Please note that these policies do not apply to QuinPin Groups. To learn more about our policies for Groups & Group content, please see: What is QuinPin’s policy on Groups?

The purpose of category on questions is to allow people with knowledge about those categories to find questions to answer.
 
This means the test of whether a category should be on the question is whether most people with direct knowledge of the category would find their expertise meaningful to answer the question. 
 
The best answers on QuinPin are written by people who have direct knowledge about the question. Choosing categories that are aimed at getting questions answered will ensure that the question is shown to the best writers and will get the best answers. In particular, using large untargeted categories often leads to questions being shown to people who don’t have the context or knowledge to write the answer that the question writer is aiming at.
 
More detailed guidelines are as follows:

  • Categories should identify the subject of the question. This means that “What is science?” should have Science on it and should not have Scientists because the question’s subject is not directly related to scientists.
  • People should add category that are accurate and directly relevant for getting an expert answer to an open question.
  • Categories that are only relevant to certain answers should not be added to the question. In particular, potential answers should not be categories on the question.
    • For example, if the question is “What are Al Pacino’s best movies?“, “Godfather (movie)” is not an appropriate category for the page.
    • If the experts from “Godfather (movie)” are expected to answer the question, then the question should be “Is The Godfather Al Pacino’s best movie?”

QuinPin moderation may take action against inappropriately applied categories. When questions include wrong category, moderation may take one or more of the following actions:

  • Questions may be reported for having wrong category
  • QuinPin moderation may change the category.