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I've started to see the following attached to a number of questions - i think it is fantastic and will increase the quality of the site. But how is it triggered? who decides? what is the process?

Some of the information contained in this post requires additional references. Please edit to add citations to reliable sources that support the assertions made here. Unsourced material may be disputed or deleted.

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I'm glad you asked!

That is post notice. It is something that community (diamond) moderators now have an option to add to questions and answers.

There are three of them:

  1. Citation needed (the one you quoted)
  2. Current Event (which I think doesn't really apply to this site. Most things that could be marked with this are probably OT)
  3. Insufficient Explanation:

We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer; explain why your answer is right, ideally with citations. Answers that don't include explanations may be removed.

(Which is sadly only applicable to answers, due to its wording).

There is also a "lock" status that can be put on older questions that comes with this post notice:

This question exists because it has historical significance, but it is not considered a good, on-topic question for this site, so please do not use it as evidence that you can ask similar questions here. This question and its answers are frozen and cannot be changed. More info: help center.

I would much rather see older questions flagged for this kind of lock, rather than see them get closed years after their post date.

Either we just recently got the option to deploy these, or it's been there a while and I didn't notice until about a month ago due to my own incompetence (this one is probably more likely). But either way, they are an option now. I'm not sure if there's a way on this site for users or reviewers to get these added. However, if you see a post that could use one of these, flag it with a note saying so. Also please flag to get them removed, if one is no longer applicable, of course.

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    It's been there a while. I don't think it is incompetence though--it's not like moderators are given training. – called2voyage Apr 17 '17 at 13:59
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    By the way, I use the citation needed post notice A LOT on Astronomy SE. – called2voyage Apr 17 '17 at 14:00
  • @called2voyage - Thanks for saying so. I saw talk on Meta that these should be used sparingly, but, well, we get a heck of a lot of posts here that could probably use them. – T.E.D.♦ Apr 17 '17 at 14:13
  • I think the reason the advice is to use them sparingly is because they are supposed to be removed after the posts are fixed. So as long as you keep up with posts that you put a notice on, I think you can use them as much as needed. – called2voyage Apr 17 '17 at 14:16
  • By the way, Skeptics also uses post notices a lot. – called2voyage Apr 17 '17 at 14:16
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    @called2voyage - As near as I can tell, they were created for Skeptics. The rest of us just get to use them too. :-) – T.E.D.♦ Apr 17 '17 at 14:20
  • That doesn't surprise me. – called2voyage Apr 17 '17 at 14:20
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    Worth mentioning, regular users can view which moderator added the notice and when by viewing the edit history for the post. – NSNoob Apr 28 '17 at 10:25

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