Let's delete all old answers from early days of the site that lack any references at all

Question

Inspired by the following comment by @Shog9, I'm proposing to delete all answers from early days of the site that have zero scriptural references and sound like plain opinions.

...the notion of what should be kept and what should be deleted gets adjusted and refined over and over again as the site grows and matures. Most of my early posts are long ago deleted; heck, there's one site where almost ALL of my posts are deleted, even though I earned over 7000 rep off of them. And that's good - that means the site didn't stagnate. So... Keep talking.

So no more reasons such as 'this answer was posted in the site's early days, before clear rules were established, so it's grandfathered in' to justify their existence and not do anything about them.

If those answers were written by users who are still active, then they simply need to update their answers, back them up with scriptural references using the following two meta posts as a reference and then flag the mods to undelete them.

What kind of references are valid in answers? Are modern works allowed?

Guidelines for new users answering questions

If users are no longer active, then we should nevertheless delete those answers first. Later any of the active high-rep users can revisit them to see if proper references can be added to salvage those answers.

While deleting such answers no concession should be made as to a) how many upvotes has the answer received, b) if the answer is accepted or c) if the answer is written by a current or previous moderator.

But we should remember that not all answers require citations; some questions could be just asking for the meaning of a certain Sanskrit verse or further clarification of a philosophical concept or the core message of a certain story or scripture. So need to use proper judgement regarding which answers could use scriptural references and which do not.

Answer 1

status-planned Please refer to Official policy for deleting answers that don't cite sources and to Why aren't unsourced answers getting deleted even though the policy says that they should be? for an update

I don't think all the unsourced answer should be deleted at this time.

However if a question contains at least one sourced/scripture based answer, then all the other unsourced answers of that question should be deleted.

###Example:
There is a question:
Why is Lord Vishnu called Aravamudhan?

I have answered it and it is accepted also. But I haven't cited any sources (actually it was during that time when I first joined the site).

Now, if someone comes and answers that question citing the scriptures, then my answer there serves no purpose at all. Actually it misguides the readers at that time as it is accepted. So, my answer must be deleted.

Objector:

What is the problem in letting those answers remain as they are? It's fine if there are other scripture based answer also.

We reply:

It misguides the readers. There are more than 6000 visitors per day in our site and those readers are misguided by such answers. Some answer are just based on folktales, Wikipedia, quora etc.. and it is making joke of our site.

Objector:

What is the proof that visitors are misguided by such answers?

I reply:

I give example of this question:
Reference to the 7 chakras in Hinduism

The accepted answer is with 15 upvotes but it is not citing any sources.

So a new user Prakash K has commented there

I am wondering why is this the actual answer, since it does not even answer the first question - "where in hindu scriptures?", it just says in yoga and tantra but does not give specific about which are the actual scriptures or books. – Prakash K Dec 26 '16 at 9:52

I have also answered the same question fully based on scripture. In that answer same user Prakash K has commented as:

Thank You. This should be the marked answer. Wonderful detailed explanation with also the specific books/scriptures containing information about it. But the word Mythology does not mean History, the Britishers were shrewd in using Mythology instead of History (itihAsa) or Ancient history (purANa) for our scriptures, and it is unfortunate that we also use it. Mythology is a study of myth (I know you already know it) and these are not myth but true histories. – Prakash K Dec 26 '16 at 11:00

So, it's clear that these type of answers are just misguiding the visitors. So if a question contains at least one sourced answer then all the unsourced answer from that question should be deleted.

Another example:

In this question
The story behind Pashupatinath temple in Nepal

The accepted answer is based on wikipedia, I have also answered the same question citing scripture.

Now, that accepted answer doesn't serve any purpose remaining there. Is the purpose of our site to redirect the visitors to Wikipedia? Hinduism SE is not needed to redirect the visitors to Wikipedia, Google search does it well. There are other many many examples like this.

###Fate of the deleted answer:

1. If the user is active then he can edit his deleted answer to add scriptural sources to it and then again flag moderator to undelete it.
   
   
2. Other high reputation user who can view deleted answers may edit and add sources if they want.

###Why all unsourced answer shouldn't be deleted? I'm here proposing to delete only the old unsourced answers from the question which contains at least one sourced answers. I'm not proposing to delete all old unsourced answers simultaneously because:

Our site is near to Graduation phase. The answered percentage is only about 74%. If we delete all those unsourced old answers it heavily affects our data. But if we go on deleting those unsourced answers of those question which contains at least one sourced answer then it doesn't affect data of site.

###Using quality banner: For those answer which are unsourced and which also do not contain other sourced answers in that question, we can use quality banners to such answers. Quality banner may remain until that question gets answered by some sourced answer. If that answer isn't improved upto this time also then it can be deleted.

###Other things needed to implement it: There are also other things necessary for the users (specially active users) to implement this rule:

1. Active users should change their accepted answer if they get another better answer. I rarely see users changing their accepted answer in this site. One shouldn't hesitate to change accepted answer. The owner of the previously accepted answer also shouldn't feel and take it odd. In this way best answer remains accepted and quality of the site is enhanced.
   
   
2. Users / Especially active users should accept answers to their questions if they are answered properly. I'm seeing here some active users who ask questions, make edits regularly but aren't accepting answers to their own question.
   
   
3. Active users should upvote answers which show effort and which are sourced. Even if the answer is not accepted if it is upvoted it counts as answered. Thus it helps to make our site data healthy. Users should keep their own philosophy away and should see the efforts of answer and scriptural references of answer while voting. ###How to Implement: If this proposal is accepted by community it's also very easy to implement:
   Flag those answers to those question which contains at least 1 sourced answer. We can flag it as "Question already contains sourced answer so there is no need of this answer."
   
   And based on those flags moderators can delete those answers.
   
   This is just my Proposal. I don't know how the members of Community take this proposal. I suggest to give view through votes and comments.

Answer 2

Deleting all the un-sourced answer is a bad idea.
The main criteria for SE to delete a post is -- when it's Not an answer as listed below:

• Ask a new question
• Clarify the existing question
• Communicate with another user
• Say "thanks," or confirm that another posted answer worked for him.
• "Bump" the question, as in "I have the same problem, have you found a solution?"

and also ...

What are the criteria for deletion?

For questions, a post that no longer adds anything to the site should be deleted. Basically, this includes most closed questions that cannot be improved and reopened. However, it may be beneficial to keep duplicates to aid future users in finding the canonical question.

For answers, any post that is not an answer (should be a comment, doesn't answer the question, etc.) should be deleted. Answers that are wrong or that dispense poor advice should be downvoted, not deleted.

Our child meta also suggests the same. BTW, an accepted answer also should Not be deleted.

In past, I have used similar query to Mods by saying "delete these first". But its intention was to protect the existing answers, which are well written &/or sourced. Didn't intend to delete those unsourced answer, unless they are indeed ill formed or spam.
Deleting a post is an extreme step and it requires proper discretion.

Solution

Moderators may want to opt for adding a quality banner into the posts which are with grey area of quality. It's discussed here: Support for banners?. Only diamond Moderators can confirm its availability.

Answer 3

I disagree. Even if they are opinion-based, the answers likely are rooted in scripture that the posters have heard / read in the past. Current and future users may be discerning enough after all to know the difference between a genuine answer and hogwash.

Secondly, we should not be messing with history (even if it is merely of the site).

The compromise we can come to here is having a banner/marquee on such answers stating that they do not contain references from scripture.