The success and quality of a Q&A site depends upon having good experts, researchers, practitioners, etc. Everyone can ask a question but not everyone can answer one. So we need to have experts on this site. And for that we need to improve the site's environment and quality so that such users will feel comfortable participating here.
Let us be honest, probably none of us are actual experts. What to speak of being an expert, not all of us are even spiritual practitioners. But still we are doing good and probably trying to pretend as experts by suing candy coated words and remarks. Let me illustrate what's the difference between us and an expert.
1. A geek's approach of answering a question
- OP asks a question.
- The geek asks the same question to Google.
- Finds two three relevant links along with Wikepedia.
- Copies the contents from their and pastes it as a nicely formatted answer.
- With small letters or hyperlinks provides a reference to the source.
- And voila! we have an expert answer to the question.
The Result:
- Answer obtained within minutes to hours.
- Answer may or may not be completely correct. (copied answer can be biased or morphed due to personal experience and interpretations of
people who themselves are not experts)
- The user who answered the question may not even have prior knowledge about the subject.
2. A practitioner's approach of answering a question
- OP asks a question.
- The practitioner tries to remember where and in which scripture the subject was mentioned.
- If successfully recalls then directly opens the chapter in the scripture and goes to the verse.
- If fails to recall the verse, then goes by all the verses of the chapter one by one until the correct one has been found.
- Writes the answer and types the Sanskrit text into ISAT format if the ISAT text is not already available and gives the meaning.
- Provides the reference to the chapter, verse of the scripture.
- And voila! we have an expert answer to the question.
The Result:
- Answer obtained within hours to days.
- Answer is reliable as quotes directly from the source.
- The user who answered the question may have prior knowledge about the subject.
3. An expert's approach of answering a question
- OP asks a question.
- The expert knows exactly which verse of which scripture answers the question.
- Directly types the question stating this and this verse of this scripture states thus. (May or may not add the original text as he
doesn't need to verify. He just knows.)
- And voila! we have an (actual) expert answer to the question.
The Result:
- Answer obtained within minutes.
- Answer is reliable as quotes directly from the source.
- The user who answered the question has prior knowledge about the subject.
From this we need to identify whether we are actually experts. I know, it's hard to find that kind of experts, but because such experts do exist we need to be honest with our own position and hope our community gets as much as such. If the reason behind this site is not to amass some badges and reputation (which any geek would certainly like) so that we can showoff, but to share and increase our knowledge about spiritual and cultural values of Hinduism, then we certainly should hope for more spiritual practitioners and experts. And for that we need to change the environment a bit around here. Currently it really feels like a playground where users are importing content from other sites and earning reputation and badges. The concept of reps and badges suits well for geeks and motivates them, what the hell geeks won't do to see nice +10s and badges on their profile. That's why Jeff Atwood who himself is a geek implemented it in stackoverflow. The rep system works good in programming context where answers can be validated by all and answers are most of the times original creations of the poster. But in religious context it doesn't work that well. It although is a good motivator can also be a demotivator for some religious people. Let me explain.
The reason why a religious practitioner may not like to participate here is simple. It is because here everyone becomes equal. In terms of reputation score those who seriously study and practice the religion are same or even lower to those who do not practice it at all. Please do not mind it, but its worth mentioning the possibility that some of us geeks have not even read our original scriptures like Gita, Bhagavata once. But still we are doing well due to our ability of search, find, copy and paste. I don't mean to say this is wrong. In fact, what else we'll do if we don't know the answer but want to answer a question! So what I mean to say is that this will discourage religious practitioners and serious users from participating in the site. There will remain no difference between someone who is a practitioner or a monk trying to provide original answers and someone who doesn't take religion and spiritual practices much seriously but providing answers anyway from various sources. I wonder if this is way some fellow practitioners who used to participate here are no longer coming or participating. So on this point I seek your valuable opinions and suggestions.
Second thing is that, our main chat room is also completely geeky. Apart from deciding what would be a good question to ask, who answered what, other chats are mostly about geeky stuffs like gadgets, TV shows, badges, reputations, etc. The way of our talking there is also geeky. It's only obvious because most of the time it stays occupied by geeks like us. But I think the religious minded people may not like our interest and way of talking. So what do you suggest? Should we create another chat room where serious users and practitioners would feel comfortable to chat and spend time? If you visit any spiritual and religious forum then you will find how humbly and respectfully they address and talk with each other. After all, this is a site about religion. So we will certainly have serious users. So we need to do something so that they will like it here. That way Hinduism.SE can be the best place on the Internet for those who love and want to discuss about Hinduism and spirituality.
Whether we realize or not, the fact is that future belongs to guys like us. If you see, almost all of us who are active here are within the age range of 20-25. We are the next generation and frontier of our culture. But most of us are geeks and influenced by the western culture. Some serious minded people may not like that. But we have the potential to create a great community here. We have have pretty well experienced users here, just that we have not been able to focus on the quality, environment and future of the site. It's our responsibility to create a nice environment here so that elder and spiritually experienced users, serious researchers and practitioners and experts will feel comfortable to participate here. This is a site about religion, which also concerns people who are not technical geeks, rather serious about it. If we want this to be an authentic and good site, then we have to cast aside any biased and wrong feelings and become honest and open. Please share your thoughts and suggestions on this. My point is simple, let's not make the site such that people will say the inmates are running the asylum.
