Staff "Preapproval Required" for New Questions?

Should HD staff have such a censorious and heavy-handed role in the question creation process? I just had 5 questions about the Amsterdam Stock Exchange voided because there might not be enough interest in them -- and if there is interest -- we will never know because the questions were voided.

This was Bayoubear's comment:

"I have requested before that questions involving new stock exchanges or indices, be submitted to me before to make sure that there is enough data available to settle easily, which in this case there is, but no advance request was made. I am not sure that there will be enough interest in this exchange to have two questions regarding it every day of the week. Some of these 'Will ABC open up' Will ABC close up" are receiving less that 6 wagers a day, and that little action doesn't warrant them as a daily market. It is too easy for a few players to make significant gains, if there are enough others interested in the market.

I would suggest, that besides contacting me in advance, that one should start with a weekly question, such as 'Will the AEX close higher this Friday than last' which would allow several days of play to encourage more participation and more movement within the market. Another example would be "Where will the AEX close on Friday" and provide a range of 5-6 options based on recent data.

Let's try that this week, and have a new question for the AEX submitted along those lines. If enough interest is generated in the AEX from those questions, then maybe a daily one would be warranted.

I am going to void this set of questions for this week, and look forward to possibly seeing a weekly question on this exchange. If anyone is interested in adding additional exchanges to the mix, please contact me in advance."

lola - i think your one of the finest members of HD. you always express your views in a polite manner. the thing i want is for HD to be fair and consistent. so i should also be fair and consistent. they changed the rules awhile back concerning stock exchange questions. they only allow dow and NASDAQ questions. all others have to be approved by the admin. baybear has expanded the questions greatly imo. i see from your profile that business is your best category. i fully understand why you would want more business questions. try working with the admin to get more added as he suggests. goodluck.

2.3.3.4 Business Category
Questions can be made about the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ Composite Index. Questions on any other indices are permitted at the Category Editor's discretion, taking into account - inter alia - the likely cash volume of the market, and coverage across the category . Questions should not be made about the performance of individual stocks unless they are referring to stocks that are major news stories, and only with the approval of the Category Editor.

Thank you for the update and clarification Dieseldog. I had no idea that there were 'special circumstance rules' governing the creation of new stock index questions. I was assuming that HD users were as free to create stock market questions as they were in other issue areas on Hubdub.

I also agree that Bayoubear does a great job managing the Business category which I'm sure is no easy task! :-)

Thanks lola for your query and dd for your informed response, as usual.

It is unfortunate that these questions had to be voided - this business rule has been in place for quite some time, but it could have been better publicized by us. The management of multiple indices questions requires the assistance of bayoubear as it's quite a lot of work to keep track of the times and results etc. However, I'm sure if you communicate directly with him he'd be happy to discuss new questions with you.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and ideas...and I do appreciate the good ones too :)

I would like to see more business category questions, but a bit more involved than simple up or down daily ones. Even a question about a week's outcome would be better, as that would allow several days of play. Or questions that allow several options such as by % gain or loss, or targeting areas in which they will close.

And one of the main reasons for my prior approval of some of these markets is to allow me to do some research ahead of time, to make sure they're being correctly composed (times, etc.) and to gather some background data and begin maintaining some charting of those exchanges.

Thanks again to Lola for some very good new questions and to Dieseldawg and Tisha for their comments.

Whatever happened to the TSX (Canadian) questions? I really liked the one week market that closed on Friday morning.

I was wondering about that too (TSX)...I'd approved it, and I've been tracking it for the past several weeks, but the original creator hasn't chosen to submit any new ones. This is one of those cases where there's a question out there ready for someone to submit on a regular basis...perhaps I'll throw it out there for next week and see if anyone wants to pick up the li'l orphan....