve provided some guidance:

There are a thousand RPGs out there, and we cater to all of them. Therefore, it is important that you clearly state which system and edition you are asking about, if appropriate.

Before you post, search the site to make sure your question hasn’t been answered.

[...]

Secondly, in the "Draft your question" sidebar:

The community is here to help you with questions about role-playing games. Make sure to specify which game (name and edition) you are asking about, provide details, and share research with your question.

And as tags are our favourite way for systems to be specified, in the "How to tag" guidance (which pops up when you click on the question mark), this – or a version thereof – should be the first bullet point, in addition to the default three:

• Make sure you include the system tag for the game system you are asking about (if appropriate and if the tag exists)

Answer 3

I wish it were possible to have mandatory tags, like in meta.

In meta, you must specify one of the dark tags (e.g. discussion) to be able to post it at all, unlike the lighter "normal tags" (e.g. user-interface).

If we could have all system tags (I guess we'd need to include tags that are used in place of specific system tags in some cases, such as dungeons-and-dragons, as well as system-agnostic for when a system tag really doesn't apply) marked as dark mandatory tags, that would be great, but I doubt such a thing is possible on the main site (or at least, isn't something we can customise, and requesting such a feature would likely prove to be a waste of our time, because it won't happen).

Related declined old meta from Arqade on making a set of tags special (thanks @Someone_Evil).

---

As an alternative suggestion, I know there are warnings that appear when you have a certain tag selected (e.g. the dungeons-and-dragons tag has this warning). Is it possible to have such a warning when no tags are selected, or when a subset of tags are not present?

That way, although it would be somewhat overkill, we could have a rule such that a warning is shown unless you have a system tag (this does mean it would need to be updated every time someone created a new tag for a system, but on the other hand, it is just a warning, meaning a question can still be posted without "obeying" this "rule").

At the moment, such a warning might (occasionally) make a new user stop before using the dungeons-and-dragons tag, but if they just don't pick anything, no warnings appear, so no need to stop and consider. So long as they slap any old tag in there, they can post. If there's a "negative rule" in place, at least the warning is there straight away.

Unfortunately, it looks like this isn't possible either, judging by the response @Someone_Evil got from @JNat♦:

I'm a bit unclear what the limits of "regex based" tag warnings are. Of specific interest: would it be possible to show a specific warning if the question isn't tagged with one of a set of tags (or include phrases in the body)? (I'm thinking of system tags for RPG.SE, which are often missing from new askers.) – Someone_Evil Mar 8 at 1:00

Guidance like the example you're suggesting, @Someone_Evil, should go in the "how to tag" dialogue, shown in screenshots 2 and 3. Checking for the absence of tags isn't, as far as I'm aware, something we do anywhere (other than Meta sites). – JNat♦ yesterday

---

So, I've got nothing. I don't think we can ever solve this problem with the current Ask A Question screen and the customisation limitations we have. New users will always just not read the various notices we put there and will post whatever they want without tagging it properly, because they won't know (unless they read all the various help boxes that are within our customisation) that we require them to specify a system tag (for questions where one is relevant, e.g. rules clarification questions, etc).