With us trying to review and re-tool our site, one thing has become unclear to me which is how to handle research based questions. Some times I read on meta that it should be open to help the site and I see them still get closed, other times I see people say it should be off topic and yet they are left open.
Today a question about Pregnancy has been asked that probably should be closed as it is a "how to write" question as this person is asking for us to explain pregnancy to her/him.
Then a few days ago, we have a question about what it feels like to be in a fight and this was pretty much instantly closed. I understand the fighting one lacked effort, but they both are basically the same question.
It's getting confusing for me as this is seemingly becoming an interpretation of the rule based on how they feel the question is presented rather than something black or white.
I don't mind the opinion that research based questions should be allowed since technically it is part of the writing process. Should we then limit it to where someone has to show effort and provide links of research found so far? Should we continue to close them?
A possible side affect for allowing research based questions could also lead to more technical writing questions. It could potentially allow technical people to ask about questions related to their field and draw others in as well.
It would be great if we can start nailing out some of these grey area questions in our journey to revamp the site. Ultimately I just want to know how to proceed when questions like the 2 above are asked.